Title Details

John W. Ludders, DVM, DipACVAA, is Professor Emeritus at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, USA.

Matthew McMillan, BVM&S, DipECVAA, MRCVS, is Principal Clinical Anaesthetist and Critical Care Co-ordinator at Queen’s Veterinary School Hospital at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Preface, ix

Acknowledgments, xi

Introduction, xiii

1 Errors: Terminology and Background, 1

Error: terminology, 1

Conclusion, 5

References, 5

2 Errors: Organizations, Individuals, and Unsafe Acts, 7

Error causation: technical factors, 7

Error causation: organizational and supervision factors, 7

Error causation: environmental factors, 12

Error causation: personnel factors, 12

Error causation: human factors, 12

Error causation: other factors, 22

Conclusion, 22

References, 22

3 Reporting and Analyzing Patient Safety Incidents, 25

The limitation in only counting errors, 25

How can we learn the most from our errors?, 26

Analyzing patient safety incidents, 36

Conclusion, 43

References, 43

4 Equipment and Technical Errors in Veterinary Anesthesia, 45

Cases, 47

Near miss vignettes, 51

Conclusion, 57

References, 58

5 Medication Errors in Veterinary Anesthesia, 59

Cases, 60

Near miss vignettes, 66

Conclusions, 69

References, 69

6 Errors of Clinical Reasoning and Decision?-making in Veterinary Anesthesia, 71

Cases, 72

Near miss vignettes, 85

Conclusion, 87

References, 87

7 Errors of Communication and Teamwork in Veterinary Anesthesia, 89

Cases, 89

Near miss vignette, 95

Conclusion, 96

References, 97

8 Error Prevention in Veterinary Anesthesia, 99

General strategies for error prevention, 100

Specific strategies for error prevention, 104

Conclusion, 119

References, 119

Appendix A. Suggested Readings, 121

Appendix B. Terminology, 123

Appendix C. ACVAA Monitoring Guidelines, 127

Appendix D. ACVAA Guidelines for Anesthesia in Horses, 131

Appendix E. A Brief History of Checklists, 133

Appendix F. FDA Anesthesia Apparatus Checkout, 135

Appendix G. Association of Veterinary Anaesthetists Anaesthetic Safety Checklist, 137

Appendix H. Critical Clinical Condition Checklists, 139

Index, 149

"This book serves as definitive reading for all faculty, residents, interns and technicians in veterinary anesthesiology...Each chapter provides excellent clinical vignettes of mistakes and inaccuracies....For anyone looking to improve their practice of veterinary medicine or formulating a system for morbidity-mortality rounds, this book is essential reading. Excellent." (Doody Enterprises 24/03/2017)

"Errors in Veterinary Anesthesia is an informative and necessary read for anyone interested in starting and managing an anesthesia service in a progressive veterinary practice or a large veterinary institution. It delves deeply into the subject and describes how errors in anesthesia are made and what can be done to prevent or correct them"....... "I was particularly engaged by the book’s introduction because it describes a management culture that, in my opinion, has been overlooked consciously or unconsciously by veterinary medicine"...... "One of the strengths of this book is the 4 chapters devoted to actual clinical scenarios in which errors were made or near misses occurred and how they were handled"..... "I think this book will also appeal and be very useful to the managers of forward-thinking general practices. Overall, I recommend this book to anyone looking to improve their anesthetic and personnel management skills" (Reviewed by Dianna Ovbey, DVM, MS, DACVAA
Southeast Veterinary Anesthesia Services, Charleston, SC 15th June 2017 AVMA)