Assessment of Anesthesia Capacity in Public Surgical Hospitals in Guatemala.

BACKGROUND: International standards for safe anesthetic care have been developed by the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Whether these standards are met is unknown in many nations, including Guatemala, a country with universal health coverage. We aimed to establish an overview of anesthesia care capacity in public surgical hospitals in Guatemala to help guide public sector health care development. METHODS: In partnership with the Guatemalan Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance (MSPAS), a national survey of all public hospitals providing surgical care was conducted using the WFSA anesthesia facility assessment tool (AFAT) in 2018. Each facility was assessed for infrastructure, service delivery, workforce, medications, equipment, and monitoring practices. Descriptive statistics were calculated and presented. RESULTS: Of the 46 public hospitals in Guatemala in 2018, 36 (78%) were found to provide surgical care, including 20 district, 14 regional, and 2 national referral hospitals. We identified 573 full-time physician surgeons, anesthesiologists, and obstetricians (SAO) in the public sector, with an estimated SAO density of 3.3/100,000 population. There were 300 full-time anesthesia providers working at public hospitals. Physician anesthesiologists made up 47% of these providers, with an estimated physician anesthesiologist density of 0.8/100,000 population. Only 10% of district hospitals reported having an anesthesia provider continuously present intraoperatively during general or neuraxial anesthesia cases. No hospitals reported assessing pain in the immediate postoperative period. While the availability of some medications such as benzodiazepines and local anesthetics was robust (100% availability across all hospitals), not all hospitals had essential medications such as ketamine, epinephrine, or atropine. There were deficiencies in the availability of essential equipment and basic intraoperative monitors, such as end-tidal carbon dioxide detectors (17% availability across all hospitals). Postoperative care and access to resuscitative equipment, such as defibrillators, were also lacking. CONCLUSIONS: This first countrywide, MSPAS-led assessment of anesthesia capacity at public facilities in Guatemala revealed a lack of essential materials and personnel to provide safe anesthesia and surgery. Hospitals surveyed often did not have resources regardless of hospital size or level, which may suggest multiple factors preventing availability and use. Local and national policy initiatives are needed to address these deficiencies.

Evaluation of Drug Wastage in the Operating Rooms and Intensive Care Units of a Regional Health Service.

BACKGROUND: Pharmacological treatments for critical processes in patients need to be initiated as rapidly as possible; for this reason, it is a standard of care to prepare the main anesthesia and emergency drugs in advance. As a result, 20%-50% of the prepared drugs remain unused and are then discarded. Decreasing waste by optimizing drug use is an attractive strategy for meeting both cost containment and environmental sustainability. The primary end point of this study was to measure the actual amount of drug wastage in the operating rooms (ORs) and intensive care units (ICUs) of a Regional Health Service (RHS). The secondary end point was to analyze and estimate the economic implications of this waste for the Health Service and to suggest possible measures to reduce it. METHODS: This prospective observational multicenter study was conducted across 12 hospitals, all of which belong to the same RHS in the north-east of Italy. Data collection took place in March 2018 and included patients admitted to ICUs, emergency areas, and ORs of the participating hospitals. Data concerning drug preparation and administration were collected for all consecutive patients, independent of case types and of whether operations were scheduled or unscheduled. Drug wastage was defined as follows: drugs prepared in ready-to-use syringes but not administered at all and discarded untouched. We then estimated the costs of wasted drugs for a 1-year period using the data from this study and the yearly regional pharmacy orders of drugs provided to the ORs and ICUs. We also performed a sensitivity analysis to validate the robustness of our assumptions and qualitative conclusions. RESULTS: We collected data for a total of 13,078 prepared drug syringes. Drug wastage varied from 7.8% (Urapidil, an alpha-1 antagonist antihypertensive) to 85.7% (epinephrine) of prepared syringes, with an overall mean wastage rate of 38%. The estimated yearly waste was 139,531 syringes, for a total estimated financial cost of €78,060 ($92,569), and an additional quantity of medical waste amounting to 4968 kg per year. The total provider time dedicated to the preparation of unused drugs was predicted to be 1512 working hours per year. CONCLUSIONS: The overall extent of drug wastage in ORs and ICUs is concerning. Interventions aimed at minimizing waste-related costs and improving the environmental sustainability of our practice are paramount. Effort should be put into designing a more efficient workflow that reduces this waste while providing for the emergency availability of these medications in the OR and ICU.

Improving Anesthesia Safety in Low-Resource Settings.

The safety of anesthesia characteristic of high-income countries today is not matched in low-resource settings with poor infrastructure, shortages of anesthesia providers, essential drugs, equipment, and supplies. Health care is delivered through complex systems. Achieving sustainable widespread improvement globally will require an understanding of how to influence such systems. Health outcomes depend not only on a country's income, but also on how resources are allocated, and both vary substantially, between and within countries. Safety is particularly important in anesthesia because anesthesia is intrinsically hazardous and not intrinsically therapeutic. Nevertheless, other elements of the quality of health care, notably access, must also be considered. More generally, there are certain prerequisites within society for health, captured in the Jakarta declaration. It is necessary to have adequate infrastructure (notably for transport and primary health care) and hospitals capable of safely carrying out the "Bellwether Procedures" (cesarean delivery, laparotomy, and the treatment of compound fractures). Surgery, supported by safe anesthesia, is critical to the health of populations, but avoidable harm from health care (including very high mortality rates from anesthesia in many parts of the world) is a major global problem. Thus, surgical and anesthesia services must not only be provided, they must be safe. The global anesthesia workforce crisis is a major barrier to achieving this. Many anesthetics today are administered by nonphysicians with limited training and little access to supervision or support, often working in very challenging circumstances. Many organizations, notably the World Health Organization and the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists, are working to improve access to and safety of anesthesia and surgery around the world. Challenges include collaboration with local stakeholders, coordination of effort between agencies, and the need to influence national health policy makers to achieve sustainable improvement. It is conceivable that safe anesthesia and perioperative care could be provided for essential surgical services today by clinicians with moderate levels of training using relatively simple (but appropriately designed and maintained) equipment and a limited number of inexpensive generic medications. However, there is a minimum standard for these resources, below which reasonable safety cannot be assured. This minimum (at least) should be available to all. Not only more resources, but also more equitable distribution of existing resources is required. Thus, the starting point for global access to safe anesthesia is acceptance that access to health care in general should be a basic human right everywhere.

A Novel Open-Source Novel App Improves Anesthesia Operating Room Equipment Supply.

Anesthesiologists are dependent on specialized drugs and equipment being immediately available for patient care. Deficiencies in supplies impact on operating room efficiency and patient safety. In our institution, we do not have anesthesia assistants/aides and depend on general aides to stock anesthesia related equipment which resulted in many shortages. We hypothesized that a mobile app would be useful for tracking and reporting and informing changes to stocking resulting in an improvement in the supply of anesthesia equipment. Following institutional quality improvement approval, we developed an app to collect metrics (which included the last 2 months of paper documentation - September and October 2015) and the first 12 months of the app usage (November 2015 to November 2016). Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data from the app. The primary outcome was the number of reports made over time. Secondary outcomes include the impact of missing items on operating room efficiency and patient safety, the most commonly reported missing items, and the most common actions taken following the discovery of missing items. The app increased the reporting by more than 300% (compared to paper) over the first 2 months. Over the year, 549 items were reported missing. The most common category of missing items was airway related 274 (49.9%). The single most commonly reported missing item was the Wisconsin Laryngoscope Size 1 Blade 95 (17.3%). App users reported the missing item safety impact as high 86 (15.7%) times and efficiency impact as high 117 (21.3%) times. Changes to staffing and supply resulted in a decrease in missing items reported. Our results demonstrate that an app can be useful for reporting, tracking of real-time shortages of anesthesia equipment and is easy to design and implement. Furthermore, the app has generated useful and robust data that has led to staffing changes and improvements in the anesthesia equipment supply chain. The app design and use may be useful in other clinical areas.

An Observational Assessment of Anesthesia Capacity in Madagascar as a Prerequisite to the Development of a National Surgical Plan.

BACKGROUND: The global lack of anesthesia capacity is well described, but country-specific data are needed to provide country-specific solutions. We aimed to assess anesthesia capacity in Madagascar as part of the development of a Ministry of Health national surgical plan. METHODS: As part of a nationwide surgical safety quality improvement project, we surveyed 19 of 22 regional hospitals, representing surgical facilities caring for 75% of the total population. The assessment was divided into 3 areas: anesthesia workforce density, infrastructure and equipment, and medications. Data were obtained by semistructured interviews with Ministry of Health officials, hospital directors, technical directors, statisticians, pharmacists, and anesthesia providers and through on-site observations. Interview questions were adapted from the World Health Organization Situational Analysis Tool and the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists International Standards for Safe Practice of Anaesthesia. Additional data on workforce density were collected from the 3 remaining regions so that workforce density data are representative of all 22 regions. RESULTS: Anesthesia physician workforce density is 0.26 per 100,000 population and 0.19 per 100,000 outside of the capital region. Less than 50% of hospitals surveyed reported having a reliable electricity and oxygen supply. The majority of anesthesia providers work without pulse oximetry (52%) or a functioning vaporizer (52%). All the hospitals surveyed had very basic pediatric supplies, and none had a pediatric pulse oximetry probe. Ketamine is universally available but more than 50% of hospitals lack access to opioids. None of the 19 regional hospitals surveyed was able to completely meet the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists' standards for monitoring. CONCLUSIONS: Improving anesthesia care is complex. Capacity assessment is a first step that would enable progress to be tracked against specific targets. In Madagascar, scale-up of the anesthesia workforce, investment in infrastructure and equipment, and improvement in medication supply-chain management are needed to attain minimal international standards. Data from this study were presented to the Ministry of Health for inclusion in the development of a national surgical plan, together with recommendations for the needed improvements in the delivery of anesthesia.

Challenges of Anesthesia in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Access to Safe Obstetric Anesthesia in East Africa.

BACKGROUND: The United Nations 2015 Millennium Development Goals targeted a 75% reduction in maternal mortality. However, in spite of this goal, the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births remains unacceptably high across Sub-Saharan Africa. Because many of these deaths could likely be averted with access to safe surgery, including cesarean delivery, we set out to assess the capacity to provide safe anesthetic care for mothers in the main referral hospitals in East Africa. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted at 5 main referral hospitals in East Africa: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi. Using a questionnaire based on the World Federation of the Societies of Anesthesiologists (WFSA) international guidelines for safe anesthesia, we interviewed anesthetists in these hospitals, key informants from the Ministry of Health and National Anesthesia Society of each country (Supplemental Digital Content, http://links.lww.com/AA/B561). RESULTS: Using the WFSA checklist as a guide, none of respondents had all the necessary requirements available to provide safe obstetric anesthesia, and only 7% reported adequate anesthesia staffing. Availability of monitors was limited, and those that were available were often nonfunctional. The paucity of local protocols, and lack of intensive care unit services, also contributed significantly to poor maternal outcomes. For a population of 142.9 million in the East African community, there were only 237 anesthesiologists, with a workforce density of 0.08 in Uganda, 0.39 in Kenya, 0.05 in Tanzania, 0.13 in Rwanda, and 0.02 anesthesiologists in Burundi per 100,000 population in each country. CONCLUSIONS: We identified significant shortages of both the personnel and equipment needed to provide safe anesthetic care for obstetric surgical cases across East Africa. There is a need to increase the number of physician anesthetists, to improve the training of nonphysician anesthesia providers, and to develop management protocols for obstetric patients requiring anesthesia. This will strengthen health systems and improve surgical outcomes in developing countries. More funding is required for training physician anesthetists if developing countries are to reach the targeted specialist workforce density of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery of 20 surgical, anesthetic, and obstetric physicians per 100,000 population by 2030.

Anesthetics drug wastage and preventive strategies: Systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Surgical Patients and hospitals are now facing financial strain due to direct anesthetic demand as a result of the development of new anesthetic drugs, equipment, and techniques. Up to 15% of a hospital's pharmacy budget is currently allocated to anesthetic drug expenses. Drug wastage during anesthesia practice is a widespread hidden source of healthcare waste that leads to anesthetic drug shortages as well as poor operating room efficiency. On the other hand, despite the fact that it is preventable in the vast majority of cases, it is well described that drug wastage is routinely observed, including in developing countries where the consequences significantly affect both hospitals and patients. METHODS: This review aims to review the prevalence of anesthetic drug waste across the world and systematically formulate and describe preventive strategies. Relevant publications were identified using systematic searches on databases including Google Scholar, Medline (PubMed), the Cochrane Library, and Embase. In addition, papers were detected and then selected through the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) criteria guidelines and the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Using the predetermined terms and dates from the searching databases, a total of 504 articles were identified. Based on the screening criteria, 16 papers were considered eligible and included in the final review. In addition, the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Manual for Evidence Synthesis was used for evaluating the quality of selected articles. This study is registered on PROSPERO, number CRD42024497044. RESULTS: Of the sixteen publications from eleven different nations that were considered suitable for inclusion, only two of them addressed the waste of inhalational anesthetics. In more than half of eligible articles, propofol was the frequently wasted drug that contributed to increased financial loss through drug waste. The first most significant factor contributing to the waste of intravenous and inhalational anesthetics was the disposal of multidrug vials following their use for a single patient and high fresh gas flow, respectively. CONCLUSION: Anesthetic medication waste is a common occurrence worldwide, despite the fact that it is expensive and has a significant negative impact on operating room efficiency. Because the majority of drug waste is avoidable, preventive measures may lower drug waste and improve patient and hospital efficiency.

Review article: safety aspects of anesthesia in under-resourced locations.

PURPOSE: Improving patient safety during anesthesia and surgery is the focus of much effort worldwide. Major advances have occurred since the 1980s, especially in economically advantaged areas. This paper is a review of some of the challenges that face those who work in resource-poor areas of the world. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: There is a shortage of trained anesthesia providers, both physician and non-physician, and this is particularly acute outside urban areas. Anesthesia is still sometimes delivered by unqualified people, which results in expected high rates of morbidity and mortality. Residency training programs in low-income countries ought to increase their output as anesthesiologists must be available to supervise non-physician providers. All groups require continuing medical education. In addition, increased efforts are needed to recruit trainees into the specialty of anesthesia and to retain them locally. There is a well-recognized shortage of resources for anesthesia. Consequently, concerted efforts are necessary to ensure reliable supplies of drugs, and attention should be paid to the procurement of anesthesia equipment appropriate for the location. Biomedical support must also be developed. Lifebox is a charitable foundation dedicated to supplying pulse oximeters to low- and middle-income countries. Adoption of the World Health Organization's Surgical Safety Checklist could further reduce morbidity and mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Much time, effort, planning, and resources are required to ensure that anesthesia in low-income areas can reach internationally accepted standards. Such investment in anesthesia would result in wider access to surgical and obstetrical care, and the quality and safety of that care would be much improved.

Drug shortages in Canadian anesthesia: a national survey.

BACKGROUND: Canadian physicians are faced with an increasing frequency of drug shortages. We hypothesized that drug shortages have a clinical impact on anesthesia care in Canada. METHODS: We conducted a self-administered survey of anesthesiologists in Canada using the membership list of the Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society. For survey development, we identified key domains, including types of drug shortages, impact on the ability of anesthesia practitioners to provide general anesthesia care, and impact on patient outcomes. We undertook assessments of face validity, clinical sensibility, and content validity. Respondents were surveyed from January-April 2012. RESULTS: Completed valid questionnaires were submitted by 1,187 respondents (61.4%), and 779 (65.7%) of respondents described a shortage of one or more anesthesia or critical care drugs. Changes in anesthesia practice resulting from drug shortages were common; 586 (49%) respondents thought they had given an inferior anesthetic, and 361 (30%) reported administering medications with which they were unfamiliar. Respondents also reported that drug shortages were, at times, responsible for changes in the conduct of patient care, with 28 (2.4%) noting cancellation or postponement of surgery and 92 (7.8%) witnessing a drug error. One hundred sixty-five (13.9%) respondents regarded drug shortages as having prolonged recovery from anesthesia, and 124 (10.5%) viewed drug shortages as resulting in an increased number of postoperative complications, such as postoperative nausea and vomiting. INTERPRETATION: Drug shortages are common in anesthetic practice in Canada. This state of affairs may have a negative effect on how anesthesiologists practice anesthesia and may be associated with adverse patient outcomes.

Emergency, anaesthetic and essential surgical capacity in the Gambia.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the resources for essential and emergency surgical care in the Gambia. METHODS: The World Health Organization's Tool for Situation Analysis to Assess Emergency and Essential Surgical Care was distributed to health-care managers in facilities throughout the country. The survey was completed by 65 health facilities - one tertiary referral hospital, 7 district/general hospitals, 46 health centres and 11 private health facilities - and included 110 questions divided into four sections: (i) infrastructure, type of facility, population served and material resources; (ii) human resources; (iii) management of emergency and other surgical interventions; (iv) emergency equipment and supplies for resuscitation. Questionnaire data were complemented by interviews with health facility staff, Ministry of Health officials and representatives of nongovernmental organizations. FINDINGS: Important deficits were identified in infrastructure, human resources, availability of essential supplies and ability to perform trauma, obstetric and general surgical procedures. Of the 18 facilities expected to perform surgical procedures, 50.0% had interruptions in water supply and 55.6% in electricity. Only 38.9% of facilities had a surgeon and only 16.7% had a physician anaesthetist. All facilities had limited ability to perform basic trauma and general surgical procedures. Of public facilities, 54.5% could not perform laparotomy and 58.3% could not repair a hernia. Only 25.0% of them could manage an open fracture and 41.7% could perform an emergency procedure for an obstructed airway. CONCLUSION: The present survey of health-care facilities in the Gambia suggests that major gaps exist in the physical and human resources needed to carry out basic life-saving surgical interventions.

Analysis of anaesthesia services to calculate national need and supply of anaesthetics in Switzerland during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: In Switzerland, details of current anaesthesia practice are unknown. However, they are urgently needed to manage anaesthesia drug supply in times of drug shortages due to the pandemic. METHODS: We surveyed all Swiss anaesthesia institutions in April 2020 to determine their annual anaesthesia activity. Together with a detailed analysis on anaesthetic drug use of a large, representative Swiss anaesthesia index institution, calculations and projections for the annual need of anaesthetics in Switzerland were made. Only those drugs have been analysed that are either being used very frequently or that have been classified critical with regard to their supply by the pharmacy of the index institution or the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health. RESULTS: The response rate to our questionnaire was 98%. Out of the present 188 Swiss anaesthesia institutions, 185 responded. In Switzerland, the annual number of anaesthesias was 1'071'054 (12'445 per 100'000 inhabitants) with a mean anaesthesia time of 2.03 hours. Teaching hospitals (n = 54) performed more than half (n = 572'231) and non-teaching hospitals (n = 103) provided almost half of all anaesthesias (n = 412'531). Thereby, private hospitals conducted a total of 290'690 anaesthesias. Finally, office-based anaesthesia institutions with mainly outpatients (n = 31) administered 86'292 anaesthesias. Regarding type of anaesthesia provided, two thirds were general anaesthesias (42% total intravenous, 17% inhalation, 8% combined), 20% regional and 12% monitored anaesthesia care. Projecting for example the annual need for propofol in anaesthesia, Switzerland requires 48'573 L of propofol 1% which corresponds to 5'644 L propofol 1% per 100'000 inhabitants every year. CONCLUSIONS: To actively manage anaesthesia drug supply in the context of the current pandemic, it is mandatory to have a detailed understanding of the number and types of anaesthesias provided. On this basis, the Swiss annual consumption of anaesthetics could be projected and the replenishment organized.

Anesthetic practice in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 M(L) earthquake devastated Haiti, the most impoverished nation in the Western hemisphere with extremely limited health care resources. We traveled to Milot, Haiti situated north of Port-au-Prince, to care for injured patients at Hôpital Sacré Coeur, an undamaged hospital with 74 beds and 2 operating rooms. The massive influx of patients brought by helicopter from the earthquake zone transformed the hospital to >400 beds and 6 operating rooms. As with the 2005 Kashmir and 2008 China earthquake, most victims suffered from extremity injuries, encompassing crush injuries, lacerations, fractures, and amputations with associated dehydration and anemia. Preoperative evaluation was limited by language issues requiring a translator and included basic questions of fasting status, allergies, and coexisting conditions. Goals included adequate depth of anesthesia, while avoiding apnea/airway manipulation. These goals led to frequent use of midazolam and ketamine or regional anesthesia. Although many medications were present under various names and concentrations, the absence of a central gas supply proved troublesome. Postoperative care was limited to an 8-bed postanesthesia care unit/intensive care unit caring for patients with tetanus, diabetic ketoacidosis, pulmonary aspiration, acute renal failure due to crush, extreme anemia, sepsis, and other illnesses. Other important aspects of this journey included the professionalism of the health care personnel who prioritized patient care, adaptation to limited laboratory and radiological services, and provision of living arrangements. Although challenging from many perspectives, the experience was emotionally enriching and recalls the fundamental reasons why we selected medicine and anesthesiology as a profession.