Trends in the Prevalence of Intraoperative Adverse Events at 2 Academic Hospitals After Implementation of a Mandatory Reporting System.

BACKGROUND: Anesthesia information management systems (AIMSs) have been effectively used to improve quality in anesthesia care, and have enabled the development of mandatory quality assurance (QA) reporting systems for adverse events (AEs). While this approach has been shown to increase event reporting over time, the long-term effect of such a system on quality is unknown. We investigated the trends in AE reporting over time after implementing AIMS-based mandatory reporting systems at 2 academic medical centers. METHODS: At Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, AEs were retrieved after implementation of a mandatory QA process in 2013. These AEs were categorized as preventable and unpreventable. The rates of overall preventable and unpreventable AEs were analyzed over time. At Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the rates of AEs were analyzed after establishing a mandatory QA process in 2002. Data were binned by quarter, and trends over time were analyzed using the Mann-Kendall test. RESULTS: At Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, over a period of 2 years after implementation of a mandatory QA process, the documented AE rate decreased from 1.23% to 0.64% (P

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