Adherence to The Joint Commission Standards by Anesthesiology Providers after the Implementation of an Educational Intervention.

Abstract

Abstract

A medical error is defined as a preventable adverse effect of medical care. In anesthesiology practice, this is especially important as there is a specific risk related to it. Medical errors are the third most common cause of annual deaths in the US. The Joint Commission (TJC) develops standards of routine for the practice of anesthesiology with the aim of reducing the incidence of medical errors. The aim of this study is to determine adherence to TJC before and after the administration of educational material. The adherence to TJC standards was evaluated in two phases (A pre-interventional phase followed by an educational intervention; thereafter, a post-interventional phase) by random checks during cases in the operating room. For the data analysis, measures of central tendency and ratios were used. This quality assurance project was waived by the Institutional Review Board. During the pre-intervention phase a total of 525 cases were checked during a period of 3 months; 217 (41%) cases report non-compliance events. During the Pre-intervention phase, the average number of non-compliance events per provider was 24.11 and the Total events/Total cases ratio was 2:5. After the educational period (Post-intervention phase) a total of 1701 cases were randomly checked; 192 (11.3%) cases report non-compliance events. In a 9-month period, the average number of events per provider was 5.68 and the Total events/Total cases ratio was 1:9. The implementation of an educational intervention plus a systematic evaluation increases the adherence of the anesthesia providers to The Joint Commission standards.