Kathleen Cunningham writes:

Subject: Anesthesia errors...comment

Thanks for pointing out that anesthesia providers have made great strides in making changes, checklists and standards that have improved anesthesia safety significantly. I'm surprised that you did not mention inadequate monitoring as a major cause of anesthesia errors. Sometimes the patient is put at risk because the anesthesia provider has opted to disable the audible alarms which serve to alert the provider that the patient may be in trouble. The alarms are said by many providers to be "annoying". Try telling that to a family member of a patient who sustained profound, life altering brain damage, etc. I have seen cases in which the patient was not intubated properly and subsequently sustained lack of oxygen injuries, including death, profound brain damage and coma. Another source of error is failure to properly check proper tube placement (one way of doing this is to use a fiberoptic scope) and correct placement if needed. When general anesthesia is used, the patient's life is in the hands of the anesthesia provider. Proper and timely monitoring of the vital signs are absolutely mandatory. I have seen anesthesia records recreated and altered to the point where the vitals shows are incompatible with human biology. Problems with anesthesia equipment can also occur. An additional source of error is improper supervision of non-MD providers, such as CRNAs (certified registered nurse anesthetists). There have been many instances in which the anesthesiology provider leaves the operating room and therefore leaving the patient at potential risk for unrecognized complications. Thanks.