M631: Are You Truly Ready for an Office Anesthetic Emergency?

Abstract

In every oral and maxillofacial surgery office the care providers must be ready for a medical or anesthetic emergency that could happen on any day, at any time. However, when many new employees begin working in an oral and maxillofacial surgery office, they have limited medical background.Death or serious injury always turns a bright light on the oral surgery office, particularly when it involves delivering conscious sedation or general anesthesia. Claims of substandard care often focus on deficiencies in resuscitation due to poor planning and ineffective or delayed implementation. This program will review the legal obligations and the consequences of being unprepared for an office emergency.Even though resuscitating a patient is not a routine event, the administrators of sedation and general anesthesia must maintain the tools and data to use in the event of an emergency. Legal standards mandate having a team that can resuscitate a patient just as if it were from an ICU unit at a hospital or EMT’s. This course will show you how to create that team, through organization and effective staff training.You will learn how to organize your crash cart and the rest of your emergency preparedness program, and train the members of your staff to be knowledgeable, effective team members in the management of emergencies. We will review how to store and organize your emergency medications, intubation supplies, intravenous drip supplies, etc in your crash cart for instant retrieval. Plans for virtually “fool proof” labeling and organization for all items—from drugs to batteries—will be discussed. Tips will be provided on how to effectively use your office computer to help provide first–rate teaching materials for your entire office staff.Actual clinical and legal case examples will be utilized to demonstrate fatal outcomes associated with insufficient office organization and emergency drills. In addition, videos of emergency drills will illustrate how to maximize the teaching potential of the drills. The program will benefit, and is appropriate for, surgeons, managment, and staff. In every oral and maxillofacial surgery office the care providers must be ready for a medical or anesthetic emergency that could happen on any day, at any time. However, when many new employees begin working in an oral and maxillofacial surgery office, they have limited medical background. Death or serious injury always turns a bright light on the oral surgery office, particularly when it involves delivering conscious sedation or general anesthesia. Claims of substandard care often focus on deficiencies in resuscitation due to poor planning and ineffective or delayed implementation. This program will review the legal obligations and the consequences of being unprepared for an office emergency. Even though resuscitating a patient is not a routine event, the administrators of sedation and general anesthesia must maintain the tools and data to use in the event of an emergency. Legal standards mandate having a team that can resuscitate a patient just as if it were from an ICU unit at a hospital or EMT’s. This course will show you how to create that team, through organization and effective staff training. You will learn how to organize your crash cart and the rest of your emergency preparedness program, and train the members of your staff to be knowledgeable, effective team members in the management of emergencies. We will review how to store and organize your emergency medications, intubation supplies, intravenous drip supplies, etc in your crash cart for instant retrieval. Plans for virtually “fool proof” labeling and organization for all items—from drugs to batteries—will be discussed. Tips will be provided on how to effectively use your office computer to help provide first–rate teaching materials for your entire office staff. Actual clinical and legal case examples will be utilized to demonstrate fatal outcomes associated with insufficient office organization and emergency drills. In addition, videos of emergency drills will illustrate how to maximize the teaching potential of the drills. The program will benefit, and is appropriate for, surgeons, managment, and staff.