Anesthesia practice in the emergency department: overview, with a focus on airway management

To review the need for interdisciplinary collaboration to reduce human and system-related errors in the emergency care setting.

The complexities of airway management are immense and though great strides have been made to improve patient safety, patient injury continues. Airway management is being provided by several specialties who claim responsibility and expertise, sometimes at the exclusion of other specialties. Collaboration among specialties is needed to foster a healthy working relationship as synergism of each department's aptitude and talents may contribute to patient safety. To collaborate effectively with the goal of developing an executable action plan, we must first understand the underlying causation of errors based on human and system-related failures inherent in the medical system. A proactive approach to address these deficiencies is imperative towards improving nearly any aspect of patient care; however, this review will focus specifically on airway management issues in the emergency department.

The implications of collaboration are sweeping; not only for optimizing patient care but leading to a 'win-win' situation for medical personnel by improving relationships to better address global needs and optimize the opportunities for collaboration, which is particularly true for urgent/emergent airway management.