Incident monitoring in anesthesia

Michal T. Kluger, William Runciman

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

Although adverse events in medical practice are not a new phenomenon, their impact on the care of patients in our hospitals is becoming, increasingly, a source of public concern. Incident monitoring, as a tool for managing organizational error, has been used for many years in nonmedical areas such aviation, engineering, and the space and nuclear industries. Over the past 50 years, healthcare workers have slowly embraced this concept and developed applications mirroring those in industry to identify and manage problems in their own areas. Despite being a relativelynew medical specialty, anesthesia is acknowledged as one of the leaders in addressing patient safety and error reduction in clinical medicine. 1 The aim of this chapter is to develop a conceptual framework for error and how it impacts on our understanding of incidents and accidents in anesthetic practice. The role of incident monitoring is discussed in association with other methods of data acquisition. Finally, the place of incident monitoring as a component of a risk management program is reviewed with particular reference to the Australian Incident Monitoring Study (AIMS).

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationWylie and Churchill-Davidsons
Subtitle of host publicationA Practice of Anesthesia, Seventh Edition
PublisherCRC Press
Pages671-685
Number of pages15
ISBN (Electronic)9781444114027
ISBN (Print)9780340731307
Publication statusPublished or Issued - 1 Jan 2003
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

Cite this