Surgery and Anesthesia Preoperative “Virtual... : Applied Clinical Informatics (original) (raw)

Surgery and Anesthesia Preoperative “Virtual Huddle”: A Pilot Trial to Enhance Communication across the Drape

Nicole H. Goldhaber
Jeffery J. Reeves
Dhruv Puri
Jennifer A. Berumen
Minh Tran
Brian J. Clay
Christopher A. Longhurst
Byron Fergerson

Applied Clinical Informatics

(

)

772

778

August 2023

| DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1772687

Abstract

Objectives

Effective communication between surgeons and anesthesiologists is critical for high-quality, safe, and efficient perioperative patient care. Despite widespread implementation of surgical safety checklists and time-outs, ineffective team communication remains a leading cause of patient safety events in the operating room. To promote effective communication, we conducted a pilot trial of a “virtual huddle” between anesthesiologists and surgeons.

Methods

Attending anesthesiologists and surgeons at an academic medical center were recruited by email to participate in this feasibility trial. An electronic health record-based smartphone application was utilized to create secure group chats among trial participants the day before a surgery. Text notifications connected a surgeon/anesthesiologist pair in order to introduce colleagues, facilitate a preoperative virtual huddle, and enable open-ended, text message-based communication. A 5-point Likert scale-based survey with a free-text component was used to evaluate the utility of the virtual huddle and usability of the electronic platform.

Results

A total of 51 unique virtual huddles occurred between 16 surgeons and 12 anesthesiologists over 99 operations. All postintervention survey questions received a positive rating (range: 3.50/5.00-4.53/5.00) and the virtual huddle was considered to be easy to use (4.47/5.00), improve attending-to-attending communication (4.29/5.00), and improve patient care (4.22/5.00). There were no statistically significant differences in the ratings between surgery and anesthesia. In thematic analysis of qualitative survey results, Participants indicated the intervention was particularly useful in interdisciplinary relationship-building and reducing room turnover. The huddle was less useful for simple, routine cases or when participation was one sided.

Conclusion

A preoperative virtual huddle may be a simple and effective intervention to improve communication and teamwork in the operating room. Further study and consideration of broader implementation is warranted.