The weekly Quality Improvement (QI) conference serves as the forum to present critical events involving an anesthesia provider (“index cases”) as well as updates on performance benchmarks and changes in practice. Index cases are identified through self-report in EPIC, incident reports and 30-d mortality reports. Cases are reviewed by three anesthesiologists in a REDCap database with the goal to identify causative human errors, non-human failures and room for practice improvement. A Quality Review Committee adjudicates all cases and determines which will be reviewed in the weekly QI conference, the teaching points, and potentially further actions. The QI conference is based on a critical case analysis and places the cases into context by determining their prevalence at CHW. Best practice is discussed among the participants based on literature review and personal experience, and necessary steps, e.g., change in individual practice, additional training, or systems changes are determined. Members of surgical specialties, nursing staff or administration may be
Anesthesia practice at CHW requires the individual anesthesiologist to provide excellent and timely patient care in patients of very different age, size and health and in a wide variety of settings. The weekly QI conference is the means to guarantee continued education by reviewing frequent problems, alerting providers to rare events, and providing information on new anesthesia drugs and equipment as well as changes in surgical and imaging practice. Timely summary and distribution of new information through the weekly QI meetings is essential to maintain competency of all providers in all areas.
Similarly, this conference significantly enhances the learning experience of anesthesia residents and fellows who would not otherwise be exposed to the same variety of cases. Finally, the conference allows discussion of anesthesia and surgical management together with the respective surgical/ imaging service, which is an important opportunity to improve collaboration and case management.
ACCME Accreditation Statement:
The Medical College of Wisconsin is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
AMA Credit Designation Statement:
The Medical College of Wisconsin designates this live activity for a maximum of 0.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Hours of Participation for Allied Health Care Professionals:
The Medical College of Wisconsin designates this activity for up to 0.75 hours of participation for continuing education for allied health professionals.
Physicians & Anesthesiology Assistants
The participant will learn about and discuss recent index cases, new anesthesia drugs and equipment and new surgical and imaging procedures based on the available literature and peer discussion.
“The QI process serves the improvement of our practice and enhances patient safety. Dissemination of the results of the QI process will be confidential. Purpose of the QI process is not to assign blame but rather identify patient conditions, treatment errors and systems problems so that patient care that can be improved.”
Planning Committee:
Richard Berens, MD
Steven Butz, MD
Rose Campise‐Luther, MD
Christina Diaz, MD
George Hoffman, MD
Lester Proctor, MD
Joy Rivera, IS engineer
Astrid Stucke, MD
Eckehard Stuth, MD
Stylianos Voulgarelis, MD