International Standards for a Safe Practice of Anesthesia 2010

Abstract

These standards A are recommended for anesthesia professionals throughout the world. They are intended to provide guidance and assistance to anesthesia professionals, their professional societies, hospital and facility administrators, and governments for improving and maintaining the quality and safety of anesthesia care. They were adopted by the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists on the 13 th June 1992, and revisions were ratified on 5 th March 2008 and on 19 th March 2010. For some anesthesia services, groups, and departments these standards will represent a future goal, while for others they may already have been implemented and be regarded as mandatory. It is recognized that in some settings facing challenges in resources and organization, not even those standards regarded as mandatory are met at present. The provision of anesthesia under such circumstances should be restricted to procedures which are absolutely essential for the urgent or emergency saving of life or limb, and every effort should be made by those responsible for the provision of healthcare in these areas and settings to ensure that the standards are met. Provision of anesthesia care at standards lower than those outlined as mandatory for anesthesia for elective surgical procedures simply cannot be construed as safe acceptable practice. The most important standards relate to individual anesthesia professionals. Monitoring devices play an important part in safe anesthesia as extensions of human senses and clinical skills rather than their replacement. Adopting the standardized language of the World Health Organization, minimum standards that would be expected in all anesthesia care for elective surgical procedures are This article is reproduced with permission from the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) and appeared previously on the WFSA website (http://www.anaesthesiologists.org/).

An overview of quality and safety in health care

“…This potential does not lie in continuing to accept inadequate care as inevitable; instead, it lies in initiatives to raise standards to an acceptable level as inexpensively as possible. 53,54 …”

“…Ce potentiel ne réside pas dans le fait de continuer d'accepter des soins inadaptés comme étant inévitables; plutôt, il réside dans des initiatives destinées à élever les normes jusqu'à un niveau acceptable au moindre coût. 53,54 La mesure et l'évaluation Bien que certaines initiatives devraient être entreprises simplement par ce qu'elles sont logiques, 55 il faut mesurer pour améliorer la qualité, et il ne faut pas oublier la possibilité d'effets 'vengeurs' inattendus découlant d'initiatives bien intentionnées. 56 Le cadre de structure, processus et résultats de Donabedian est couramment utilisé.…”

Nursing care in the anesthetic procedure: an integrative review

“…The defined quality standards for health services were: prevention of surgical site infection; safe anesthesia; safe surgical teams; and surgical care indicators (3) .…”

“…In 2004, the World Health Organization released the safe surgery manual with the Safe Surgery Saves Lives program, in order to inform healthcare professionals and administrators about the function and surgical safety standards in public health; define measures or indicators for the national and international surveillance of health care; and identify safety standards in the operating room, according to a checklist (3) .…”

Improving perioperative outcomes in low-resource countries: It can’t be fixed without data

“…[8][9][10] The World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists has also published International Standards for the Safe Practice of Anaesthesia and an associated checklist in multiple languages. 11,12 All these checklists are deceiving, however, as incorporating them into routine care can be surprisingly difficult. Changes to the normal patterns of work are difficult, modification of the operating theatre hierarchy is challenging, and resistance is common.…”