Anesthetic drugs and emergency departments

Hospital emergency departments were surveyed on their use of N2O, intravenous anesthetics, and neuromuscular blocking drugs; patients monitoring during their use; and the monitoring and evaluation of the quality and appropriateness of the use of these drugs. We received 90 of the 170 surveys sent for a response rate of 53%. Sixty-three percent of the emergency departments that answered our survey administer one or more of these drugs in the emergency room. Less than two-thirds of these respondents indicated they use patient monitors while administering these drugs. The emergency department monitors and evaluates the appropriate use of these drugs in about half of the hospitals that use them, whereas the anesthesiology department is involved less than 20% of the time. Anesthesiology departments should become more involved in developing criteria for evaluating the quality of anesthesia administered by other hospital departments to help ensure that all patients receive a comparable level of anesthetic care throughout the hospital.