The Anaesthesia
Critical Incident Reporting System© (CIRS)


PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ENTER INCIDENT DATA AND SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE USING THE FOLLOWING FORMAT:

1. RELATION TO INCIDENT

1.1 Who is reporting ?
(select the most appropriate field)

1.2 How were you related to this incident ?:
(select the most appropriate field)

1.3 Team members
present during occurance of the incident (check all appropriate fields)
MD-Anesthetist, non-Resident Second MD-Anesthetist, non-Resident
MD-Anesthetist, Resident Second MD-Anesthetist, Resident
Anesthetic Nurse Second Anesthetic Nurse
Surgical Nurse / Technician Other Technician
MD-Surgeon, non-Resident MD-Surgeon, Resident


Experience and workload of the primary provider of anesthetic care
years practicing anaesthesia
If licensed years after licensing / certification
hours on duty without sufficient rest



2. PATIENT DATA

2.1 Sex male female

2.2 Age years

2.3 Hospitalization In-Patient Out-Patient admit day of procedure / same day admission

2.4 Type of procedure Elective case Emergency during day Emergency during night Emergency on the weekend during day

2.5 ASA status class I class II class III class IV class V

2.6 Preexisting morbidity (check all appropriate fields)
heart lung
CNS kidney
gastro-intestinal liver
multi-system disease

2.7 Conditions (check all appropriate fields)
trauma patient
multiple trauma patient
disease
pregnant patient
NPO (nothing p.o.) < 6 hours

2.8 Type of surgery
(select the most appropriate field)

select: minor intervention major intervention



3. ANAESTHESIA DATA

3.1 Anaesthesia technique
(select the most appropriate field)

3.2 Airway-management (check all appropriate fields)
mask laryngeal mask (LMA)
orotracheal intubation nasotracheal intubation
tracheostomy cricothyrotomy
jet-ventilation

3.3 Agents in use (check all appropriate fields)
Inhalational Drug iv-anesthetic drug
Opiate non-depol. musclerelaxant
Succinylcholine / Suxamethonium
other :

3.4 Regional anaesthesia
Drug application
single shot continuous repeated bolus
Vertebral column: (check all appropriate fields)
Spinal Epidural
Upper extremity: (check all appropriate fields)
Plexus block arm
Lower extremity:
Plexus block leg
Miscellaneous:
Intravenous-block (Bier) Peri-retrobulbar block
Intercostal nerve block Interpleural catheter anaesthesia

3.5 Monitoring (check all appropriate fields)

Machine:
Airway pressure alarm Oxygen-Analyzer
Expired volume alarm Nitrous Oxide (N2O)-Analyzer
Mass-Spectrometer inhal.agents

Patient:
ECG Blood pressure, non-invasive
Pulse oximetry Capnography
Blood pressure, intra-arterial Stethoscope
Peripheral nerve-stimulator Temperature, patient
Doppler, precordial Swan-Ganz PA-catheter
Transesophageal echocardiography

other,please specify:



4. INCIDENT DATA

4.1. Where did the incident happen
(select the most appropriate field)

4.2 When did the incident happen
(select the most appropriate field)

4.3 When was the problem recognized
immediate delayed

4.4 What happened

General type of event Complication Critical incident [Definition]
(Please check one. For combined incidents please report twice)


Airway event
Pulmonary event
Cardiac event
Regional anaesthesia event
Cannulation event
Equipment event
Monitoring event
Positioning event
Miscellaneous event
Communication event
(For an introduction in the topic of team performance and examples please click here)
Pharmacologic event

Drug involved:
Wrong drug ..:
Intended drug:
Interaction between drug I:
and drug II:

4.6 Please give a description of this incident in your own words (we would like you to be careful not to present data here, that could identify the patient, the team or the institution):

4.7 Which monitor led to the detection of the incident ?
Best monitor: (select the most appropriate field)
2nd best monitor: (select the most appropriate field)


4.8 What drugs did you use for the management of the incident / resuscitation ? (free text)
1. drug :
2. drug :
3. drug :


4.9 What was your clinical strategy for management ? (check all appropriate fields)
stop operation stop anaesthesia
modify operation modify anaesthesia
managed using standard protocols managed using own protocol

4.10 Please describe your management:


5. OUTCOME AND ESTIMATION

5.0 Potential Severity
(select the most appropriate field)

5.1 Outcome (if you already know)
(select the most appropriate field)

5.2 What led to the incident ? (check all appropriate fields)

Most important cause (check all appropriate fields)
personal factors

team factors

equipment

environment

administration

Second important cause, that led to the incident (check all appropriate fields)
personal factors

team factors

equipment

environment

administration

5.3 What minimized the degree of the damage ? (check all appropriate fields)
exemplary communication/coordination in the anesth. team
exemplary communication/coordination in the surgical team
exemplary communication/coordination between surgical and anesth. team
exemplary briefing exemplary debriefing
exemplary teambuilding monitoring
experience vigilance
repeated check relief of the team
experienced help/support existence of appropriate algorithms

5.4 What worsened the degree of the damage ? (check all appropriate fields)
poor communication/coordination in the anesth. team
poor communication/coordination in the surgical team
poor communication/coordination between surgical and anesth. team
poor/no briefing poor/no debriefing
poor/no teambuilding poor/no monitoring
failure to check impaired vigilance
fatigue haste
illness poor situational awareness
heavy workload poor task prioritization
lack of experience poor judgement
no relief of the team no experienced help/support
no existance of appropriate algorithms

5.5 What would you suggest for prevention of this incident ? (check all appropriate fields)
additional monitoring/equipment improved monitoring/equipment
better maintenance of existing monitoring/equipment improved arrangement of drugs
improved arrangement of monitoring/equipment better training/education
better working conditions better organization
better supervision more personnel
better communication more discipline with existing checklists
better quality assurance development of algorithms / guidelines
abandonment of old 'routine'

5.6 In your opinion:
the incident was preventable
the incident was not preventable
the incident originated from a ...
if you selected human error, please specify:



if you completed all fields, then click on


Only a joint effort of colleagues like Jan Davies (University of Calgary), Bob Helmreich (NASA, University of Texas), Mark Kaufmann (University of Basel), Bryan Sexton (Nasa, University of Texas), Brett Arron (University of Chicago) and many others ... made this system possible, thanks to everybody.
This page is under continual construction, and we welcome your feedback with respect to layout and content. Furthermore if you have any questions, suggestions or comments on CIRS please mail to:
Sven Staender


if you want to restart from scratch (you will loose all entered data!)