Association between measured teamwork and medical errors: an observational study of prehospital care in the USA.

OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to examine the relationship between measured teamwork and adverse safety events in the prehospital emergency care of children using high-fidelity simulation. We posit that non-technical skills such as leadership, teamwork, situation awareness and decision-making are associated with the clinical success of teams. DESIGN: Observational study. SETTING: Emergency medical services (EMS) responders were recruited from public fire and private transport agencies in Oregon State to participate in four simulations of paediatric emergencies using high-fidelity patient simulators, scene design, and professional actors playing parents and bystanders. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-four fire/transport teams consisting of 259 EMS professionals consented to participate and completed simulations. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Teams were assessed using the Clinical Teamwork Scale (CTS), a validated instrument that measures overall teamwork and 15 specific elements in five overarching domains: communication, decision-making, role responsibility (leadership and followership), situational awareness/resource management and patient-friendliness. We used generalised estimating equations to estimate the odds of error with increasing overall CTS teamwork score while adjusting for clinical scenario and potential clustering by team. RESULTS: Across 176 simulations, the mean overall score on the CTS was 6.04 (SD 2.10; range 1=poor to 10=perfect) and was normally distributed. The distribution of scores was similar across the four clinical scenarios. At least one error was observed in 82% of the simulations. In simulations with at least one observed error, the mean CTS score was 5.76 (SD 2.04) compared with 7.16 (SD 1.95) in scenarios with no observed error. Logistic regression analysis accounting for clustering at the team level revealed that the odds of an error decreased 28% with each unit increase in CTS (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.59 to 0.88). CONCLUSIONS: This study found that overall teamwork among care delivery teams was strongly associated with the risk of serious adverse events in simulated scenarios of caring for critically ill and injured children.

Implicit gender bias among US resident physicians.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to characterize implicit gender bias among residents in US Emergency Medicine and OB/GYN residencies. METHODS: We conducted a survey of all allopathic Emergency Medicine and OB/GYN residency programs including questions about leadership as well as an implicit association test (IAT) for unconscious gender bias. We used descriptive statistics to analyze the Likert-type survey responses and used standard IAT analysis methods. We conducted univariate and multivariate analyses to identify factors that were associated with implicit bias. We conducted a subgroup analysis of study sites involved in a multi-site intervention study to determine if responses were different in this group. RESULTS: Overall, 74% of the programs had at least one respondent. Out of 14,234 eligible, 1634 respondents completed the survey (11.5%). Of the five sites enrolled in the intervention study, 244 of 359 eligible residents completed the survey (68%). Male residents had a mean IAT score of 0.31 (SD 0.23) and females 0.14 (SD 0.24), both favoring males in leadership roles and the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.01). IAT scores did not differ by postgraduate year (PGY). Multivariable analysis of IAT score and participant demographics confirmed a significant association between female gender and lower IAT score. Explicit bias favoring males in leadership roles was associated with increased implicit bias favoring males in leadership roles (r = 0.1 p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: We found that gender bias is present among US residents favoring men in leadership positions, this bias differs between male and female residents, and is associated with discipline. Implicit bias did not differ across training years, and is associated with explicit bias.

Reliability and Usability of a 7-Minute Chart Review Tool to Identify Pediatric Prehospital Adverse Safety Events.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although medical errors in the hospital are a recognized source of morbidity and mortality, less is known about safety events in the prehospital care of children. As part of a multiphase study, we developed and evaluated the reliability and usability of the pediatric prehospital safety event detection system (PEDS), a tool used to identify safety events in prehospital care. METHODS: The tool was based on hospital chart review tools, literature review, and results from focus groups and a national Delphi survey. After reviewer training, preliminary testing, and initial use, we refined the tool on the basis of data analysis and reviewer feedback. Thirty charts were randomly selected from our study population of pediatric transports with lights and sirens in Multnomah County, Oregon, and independently reviewed by 2 pediatric emergency physicians with experience in prehospital care to evaluate interrater reliability and time to completion of the final tool. RESULTS: The PEDS tool contains 36 items, takes reviewers a median of 7 minutes to complete (interquartile range: 4-12), and exists in both paper and electronic formats. When comparing the presence or absence of severe safety events between 2 expert arbiters, we found 87% agreement (κ = 0.68), indicating good agreement. CONCLUSIONS: The PEDS tool is the first chart review tool designed to identify safety events for children receiving prehospital care, and it displayed good usability and reliability in this study. With this tool, we provide a novel mechanism for researchers, clinicians, and prehospital care leaders to identify opportunities to improve care for children.

Safety Events in High Risk Prehospital Neonatal Calls.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to quantify and characterize patient safety events during high-risk neonatal transports in the prehospital setting. METHOD: We conducted a retrospective chart review of all "lights and sirens" ambulance transports of neonates ≤30 days old over a four-year period in a metropolitan area. Each case was independently reviewed for potential patient safety events that may have occurred in clinical assessment and decision making, resuscitation, airway management, fluid or medication administration, procedures performed, and/or equipment used. RESULTS: Twenty-six patients ≤30 days old were transported by ambulance using lights and sirens during the four-year study period. Overall, safety events occurred in 19 patients and severe safety events (potentially causing permanent injury or harm, including death) occurred in ten. The incidence of safety events related to medication administrations was 90% (70% severe), resuscitation 64.7% (47.1% severe), procedures 64.7% (35.3% severe), fluid administration 50% (25% severe), clinical assessment and decision making 50% (30.8% severe), airway management 47.6% (28.6% severe), equipment use 25.5% (10.0% severe), and systems processes 19.2% (7.7% severe). CONCLUSIONS: High-risk neonatal calls are infrequent and prone to a high incidence of serious patient safety events.

Safety events in pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to explore the types of patient safety events that take place during pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation. METHODS: Retrospective medical record review from a single large urban EMS system of EMS-treated pediatric (<18years of age) out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) occurring between 2008 and 2011. A chart review tool was developed for this project and each chart was reviewed by a multidisciplinary review panel. Safety events were identified in the following clinical domains: resuscitation; assessment, impression/diagnosis, and clinical decision making; airway/breathing; fluids and medications; procedures; equipment; environment; and system. RESULTS: From a total of 497 critical transports during the study period, we identified 35 OHCA cases (7%). A total of 87% of OHCA cases had a safety event identified. Epinephrine overdoses were identified in 31% of the OHCA cases, most of which were 10-fold overdoses. Other medication errors included failure to administer epinephrine when indicated and administration of atropine when not indicated. In 20% of OHCA cases, 3 or more intubation attempts took place or intubation attempts were ultimately not successful. Lack of end-tidal C02 use for tube confirmation was also common. The most common arrest algorithm errors were placing an advanced airway too early (before administration of epinephrine) and giving a medication not included in the algorithm, primarily atropine, both occurring in almost 1/3 of cases. CONCLUSIONS: Safety events were common during pediatric OHCA resuscitation especially in the domains of medications, airway/breathing, and arrest algorithms.

Unnecessary Use of Red Lights and Sirens in Pediatric Transport.

INTRODUCTION: Approximately 25.5 million pediatric patients are treated in Emergency Departments around the United States annually. Roughly 7% of these patients are transported by ambulance; of these, approximately 7% arrive in ambulances running red lights and sirens (RLS). Compared to those transporting without RLS, emergency vehicles employing RLS are involved in more accidents and are associated with more fatalities. OBJECTIVE: To characterize the use of RLS in pediatric transports and identify factors associated with unnecessary use of RLS. METHODS: As part of the Children's Safety Initiative (CSI-EMS), a large, multi-phased National Institutes of Health-funded study, we conducted a medical record review of all pediatric RLS transports in an urban EMS system over a 4-year period (2008-11). A standardized chart abstraction tool was adapted for the out-of-hospital setting and pilot tested. Charts were independently reviewed by physicians and paramedics, with disagreements arbitrated by a pediatric emergency physician. Reviewers were asked to judge whether RLS transport was necessary and to provide comments justifying their position. Descriptive statistics were used to measure the frequency of unnecessary transports and logistic regression analysis was employed to identify factors associated with unnecessary use of RLS. RESULTS: Of 490 RLS transports, experts identified 96 (19.6%) as unnecessary use of RLS. Necessary and unnecessary RLS transports had similar patient sex and duration of transport, though unnecessary use of RLS tended to increase with patient age. The call reasons that represented the largest proportion of unnecessary RLS transports were trauma (49.0%), respiratory distress (16.7%), and seizure/altered mental status (11.5%). Compared with necessary RLS transports, unnecessary RLS transports were less likely to require resuscitation, airway management, or medication administration. Univariate analysis revealed that patient vital signs within normal limits were associated with increased risk of unnecessary RLS transport, with the most pronounced effect seen in the normal GCS score group (odds ratio 7.74, p-value 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This analysis identified patient and transport characteristics associated with unnecessary use of RLS. Our results could help serve as the basis for designing and prospectively evaluating protocols for use of RLS, potentially mitigating the risk associated with transport in pediatric patients.