Planning safe anesthesia: the role of collective resources management.

OBJECTIVE: Anticipation and planning are essential steps of risk management but the mechanisms of planning behavior are incompletely understood, especially the factors including collective work. The aim of this research is to understand how anesthetists plan safe solution to perform anesthesia. METHODS: A study based on interviews was conducted in two French hospitals. Data processing focused on the main decisions made by 20 anesthetists during two simulated pre-anesthetic consultation. The main decisions made have been identified and the decision criteria have been analyzed. RESULTS: To ensure patient safety, all anesthetists do not plan the same solution. The rejection or the selection of solutions by each physician rests on two types of criteria: the assessment of risks for the patient and the assessment of resources available to handle the situation. For the latter, the knowledge on the individual skills of each and the adoption of "local benchmark practices" play an essential role. CONCLUSION: Ultra safe performance in highly variable systems cannot be achieved only through standardization but also through the possibility and ability of the subjects to adapt their practices to their own skills and to that of their colleagues. The conditions for the development of this "adaptative safety" are discussed.

[A quality evaluation tableau for health institutions: an educational tool]. / Tableau de bord d'évaluation du système qualité des pôles en établissement de santé: un outil pédagogique.

For a few years, health institutions have had to comply with the certification and the need to establish the new governance. Thanks to the accreditation version 2 (obtained in 2005), the elaboration of the hospital project (adopted in October, 2006) and the organization in poles since 2006, the quality oriented management became a priority axis at the University Hospital of Angers. The strategic adaptation to quality requirements leads to develop the hospital management, more especially at the level of the clinical, medico technical and administrative poles. The elements of the hospital project including the part about the quality, risk and evaluation aim at being adapted by every pole according to the level of its project. This adaptation which is imposed to each pole manager requires a practical and educational accompaniment allowing at the same time to realize a diagnosis of the progress of the quality approach, a measure of the impact of the global impregnation within the institution and a comparison between pole. A eight axis dashboard with criteria and a user guide were developed from certification ISO 9001, the EFQM manual and the certification manual version 2 of the Healthcare High Authorities. The criteria are transcribed in an EXCEL grid ready to use. Succeeding in estimating your own quality system means that you demonstrate the maturity of the quality approach. The results of this evaluation confirmed those of the certification. The dashboard is a management structuring tool at the service of the multidisciplinary team. Two considerations emerge from these results: First of all, for the hospital top management, the axes to be improved emerge as a priority to determine and target the next annual action plans. The results also allow to support the auto evaluation for the certification version 2010 planned in January of the same year. It is a pragmatic tool which allows auto evaluation and comparison to estimate the pole performances. It is a strategic driving tool for the hospital, for the quality department and for the pole. The pole quality system evaluation dashboard for Healthcare institutions is a simple tool which allies strategy and performance for a better efficiency of the actions to be taken to improve the quality, the risk management and the evaluation of the poles for a better service to the hospital users.