5 Tips to Avoid Anesthesia Lawsuits
Your best defense is to operate within the boundaries of good sense.
A
majority of anesthesia
providers will face a
lawsuit during their
careers, but most claims are
preventable. As I often remind
our younger staffers, don't step
beyond the boundaries of good
sense. Adhering to these 5
rules of thumb is a good place
to start.
Stay true to the basics. Most anesthesia-related malpractice
cases probably could have been avoided by adhering to the
basic principles. For example, never using supplemental oxygen near
an ignition source, as we saw in the case of an elderly patient's face
igniting at an Oregon surgery center (osmag.net/E7zrNR). It's often
production pressure that causes errors. Some facilities are all too will-
ing to take shortcuts: not taking time outs or letting the surgeon
steamroll you because you're afraid to make him wait until it's safe to
proceed. In anesthesiology, speed kills. Unless there's a situation
involving loss of airway or arterial bleeding, slow it down.
Don't normalize deviant behavior. A facility's profitability
depends on its ability to maintain a strong case volume. That's all
well and good — until a dollar amount is placed above patient safety. If
a patient comes in with a BMI of 55 who's clearly not appropriate for an
outpatient setting and you say, "Okay, let's do this," you may be putting
the patient, the facility and yourself in jeopardy.
1
2
2 2 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 7
Medical Malpractice
William Landess, MS, JD, CRNA
• LIFE-CHANGING Going through a malpractice suit has caused
many clinicians to consider careers outside of medicine.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN,
CNOR
