IN THE NEWS
Initiation of FOCUS4/25/2008
The SCA Foundation is pleased to announce initiation of the FOCUS project and is asking for cardiac anesthesia programs that would like to participate.
This project, Flawless Operative Cardiovascular Unified Systems, is a national research program to improve the safety of our patients undergoing cardiac surgery. John Nance, the lead FOCUS speaker at the 2007 SCA Annual Meeting, noted that “although individuals may make mistakes, it is possible for teams to be flawless”. The FOCUS research project was conceived with the goal to change patient care and to substantially decrease the incidence and severity of human error in the cardiac operating room through a scientific analysis leading to culture change. Following definition of the goal of the FOCUS initiative, a Request for Proposals was developed and 60 institutions submitted proposals. Through an extensive review and site visit process, the FOCUS Steering Committee has selected Dr. Peter Pronovost and his team at Johns Hopkins University to perform the research.
FOCUS Research Stages
The FOCUS project will be accomplished in three steps. The first step of the FOCUS project – the one we are seeking sites for now - is 1) observation of cardiac procedures at 3-5 cardiac anesthesia sites. These sites will be selected for analysis using tools and techniques developed by Peter Pronovost and his team. From the observational studies, preliminary recommendations for interventions will be created. These interventions will be 2) tested a beta sites to determine the effect they have on human error. The tools and interventions will be further refined and then 3) offered to all SCA member institutions.
The FOCUS project is intended to be a comprehensive study of the cardiovascular environment, including anesthesiologists, surgeons, perfusionists and nurses. Dr. Thor Sundt, cardiac surgeon from Mayo, and the chair of the STS Work Group on Patient Safety, has joined the FOCUS Steering Committee, and Robert Groom, chief perfusionists at Maine Medical Center, will represent perfusionists. We have not yet identified a cardiac OR nurse to join the study, so if you have suggestions, please send them along to the Committee.
Volunteer to Participate as a FOCUS Site
At this point we are soliciting cardiac anesthesia groups to participate as observational or beta sites. A site survey form is attached to this email. If you are interested in having your institution be one of the observational or best test sites, please complete the form and return it before May 5. All responses will be tabulated and reviewed by the Site Selection Committee, chaired by Gary Roach. The sites chosen for the observation will be announced at the Annual Meeting, June 18-24. Sites that are not chosen as observational sites will be automatically considered to be beta sties. Nota bene: if you filled out a response card at the last Annual Meeting, please also fill out the survey sheet attached. You are on the list, but we need additional information about your program.