Improving emergency airway cart efficiency in compliance with Joint Commission standards

Emergency Airway Carts (EAC) are essential for pediatric otolaryngologists to provide rapid bedside care for emergent airway scenarios. At many institutions, EAC bronchoscopy equipment is individually peal-packaged due to Joint Commission (JC) standards, creating significant inefficiency in equipmen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of pediatric otorhinolaryngology 2022-07, Vol.158, p.111161-111161, Article 111161
Main Authors: Heller, Margaret, Worobetz, Noah, Grischkan, Jonathan, Lind, Meredith, Jatana, Kris R., Hamersley, Erin R.S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Airway cart
Airway equipment
Airway management
Bronchoscope
Emergency
Joint Commission
Pediatric airway
Quality improvement
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Summary:Emergency Airway Carts (EAC) are essential for pediatric otolaryngologists to provide rapid bedside care for emergent airway scenarios. At many institutions, EAC bronchoscopy equipment is individually peal-packaged due to Joint Commission (JC) standards, creating significant inefficiency in equipment assembly during time sensitive clinical settings. The objective of this quality improvement initiative was to improve the efficiency of use of our emergency airway cart equipment. Individually peel-packaged bronchoscope equipment was replaced with JC compliant sets. Otolaryngology trainees (N = 8) and pediatric otolaryngology attending physicians (N = 11) were tested in a simulated airway emergency scenario, requiring bronchoscope assembly. Complete bronchoscope assembly and time to tracheal visualization (TTV) was measured for each participant, which started with initial clinical scenario presentation and ended with successful visualization of the trachea using the rigid bronchoscope. Pre-airway cart interventions, 68.4% of participants built a complete bronchoscope with no missing pieces, which improved to 100% with the new cart organization. Post-EAC interventions, all 19 participants reduced TTV significantly by a mean of 177.7 s (p 
ISSN:0165-5876
1872-8464
DOI:10.1016/j.ijporl.2022.111161