A Clinical Audit of Quality Indicators in Anesthesia Practice

Background To measure and monitor the quality of care in anesthesia, which is lacking in India. The objective of this audit was to formulate a set of quality indicators and use them to audit our daily anesthetic practice. Materials and methods We applied eight quality indicators to audit 4,147 medical records of our hospital. We measured the quality of anesthesia care in the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative period by collecting and analyzing the various data. Results We found out the weaker areas where quality of anesthesia care could be improved. In 160 (3.85%) patients, preanesthetic check-up was lacking; in 569 (13.72%) patients, anesthesia plan was modified on the day of surgery. A total of 378 (9.11%) patients were ventilated following anesthesia. A total of 123 (2.96%) patients were in recovery room for more than the normal expected time and 187 (4.50%) patients were shifted to the ICU for further intensive care. There was no mortality in our audit findings. Conclusion In this audit, we found several areas where improvements could be done. In future, the quality of anesthesia services will be monitored by quality assurance programs using quality indicators, which will improve the perioperative outcome. A dramatic change is expected in anesthesia practice for the betterment of patient care. At present we should try to adopt these practices and improve anesthesia delivery services. How to cite this article Nadakarni M, P Desi, H Sahajananda. A Clinical Audit of Quality Indicators in Anesthesia Practice. J Med Sci 2015;1(3):47-51.