Since the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately 90% of elective anesthetics have been ambulatory: A retrospective analysis of statewide data in Florida from 2010 through 2022.

BACKGROUND: When the vast majority (e.g., ≈90%) of a specialty's elective (scheduled) care is ambulatory (i.e., length of stay 0 or 1 night), the administrative, clinical, and economic policy implications are profound. We examined the progressive shift of elective anesthetics in Florida from inpatient to ambulatory, from the first quarter of 2010 through the fourth quarter of 2022. We were particularly interested in the most recent data following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions on elective surgery in the state. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included major therapeutic and major diagnostic procedures with >0 American Society of Anesthesiologists base units in the state of Florida inpatient and ambulatory surgery databases. The last 8 quarters of these operating room anesthetic data corresponded to the end of restrictions on elective surgery in Florida due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our goal was to determine whether the overall mean percentage of cases with 0- or 1-day lengths of stay has reached 90% since the lifting of pandemic restrictions. Numbers of cases over periods of at least four weeks tend to follow normal distributions. Therefore, we analyzed the N = 8 quarters of cases from 2021 to 2022 using Student's t-test. The study was performed when there were N = 8 quarters available from the Florida healthcare databases. RESULTS: There were overall 22,584,752 surgical cases studied. The percentages of elective anesthetics with length of stay ≤1-day increased progressively from 2010 through 2020. Among the eight successive quarters since the end of pandemic-related elective surgery restrictions, the percentage of elective cases with length of stay 0- or 1 day was stable, averaging 90% (95% two-sided confidence interval 89.4% to 90.3%). CONCLUSION: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the mean quarterly percentage of elective surgery cases with anesthesia in Florida that were ambulatory has been reliably ≈90%. Implications include value in expecting overnight post-anesthesia care unit stay in ambulatory surgery centers and scheduling and sequencing cases based on post-anesthesia care unit capacity. Furthermore, because the vast majority (i.e., ≈90%) of cases would be excluded (i.e., not involve hospital admission for at least 2 midnights), there is a minimal role that risk-adjusted hospital length of stay and mortality can have in evaluating anesthesia department overall quality and economic effectiveness.

Inhalational Agent Dosing Behaviors of Anesthesia Practitioners Cause Variability in End-Tidal Concentrations at the End of Surgery and Prolonged Times to Tracheal Extubation.

INTRODUCTION: Prolonged times to tracheal extubation are intervals from the end of surgery to extubation ≥15 minutes. We examined why there are associations with the end-tidal inhalational agent concentration as a proportion of the age­adjusted minimum alveolar concentration (MAC fraction) at the end of surgery. METHODS: The retrospective cohort study used 11.7 years of data from one hospital. All p­values were adjusted for multiple comparisons. RESULTS: There was a greater odds of prolonged time to extubation if the anesthesia practitioner was a trainee (odds ratio 1.68) or had finished fewer than five cases with the surgeon during the preceding three years (odds ratio 1.12) (both P<0.0001). There was a greater risk of prolonged time to extubation if the MAC fraction was >0.4 at the end of surgery (odds ratio 2.66, P<0.0001). Anesthesia practitioners who were trainees and all practitioners who had finished fewer than five cases with the surgeon had greater mean MAC fractions at the end of surgery and had greater relative risks of the MAC fraction >0.4 at the end of surgery (all P<0.0001). The source for greater MAC fractions at the end of surgery was not greater MAC fractions throughout the anesthetic because the means during the case did not differ among groups. Rather, there was substantial variability of MAC fractions at the end of surgery among cases of the same anesthesia practitioner, with the mean (standard deviation) among practitioners of each practitioner's standard deviation being 0.35 (0.05) and the coefficient of variation being 71% (13%). CONCLUSION: More prolonged extubations were associated with greater MAC fractions at the end of surgery. The cause of the large MAC fractions was the substantial variability of MAC fractions among cases of each practitioner at the end of surgery. That variability matches what was expected from earlier studies, both from variability among practitioners in their goals for the MAC fraction given at the start of surgical closure and from inadequate dynamic forecasting of the timing of when surgery would end. Future studies should examine how best to reduce prolonged extubations by using anesthesia machines' display of MAC fraction and feedback control of end-tidal agent concentration.

Area under the curve and amplitude of the compound motor action potential are clinically interchangeable quantitative measures of neuromuscular block: a method comparison study.

Background: Current guidelines recommend quantitative neuromuscular block monitoring during neuromuscular blocking agent administration. Monitors using surface electromyography (EMG) determine compound motor action potential (cMAP) amplitude or area under the curve (AUC). Rigorous evaluation of the interchangeability of these methods is lacking but necessary for clinical and research assurance that EMG interpretations of the depth of neuromuscular block are not affected by the methodology. Methods: Digitised EMG waveforms were studied from 48 patients given rocuronium during two published studies. The EMG amplitudes and AUCs were calculated pairwise from all cMAPs classified as valid by visual inspection. Ratios of the first twitch (T1) to the control T1 before administration of rocuronium (T1c) and train-of-four ratios (TOFRs) were compared using repeated measures Bland-Altman analysis. Results: Among the 2419 paired T1/T1c differences where the average T1/T1c was ≤0.2, eight (0.33%) were outside prespecified clinical limits of agreement (-0.148 to 0.164). Among the 1781 paired TOFR differences where the average TOFR was ≥0.8, 70 (3.93%) were outside the prespecified clinical limits of agreement ((-0.109 to 0.134). Among all 7286 T1/T1c paired differences, the mean bias was 0.32 (95% confidence interval 0.202-0.043), and among all 5559 paired TOFR differences, the mean bias was 0.011 (95% confidence interval 0.0050-0.017). Among paired T1/T1c and TOFR differences, Lin's concordance correlation coefficients were 0.98 and 0.995, respectively. Repeatability coefficients for T1/T1c and TOFR were <0.08, with no differences between methods. Conclusions: Quantitative assessment neuromuscular block depth is clinically interchangeable when calculated using cMAP amplitude or the AUC.

Anesthesia Practitioners' Goals for Sevoflurane Minimum Alveolar Concentration at the End of Surgery and the Incidence of Prolonged Extubations: A Prospective and Observational Study.

BACKGROUND: Prolonged times to tracheal extubation (≥15 minutes from dressing on the patient) are consequential based on their clinical and economic effect. We evaluated the variability among anesthesia practitioners in their goals for the age-adjusted end-tidal minimum alveolar concentration of sevoflurane (MAC) at surgery end and achievement of their goals. METHODS: We prospectively studied a cohort of 56 adult patients undergoing general anesthesia with sevoflurane as the sole anesthetic agent, scheduled operating room time of at least 3 hours, and non-prone positioning. At the start of surgical closure, an observer asked the anesthesia practitioner their goal for MAC when the surgical drapes are lowered (i.e., the functional end of surgery for the studied procedures). When the drapes were lowered, the MAC achieved was recorded, and the values were compared. RESULTS: The standard deviation of the practitioners' MAC goal was large, 0.199 (N = 56 cases, 95% confidence interval 0.17-0.24), not significantly different from the standard deviation of the MAC achieved of 0.253, P = 0.071. The MAC goal and MAC achieved were correlated pairwise, Pearson r =0.65, P < 0.0001. There was no incremental effect of operating room conversation(s) related to case progress on the association (partial correlation ­0.01, P = 0.96). Differences among practitioners in the MAC achieved at surgery end were consequential. Specifically, for the N = 12 cases with prolonged extubation, the mean MAC was 0.60 (standard deviation 0.10) versus 0.48 (0.21) among the N = 44 cases without prolonged extubation (P = 0.0070). CONCLUSIONS: The standard deviation of the MAC goal among practitioners was sufficiently large to contribute significantly to the variability in the MAC achieved at the end of surgery. We confirmed prospectively that the age-adjusted end-tidal MAC at the end of surgery matters clinically and economically because differences of 0.60 versus 0.48 were associated with more prolonged extubations. Our novel finding is that the MAC achieved ≥0.60 were caused in part by the anesthesia practitioners' stated MAC goals when surgical closures started.

Increasing Utilization of Scrubbing Devices for Peripheral Intravenous Disinfectable Needleless Closed Connectors.

Introduction Peripheral intravenous (IV) administration sets are a source of infection that increases morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs. In this quality improvement project, we aimed to enhance compliance with peripheral IV hub disinfection at anesthesia induction to follow the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) safe medication injection guidelines. Methods This study was conducted in the main operating suite of the University of Miami's principal hospital between June and October 2023. Audits of scrubbing device utilization by the anesthesiology team and focus groups were conducted before and after two educational interventions. Educational efforts focused on increasing compliance with peripheral IV disinfection using scrubbing devices.  Results Mean use per case, inferred from the number of devices dispensed, nearly doubled from 0.44 (95% CI, 0.37 to 0.59) to 0.82 (95% CI, 0.77 to 0.88) (P < 0.0001). Implications regarding steps to further enhance compliance are discussed. Conclusions Through a simple educational program, scrubbing device utilization increased significantly from baseline.

Predictive Validity of Anesthesiologists' Quality of Clinical Supervision and Nurse Anesthetists' Work Habits Assessed by Their Associations With Operating Room Times.

BACKGROUND: At all Joint Commission-accredited hospitals, the anesthesia department chair must report quantitative assessments of anesthesiologists' and nurse anesthetists' (CRNAs') clinical performance at least annually. Most metrics lack evidence of usefulness, cost-effectiveness, reliability, or validity. Earlier studies showed that anesthesiologists' clinical supervision quality and CRNAs' work habits have content, convergent, discriminant, and construct validity. We evaluated predictive validity by testing for (expected) small but statistically significant associations between higher quality of supervision (work habits) and reduced probabilities of cases taking longer than estimated. METHODS: Supervision quality of each anesthesiologist was evaluated daily by assigned trainees using the 9-item de Oliveira Filho scale. The work habits of each CRNA were evaluated daily by assigned anesthesiologists using a 6-item scale. Both are scored binary, 1 if all items are rated the maximum, 0 otherwise. From 40,718 supervision evaluations and 53,722 work habit evaluations over 8 fiscal years, 16 mixed-effects logistic regression models were estimated, with raters as fixed effects and ratees (anesthesiologists or CRNAs) as random effects. Empirical Bayes means in the logit scale were obtained for 561 anesthesiologist-years and 605 CRNA-years. The binary-dependent variable was whether the case took longer than estimated from the historical mean time for combinations of scheduled procedures and surgeons. From 264,060 cases, 8 mixed-effects logistic regression models were fitted, 1 per fiscal year, using ratees as random effects. Predictive validity was tested by pairing the 8 one-year analyses of clinical supervision, and the 8 one-year analyses of work habits, by ratee, with the 8 one-year analyses of whether OR time was longer than estimated. Bivariate errors in variable linear least squares linear regressions minimized total variances. RESULTS: Among anesthesiologists, 8.2% (46/561) had below-average supervision quality, and 17.7% (99/561), above-average. Among CRNAs, 6.3% (38/605) had below-average work habits, and 10.9% (66/605) above-average. Increases in the logits of the quality of clinical supervision were associated with decreases in the logits of the probabilities of cases taking longer than estimated, unitless slope = -0.0361 (SE, 0.0053), P < .00001. Increases in the logits of CRNAs' work habits were associated with decreases in the logits of probabilities of cases taking longer than estimated, slope = -0.0238 (SE, 0.0054), P < .00001. CONCLUSIONS: Predictive validity was confirmed, providing further evidence for using supervision and work habits scales for ongoing professional practice evaluations. Specifically, OR times were briefer when anesthesiologists supervised residents more closely, and when CRNAs had better work habits.

Incremental Societal Costs of Perioperative Complications Following Adult Elective Inpatient Major Therapeutic Surgery in the State of Florida: A Seven-Year Retrospective Epidemiological Analysis.

Introduction There is an expanding role for anesthesiologists in the preoperative optimization and postoperative management of patients, often in the context of a so-called perioperative surgical home. Such efforts typically include enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocols and often an anesthesiologist-led team for perioperative management. Studies of the cost-effectiveness of such approaches have generally been conducted at single institutions, with most patients cared for by small numbers of surgeons. This limitation creates generalizability issues as to whether improvement was related mostly to organizational culture or the studied surgeons' practices (non-generalizable) versus the procedures (generalizable). We studied whether other organizations can rely on achieving similar benefits following the adoption of a studied process improvement strategy at a single institution. Methods All patients undergoing elective major therapeutic inpatient surgery discharged between October 2015 and June 2022 at non-federal hospitals in the state of Florida were included. For each discharge, the United States Medicare Severity Diagnosis-Related Group (MS-DRG) weighting factor (i.e., the multiplier for the hospital's base rate for admissions that determines reimbursement) and the Clinical Classification Software Refined (CCSR) code for the principal procedure were determined at admission and discharge from the state's inpatient healthcare database based on the diagnoses present at those time points. An increase in the weighting factor from admission to discharge represents societal costs from perioperative complications. Statewide, by hospital, and by surgeon, we calculated the total increase for each CCSR's weighting factor. Our primary hypothesis was that surgeon variability would be statistically greater than CCSR variability but that the incremental effect would be <5%. If CCSR and surgeon variability were comparable, this would be supportive of generalizability. In contrast, if there were a predominant effect related to the surgeon, results from one institution might not be applicable to others. Results Among the 1,482,344 discharges studied, the pooled (N=7 years) contributions to MS-DRG weighting factor increases from the upper 20% of surgeons were 2.8% more than from the upper 20% of CCSRs (95% CI 1.9%-3.9%, p=0.0006). Those CCSRs accounted for 85.5% (95% CI 79.4%-91.7%, p<0.0001) of the total increase in the MS-DRG weighting factor. The average contribution of the top two surgeons at each hospital to that hospital's increase in the weighting factor ranged among CCSRs from 68% to 97%. The median and 75th percentile of surgeons performing at least 10% of the total number of cases at each hospital was similar to those values for the contributions to the increases in the MS-DRG weighting factor, median 2.0 to 3.0, and 75th percentile 1.75 to 4.0. Conclusions Because variability among surgeons in their contributions to increases in the MS-DRG weighting factor only slightly exceeded the variability among CCSR surgical categories, perioperative surgical home and ERAS study research results involving single institutions and a small number of surgeons would likely be generalizable to other hospitals and healthcare systems. Funding agencies should not be hesitant to fund single-center perioperative surgical home studies and ERAS interventions based on concerns related to lack of generalizability.

Postoperative Acute Kidney Injury is Associated with Persistent Renal Dysfunction: A Multicenter Propensity Matched Cohort Study.

Background: The risk of developing a persistent reduction in renal function after postoperative acute kidney injury (pAKI) is not well-established. Objective: Perform a multi-center retrospective propensity matched study evaluating whether patients that develop pAKI have a greater decline in long-term renal function than patients that did not develop postoperative AKI. Design: Multi-center retrospective propensity matched study. Setting: Anesthesia data warehouses at three tertiary care hospitals were queried. Patients: Adult patients undergoing surgery with available preoperative and postoperative creatinine results and without baseline hemodialysis requirements. Measurements: The primary outcome was a decline in follow-up glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of 40% relative to baseline, based on follow-up outpatient visits from 0-36 months after hospital discharge. A propensity score matched sample was used in Kaplan-Meier analysis and in a piecewise Cox model to compare time to first 40% decline in GFR for patients with and without pAKI. Results: A total of 95,208 patients were included. The rate of pAKI ranged from 9.9% to 13.7%. In the piecewise Cox model, pAKI significantly increased the hazard of a 40% decline in GFR. The common effect hazard ratio was 13.35 (95% CI: 10.79 to 16.51, p<0.001) for 0-6 months, 7.07 (5.52 to 9.05, p<0.001) for 6-12 months, 6.02 (4.69 to 7.74, p<0.001) for 12-24 months, and 4.32 (2.65 to 7.05, p<0.001) for 24-36 months. Limitations: Retrospective; Patients undergoing ambulatory surgery without postoperative lab tests drawn before discharge were not captured; certain variables like postoperative urine output were not reliably available. Conclusion: Postoperative AKI significantly increases the risk of a 40% decline in GFR up to 36 months after the index surgery across three institutions.

Pediatric Intraoperative Electromyographic Responses at the Adductor Pollicis and Flexor Hallucis Brevis Muscles: A Prospective, Comparative Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Peripheral nerve stimulation with a train-of-four (TOF) pattern can be used intraoperatively to evaluate the depth of neuromuscular block and confirm recovery from neuromuscular blocking agents (NMBAs). Quantitative monitoring can be challenging in infants and children due to patient size, equipment technology, and limited access to monitoring sites. Although the adductor pollicis muscle is the preferred site of monitoring, the foot is an alternative when the hands are unavailable. However, there is little information on comparative evoked neuromuscular responses at those 2 sites. METHODS: Pediatric patients undergoing inpatient surgery requiring NMBA administration were studied after informed consent. Electromyographic (EMG) monitoring was performed simultaneously in each participant at the hand (ulnar nerve, adductor pollicis muscle) and the foot (posterior tibial nerve, flexor hallucis brevis muscle). RESULTS: Fifty patients with a mean age of 3.0 ± standard deviation (SD) 2.9 years were studied. The baseline first twitch amplitude (T1) of TOF at the foot (12.46 mV) was 4.47 mV higher than at the hand (P <.0001). The baseline TOF ratio (TOFR) before NMBA administration and the maximum TOFR after antagonism with sugammadex were not different at the 2 sites. The onset time until the T1 decreased to 10% or 5% of the baseline value (T1) was delayed by approximately 90 seconds (both P =.014) at the foot compared with the hand. The TOFR at the foot recovered (TOFR ≥0.9) 191 seconds later than when this threshold was achieved at the hand (P =.017). After antagonism, T1 did not return to its baseline value, a typical finding with EMG monitoring, but the fractional recovery (maximum T1 at recovery divided by the baseline T1) at the hand and foot was not different, 0.81 and 0.77, respectively (P =.68). The final TOFR achieved at recovery was approximately 100% and was not different between the 2 sites. CONCLUSIONS: Although this study in young children demonstrated the feasibility of TOF monitoring, interpretation of the depth of neuromuscular block needs to consider the delayed onset and the delayed recovery of TOFR at the foot compared to the hand. The delay in achieving these end points when monitoring the foot may impact the timing of tracheal intubation and assessment of adequate recovery of neuromuscular block to allow tracheal extubation (ie, TOFR ≥0.9).

Larger anesthesia practitioner per operating room ratios are needed to prevent unnecessary non-operative time than to mitigate patient risk: A narrative review.

When choosing the anesthesia practitioner to operating room (OR) ratio for a hospital, objectives are applied to mitigate patient risk: 1) ensuring sufficient anesthesiologists to meet requirements for presence during critical intraoperative events (e.g., anesthesia induction) and 2) ensuring sufficient numbers to cover emergencies outside the ORs (e.g., emergent reintubation in the post-anesthesia care unit). At a 24-OR suite with each anesthesiologist supervising residents in 2 ORs, because critical events overlapped among ORs, ≥14 anesthesiologists were needed to be present for all critical events on >90% of days. The suitable anesthesia practitioner to OR ratio would be 1.58, where 1.58 = (24 + 14)/24. Our narrative review of 22 studies from 17 distinct hospitals shows that the practitioner to OR ratio needed to reduce non-operative time is reliably even larger. Activities to reduce non-operative times include performing preoperative evaluations, making prompt evidence-based decisions at the OR control desk, giving breaks during cases (e.g., lunch or lactation sessions), and using induction and block rooms in parallel to OR cases. The reviewed articles counted the frequency of these activities, finding them much more common than urgent patient-care events. Our review shows, also, that 1 anesthesiologist per OR, working without assistants, is often more expensive, from a societal perspective, than having a few more anesthesia practitioners (i.e., ratio > 1.00). These results are generalizable among hundreds of hospitals, based on managerial epidemiology studies. The implication of our narrative review is that existing studies have already shown, functionally, that artificial intelligence and monitoring technologies based on increasing the safety of intraoperative care have little to no potential to influence anesthesia or OR productivity. There are, in contrast, opportunities to use sensor data and decision-support to facilitate communication among anesthesiologists outside of ORs to choose optimal task sequences that reduce non-operative times, thereby increasing production and OR efficiency.

Preventing Prolonged Times to Awakening While Mitigating the Risk of Patient Awareness: Gas Man Computer Simulations of Sevoflurane Consumption From Brief, High Fresh Gas Flow Before the End of Surgery.

Prolonged times to tracheal extubation are associated with adverse patient and economic outcomes. We simulated awakening patients from sevoflurane after long-duration surgery at 2% end-tidal concentration, 1.0 minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) in a 40-year-old. Our end-of-surgery target was 0.5 MAC, the Michigan Awareness Control Study's threshold for intraoperative alerts. Consider an anesthetist who uses a 1 liter/minute gas flow until surgery ends. During surgical closure, the inspired sevoflurane concentration is reduced from 2.05% to 0.62% (i.e., MAC-awake). The estimated time to reach 0.5 MAC is 28 minutes. From a previous study, 28 minutes exceeded ≥95% of surgical closure times for all 244 distinct surgical procedures (N=23,343 cases). Alternatively, the anesthetist uses 8 liters/minute gas flow with the vaporizer at MAC-awake for 1.8 minutes, which reduces the end-tidal concentration to 0.5 MAC. The anesthetist then increases the vaporizer to keep end-tidal 0.5 MAC until the surgery ends. An additional simulation shows that, compared with simulated end-tidal agent feedback control, this approach consumed 0.45 mL extra agent. Simulation results are the same for an 80-year-old patient. The extra 0.45 mL has a global warming potential comparable to driving 26 seconds at 40 kilometers (25 miles) per hour, comparable to route modification to avoid potential roadway hazards.

Nasal cannula and face mask gas flow rates when connecting to the Y-piece of the anesthesia circuit.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine the relationship between the delivered gas flows via nasal cannulas and face masks and the set gas flow and the breathing circuit pressure when connecting to the Y-adapter of the anesthesia breathing circuit and using the oxygen blender on the anesthesia machine, relevant to surgery when there is concern for causing a fire. The flow rates that are delivered at various flow rates and circuit pressures have not been previously studied. DESIGN: Laboratory investigation. SETTING: Academic medical center. PATIENTS: None. INTERVENTIONS: The gas flows from each of 3 anesthesia machines from the same manufacturer were systematically increased from 1 to 15 L/min with changes to the adjustable pressure limiting valve to maintain 0-40 cm water pressure in the breathing circuit for nasal cannula testing and at 20-30 cm water circuit pressure for face masks. MEASUREMENTS: The delivered gas flows to the cannula were determined using a float-ball flowmeter for combinations of set gas flows and circuit pressures after connecting the cannula tubing to the Y-piece of the anesthesia circuit via a tracheal tube adapter. Decreasing the supply tubing length on the delivered flow rates was evaluated. MAIN RESULTS: There was a highly linear relationship between the anesthesia circuit pressure and the delivered nasal cannula flow rates, with 0 flow observed when the APL valve was fully open (i.e., 0 cm water). However, even under maximum conditions (40 cm water and 15 L/min), the delivered nasal cannula flow rate was 3.5 L/min. Shortening the 6.5-ft cannula tubing increased the flow at 20 and 30 cm water by approximately 0.12 L/min/ft. The estimated FiO2 assuming a minute ventilation of 5 L/min and 30% FiO2 ranged from 21.7% to 27.0% at nasal cannula flow rates of 0.5 to 4.0 L/min. When using a face mask and the APL fully closed, delivered flow rates were 0.25 L/min less than the set flow rate between 1 and 3 L/min and equal to the set flow rate between 4 and 8 L/min. CONCLUSIONS: When using a nasal cannula adapted to the Y-piece of the anesthesia circuit, the delivery system is linearly dependent on the pressure in the circuit and uninfluenced by the flow rate set on the anesthesia machine. However, only modest flow rates (≤ 3.5 L/min) and a limited increase in the inspired FiO2 are possible when using this delivery method. When using a face mask and the anesthesia circuit, flow rates close to the set flow rate are possible with the APL valve fully closed. Patients scheduled for sedation for head and neck procedures with increased fire risk who require more than a marginal increase in the FiO2 to maintain an acceptable pulse oximetry saturation may need general anesthesia with tracheal intubation.

Corrigendum to "Validation of a convolutional neural network that reliably identifies electromyographic compound motor action potentials following train-of-four stimulation: an algorithm development experimental study" [BJA Open 8 (2023) 100236].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.bjao.2023.100236.].

Evaluation of a Course to Teach Medical Students Latent Hazard Identification in the Operating Room.

INTRODUCTION: To improve situational awareness in the operating room (OR), a virtual online operating room of hazards (ROH) with deliberately placed risks was created. We hypothesized that subjects first participating in the virtual online ROH would identify more hazards during an in-person ROH exercise in a physical OR than those in the control group who only received didactic training. METHODS: We conducted a randomized controlled trial at a major academic medical center, enrolling 48 pre-clinical medical students with no previous OR exposure during their classes. Control and experimental group subjects participated in a brief, online didactic orientation session conducted live over Zoom (Zoom Video Communications, Inc., San Jose, CA) to learn about latent hazards in the OR. Experimental group subjects further interacted with a virtual online operating ROH in which latent hazards were present. The fraction of deliberately created latent hazards placed in a physical, in-person OR identified by subjects was calculated. RESULTS: Experimental group subjects identified a significantly larger fraction of the created hazards (41.3%) than the control group (difference = 16.4%, 95% CI: 11.3% to 21.4%, P < 0.0001). There was no difference in the number of non-hazards misidentified as hazards between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: Participation in the virtual online environment resulted in greater recognition of latent operating room hazards during a simulation conducted in a physical, in-person OR than in a didactic experience alone. Because creating an in-room experience to teach the identification of latent hazards in an OR is resource-intensive and requires removing the OR from clinical use, we recommend the virtual online approach described for training purposes. Adding items most misidentified as hazards is suggested for future implementation.

Lack of Validity of Absolute Percentage Errors in Estimated Operating Room Case Durations as a Measure of Operating Room Performance: A Focused Narrative Review.

Commonly reported end points for operating room (OR) and surgical scheduling performance are the percentages of estimated OR times whose absolute values differ from the actual OR times by ≥15%, or by various intervals from ≥5 to ≥60 minutes. We show that these metrics are invalid assessments of OR performance. Specifically, from 19 relevant articles, multiple OR management decisions that would increase OR efficiency or productivity would also increase the absolute percentage error of the estimated case durations. Instead, OR managers should check the mean bias of estimated OR times (ie, systematic underestimation or overestimation), a valid and reliable metric.

Bibliometric Analysis of Contributions of Anesthesiology Journals and Anesthesiologists to Operating Room Management Science.

BACKGROUND: Anesthesiology journals appear to have been progressively publishing a smaller percentage of operating room (OR) management studies. Similarly, non-anesthesiologists have increasingly been authors of these publications. Five hypotheses were formulated to evaluate these impressions based on 2 of the authors' curation of an online, comprehensive bibliography of OR management articles and corresponding referenced course materials. METHODS: We studied all 2938 publications having Scopus' SciVal topic T.6319 (OR management) more than 28 years from 1996 through May 2023, including 8608 distinct authors. RESULTS: Half (50%) of the publications were absent from PubMed, and the percentage absent has been increasing progressively (Kendall's τ = 0.71; P < .0001). Fewer than half were published in journals including anesthesiology as the sole classification (20%) or as one of the classifications (27%). The anesthesiology journals have been publishing a progressively decreasing fraction (τ = -0.61; P < .0001). Among the 11 authors each contributing at least 1% of the OR management science publications, 9 were anesthesiologists and the other 2 had anesthesiologists as coauthors on all these publications. Only 3% of authors had at least 10 OR management publications from earlier years. There were 75% of authors with no such earlier publications and 85% with 0 or 1. There was a progressive increase in the number of authors publishing OR management annually and with at most 1 such earlier publication (τ = 0.90; P < .0001). Only 20% of publications had any author with at least 10 earlier OR management publications, 48% had every author with no such earlier publications, and 60% had all authors with 0 or 1. CONCLUSIONS: Although most of the authors with the greatest production of OR management science were anesthesiologists, the percentage of publications in anesthesiology journals has been decreasing progressively. Anesthesiologists cannot rely solely on anesthesiology journals to keep up with the field. For most publications, every author had few or no earlier publications on the topic. Clinicians and managers relying on OR management science will continue to need to apply more information when judging whether published results can reliably be applied to their facilities.

External validation of a predictive model for reintubation after cardiac surgery: A retrospective, observational study.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Explore validation of a model to predict patients' risk of failing extubation, to help providers make informed, data-driven decisions regarding the optimal timing of extubation. DESIGN: We performed temporal, geographic, and domain validations of a model for the risk of reintubation after cardiac surgery by assessing its performance on data sets from three academic medical centers, with temporal validation using data from the institution where the model was developed. SETTING: Three academic medical centers in the United States. PATIENTS: Adult patients arriving in the cardiac intensive care unit with an endotracheal tube in place after cardiac surgery. INTERVENTIONS: Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and concordance statistics were used as measures of discriminative ability, and calibration curves and Brier scores were used to assess the model's predictive ability. MEASUREMENTS: Temporal validation was performed in 1642 patients with a reintubation rate of 4.8%, with the model demonstrating strong discrimination (optimism-corrected c-statistic 0.77) and low predictive error (Brier score 0.044) but poor model precision and recall (Optimal F1 score 0.29). Combined domain and geographic validation were performed in 2041 patients with a reintubation rate of 1.5%. The model displayed solid discriminative ability (optimism-corrected c-statistic = 0.73) and low predictive error (Brier score = 0.0149) but low precision and recall (Optimal F1 score = 0.13). Geographic validation was performed in 2489 patients with a reintubation rate of 1.6%, with the model displaying good discrimination (optimism-corrected c-statistic = 0.71) and predictive error (Brier score = 0.0152) but poor precision and recall (Optimal F1 score = 0.13). MAIN RESULTS: The reintubation model displayed strong discriminative ability and low predictive error within each validation cohort. CONCLUSIONS: Future work is needed to explore how to optimize models before local implementation.

Association between an anesthesia department development program for junior faculty and long-term production of publications: A longitudinal cohort study.

BACKGROUND: An important mission of academic medical departments is to further the scholarship and education of its junior faculty. In 2013, Hindman et al. described the design and initial outcomes of a faculty development program for junior faculty at the University of Iowa Department of Anesthesia. In the current study, we reassessed whether the program increased the production of publications long-term. We included all department faculty, years before joining the department, and years after leaving the department, to control for the effects of simply being current faculty in the department, benefiting from its resources, and having had progressively more experience working. METHODS: The population studied was the faculty for any period between January 2006 and December 2022. The dependent variable was the count of publications in Scopus each year with the faculty member's Scopus identifier, 1996 through 2022. The two-year faculty development program included non-clinical time, two mentors, defined mentorship plan, didactic program, and financial support for clinical and/or laboratory studies. Statistical analyses were with logistic and Poisson random effect models for panel data, with standard errors estimated using jackknife resampling. RESULTS: Among the 128 distinct faculty in the department from 2006 through 2022, the 10% with the most publications per year accounted for 54% of the total annual publications. The two-year program was completed by 41% (53/128). Completion of the faculty development program was associated with a 17% absolute increase in the predicted marginal probability of one or more publications per year, from 25% to 41%. The 95% confidence interval for the 17% absolute increase was 9% to 24% (P < .0001). The predictive marginal effect of completing the program was 1.7 more publications per year per faculty (95% confidence interval 1.1 to 2.4, P < .0001). The estimate was also 1.7 more publications per year while limiting consideration to the 108 faculty who joined the department after 1996 and including as an independent variable the count of publications the year before joining the department. CONCLUSIONS: A faculty development program for junior faculty can reliably increase the production of publications in an anesthesiology department by at least one per year. However, there is considerable heterogeneity in publication production among faculty.