Emergency Manuals: How Quality Improvement and Implementation Science Can Enable Better Perioperative Management During Crises

Abstract

How can teams manage critical events more effectively? There are commonly gaps in performance during perioperative crises, and emergency manuals are recently available tools that can improve team performance under stress, via multiple mechanisms. This article examines how the principles of implementation science and quality improvement were applied by multiple teams in the development, testing, and systematic implementations of emergency manuals in perioperative care. The core principles of implementation have relevance for future patient safety innovations perioperatively and beyond, and the concepts of emergency manuals and interprofessional teamwork are applicable for diverse fields throughout health care.

Keywords: Cognitive aid; Crisis checklist; Emergency manual; Implementation science; Improvement science; Interprofessional team; Patient safety; Quality improvement.