Patient safety recommendations for out of operating room procedure sedation

Abstract

Introduction: There is an increasing and more complex demand for sedation for procedures out of the operating room. For different reasons, nowadays the administration of sedation varies considerably. We believe that a patient safety approach rather an approach out of corporate or economic interests is desirable.

Method: We created a working group of experts within the Spanish Anaesthesia and Reanimation Incident Reporting System (SENSAR) to prepare a series of recommendations through a non-systematic review. These recommendations were validated by an expert panel of 31 anaesthesiologists through two rounds of an adaptation of the Delphi Method where more than 70% agreement was required.

Results: The resulting recommendations include previous evaluation, material and staffing needs for sedation for procedures, post-sedation recommendations and activity and quality control advice.

Conclusion: We present patient centred recommendations for the safe use of sedation for out of the operating room procedures from the point of view of the professionals with the most experience in its administration. We believe that these can be used as a guide to reduce variability and increase patient safety in the organisation of healthcare.

Keywords: Adverse effects; Anaesthesia; Anestesia; Complicaciones de la sedación; Eventos adversos; Procedimientos fuera del área quirúrgica; Procedures outside the operating room; Resultados de sedación; Sedación; Sedation; Sedation complications; Sedation outcomes.