Anaesthetic reporting tool reveals operating room risks

An online reporting tool — webAIRS (web-based anaesthetic incident reporting system) — available to all ANZ anaesthetic departments enables frontline clinicians to report and analyse potential risks anonymously. Established in 2009 and developed by the Australian and New Zealand Tripartite Anaesthetic Data Committee (ANZTADC), the committee’s media director Dr Yasmin Endlich said webAIRS has enabled the specialty to improve patient safety by identifying patterns that can occur in rare cases.

Recent cases examined through the tool include alerting anaesthetists to look-alike drug and ampoule packaging in the operating theatre; highlighting rare-incident risks such as patients falling or slipping off the operating table; and raising alerts around respiratory risks linked to GLP-1 agonist weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy, which can delay stomach emptying before surgery.

“Each year, more than four million Australians undergo anaesthesia, and Australia is one of the safest places in the world to have an anaesthetic,” Endlich said. “This database is crucial to ensuring we maintain and enhance that safety record. It relies on the diligence of anaesthetists — specialist doctors with years of training who are on the frontline of patient care.”

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webAIRS is a collaborative project supported by the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, the Australian Society of Anaesthetists and the New Zealand Society of Anaesthetists. More information on the tool is available at www.anztadc.net.

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Image credit: iStock.com/Djordje Krstic