Preinduction activities: a closed malpractice claims perspective

The American Association of Nurse Anesthetists Foundation conducts an ongoing study of closed malpractice claims that involve nurse anesthetists. A team of 8 CRNA researchers has to date investigated 223 closed claim files from the St Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company. Research findings have demonstrated that failure to provide appropriate anesthesia care relative to the Scope and Standards for Nurse Anesthesia Practice was significantly associated with adverse anesthetic outcomes. Claims that involved inadequate preinduction activities (n = 22) were analyzed in the context of their compliance with published standards of care. The largest group of claims in this analysis (59%) involved damaging respiratory events, 28% entailed damaging cardiovascular events, and the principal issue in 13% of these claims involved failure to seek available information such as laboratory studies on the medical record. The most prevalent occurrence with damaging respiratory events was undocumented airway assessment in 27% of the claims. In 55% of these claims, the medical history was not completely documented. The surgical procedure categories were general surgical (32%), obstetrical (27%), otolaryngogical (23%), orthopedic (14%), and gynecologic (5%). The involved standards of care are reviewed, and recommendations are made regarding consistent completion of preinduction activities.