Tag: health care worker safety

Cardiac Arrest In The OR

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Cardiac arrest in the OR is challenging both to recognize as well as to treat. You must be able to work the causal diagnosis in the face of some potentially complex anesthetic, surgical and comorbid combinations. At the same time you must perform a resuscitation, often in the face of ongoing surgery. Getting prepared for rare events is often more challenging than preparing for regular events. When a rare event happens the shock and fear induced by the event can erase protocol from the most prepared mind. This article shares learnings from my years of experience attending to emergency resuscitations and management of cardiac arrests in the OR. Read More …

Protect Yourself From Infection In The Workplace

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There are several animal and avian viruses that show the potential of becoming easily transmissible to humans. MERS, H7N9 and H5N1 are already spreading in humans, although not easily. The last major jump from animal to human occurred with the 1918 flu pandemic where an estimated 40 million people died. Mortality from MERS is currently 330-40% in the Middle East and 10% in South Korea. As health care workers, how we approach infectious disease precautions will have a lot to do with how safe we and our patients are in the workplace. Read More …

Embrace the Catastrophist Within: Protecting Ourselves From Respiratory Infection

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A good anesthesiologist, or any health care provider, has to embrace the catastrophist within because our goal is to protect our patients from the unexpected. We have to constantly imagine the worst-case scenario so that if, or when, it happens we not only recognize it early, we’re ready for it. What we’re often not good at is protecting ourselves at work. We tend to be so patient focused that we often don’t even think about personal hazards. This article discusses some of the risks we face during airway management of the infectious patient. Read More …