Learning Objectives:

1. Describe role functions of anesthesia team members.

2. Identify four significant complications of anesthesia care.

The dynamic nature of rapidly moving anesthesia and surgical events, patient variability, and a broad spectrum of medications, techniques and monitoring create an environment with complex challenges for case analysis. Case review may focus on whether anesthesia providers anticipated difficulty at the time of assessment and planning. However, potential for unexpected events is always present, leaving anesthesia providers in a reactive position. The speaker will discuss how factors such as economic production pressure and patients with increasingly complex health issues bring increased risk to the table. The Anesthesia Care Team (usually Anesthesiologist and CRNA) is the most common model of care, requiring that responsibility for decision-making and actions be delineated. Learn about the inherent risks associated with anesthesia care. Ms. Dlugose will sort out these complicated strands from case documents, including the often-cryptic anesthesia record, which requires careful analysis.