A Novel Process for Introducing a New Intraoperative Program: A Multidisciplinary Paradigm for Mitigating Hazards and Improving Patient Safety

In Brief BACKGROUND: Since the Institute of Medicine’s report, To Err is Human, was published, numerous interventions have been designed and implemented to correct the defects that lead to medical errors and adverse events; however, most efforts were largely reactive. Safety, communication, team performance, and efficiency are areas of care that attract a great deal of attention, especially regarding the introduction of new technologies, techniques, and procedures. We describe a multidisciplinary process that was implemented at our hospital to identify and mitigate hazards before the introduction of a new technique: high-dose-rate intraoperative radiation therapy, (HDR-IORT). METHODS: A multidisciplinary team of surgeons, anesthesiologists, radiation oncologists, physicists, nurses, hospital risk managers, and equipment specialists used a structured process that included in situ clinical simulation to uncover concerns among care providers and to prospectively identify and mitigate defects for patients who would undergo surgery using the HDR-IORT technique. RESULTS: We identified and corrected 20 defects in the simulated patient care process before application to actual patients. Subsequently, eight patients underwent surgery using the HDR-IORT technique with no recurrence of simulation-identified or unanticipated defects. CONCLUSION: Multiple benefits were derived from the use of this systematic process to introduce the HDR-IORT technique; namely, the safety and efficiency of care for this select patient population was optimized, and this process mitigated harmful or adverse events before the inclusion of actual patients. Further work is needed, but the process outlined in this paper can be universally applied to the introduction of any new technologies, treatments, or procedures. IMPLICATIONS: The development and introduction of a novel comprehensive multidisciplinary process that includes in situ simulation allows clinicians to proactively identify hazards and design safe-care systems. Anesthesiologists can play a pivotal role in improving clinical safety by leading changes in improving teamwork, creating a protocol for delivery of therapy, and changing the system before exposing patients to unnecessary and preventable hazards. With the novel process described in this paper, we have been able to implement a new intraoperative program that proactively identified potential hazards.