Patient Safety in Anesthesia

Anesthesia is a medical field that has consistently demonstrated improvements in patient safety and can serve as a model for the rest of healthcare. Technological innovations, careful attention to retrospective analysis, instilling a culture of identifying errors, and valuing continuous learning are fundamental tenets of this field. In doing so, anesthesia continues to evolve with dramatic improvements in practice patterns emerging year by year. Despite the dramatic reduction in patient safety incidents, much can still be done to improve anesthesia delivery safety. One such area proving challenging to improve upon is human errors in anesthesia delivery, such as inadvertent drug administration. Another area needing improvement is balancing the needs of surgeons, surgical sites, patient expectations, chronic disease, and financial costs. This chapter reviews the history of establishing a safety culture in anesthesia and incidents demonstrating the need for continuous improvement in anesthesia delivery while analyzing the challenges associated with advancing patient safety.