Patient Safety Panel to Discuss Solutions to Eliminating Preventable Post-Operative Delirium

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Developing post-operative delirium could put you at higher risk for a longer hospital stay and even death. The latest techniques to prevent postoperative delirium will be the focus as global experts will form a distinguished panel at the upcoming World Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit in Huntington Beach, California, on January 19, 2019. The panelists participating in the upcoming Delirium Panel, which includes experts from the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) and the European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA), World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiology (WFSA) and Australian New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA).

Delirium is a condition characterized by “an acute change or fluctuation in the course of a patient’s mental status, plus inattention and either disorganized thinking or an altered level of consciousness” (Inouye et al.) and it is often mistaken for dementia or depression. Failure to acknowledge the presence of delirium in the patient can lead to an inappropriate discharge, extended hospital stays, increased readmission rates, and increased mortality rates (Greer et al., 2011). According to researchers, close to half of the estimated 2.6 million patients affected by delirium in the United States is estimated to be preventable.

The Delirium panel will discuss best practices from around the world, feature a patient who will share their experience with post-operative delirium and announce the development of a new Actionable Patient Safety Solutions on this topic.

Members of the Global Panel include:

• Moderator: Michael Ramsay, MD, FRCA, Chairman, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management, Baylor University Medical Center - Dr. Ramsay is the Director of Anesthesia for Baylor University Medical Center’s liver transplant program and has personally provided anesthesia for over 1,000 liver transplant recipients. Dr. Ramsay is Past President of the International Liver Transplantation Society, at-large delegate to the United Network for Organ Sharing and is a member of the ASA Committee on Transplant Anesthesia.
• Panelists:
  • Daniel Arnal Velasco, MD, Co-founder and Past President of the Spanish Anesthesia Incident Reporting System (SENSAR) - Dr. Arnal is an anesthesiologist at the Hospital Universitario Fundacion Alcorcon, Spain, and co-founder and past president of SENSAR. SENSAR is made up of more than 108 hospitals in Spain and Chile and has developed a national reporting tool, the first of its kind in Spain, to help create widespread learning and system improvement following critical incidents. Dr. Arnal also represents the ESA as the Chair of Patient Safety & Quality Committee.
  • Lee Fleisher, MD, Chair, ASA Perioperative Brain Health Initiative - Lee A. Fleisher, MD, is an award-winning medical professional who has authored over 300 articles, chapters and books. Dr. Fleisher has received numerous federal, industry and foundation grants related to his research, which focuses on perioperative cardiovascular risk assessment and reduction, health policy, decision making and measurement of quality of care.
  • Adrian Gelb, MD, Secretary, World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) - Dr. Gelb has served as a leader in multiple national and international Anesthesia Societies having been the President of 3 societies. In his current capacity, he works closely with National Anesthesia Societies, the World Health Organization, and industry.
  • Pratik Pandharipande, MD, MSci, Department of Anesthesiology, Division of Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine – Dr. Pandharipande’s research interests are focused on sedation in the ICU and the role of sedative medications in delirium and cognitive impairment in critically ill patients.
  • David A. Scott, MD, Director of Anaesthesia and Acute Pain Medicine at St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, Australia – Professor Scott is the Chair of the Perioperative Cognition and Delirium Professional Interest Area of the Alzheimer’s Association International. Over the last decade, his research has focused on the cognitive effects of anesthesia and surgery – particularly delirium and dementia. Professor Scott is the immediate past president of ANZCA, the college of Anesthetists in Australia and New Zealand.
  • Audrey Curtis, Patient Advocate – Audrey was admitted to St. Vincent’s Hospital for aortic valve replacement surgery after several years of cardiac symptoms. Following the surgery, she experienced several episodes of delirium on the ward postoperatively which have had a long-lasting impact on her. She is committed to helping avoid this complication for future patients.

For more information, please visit the Patient Safety Movement Foundation website. Members of the media may request a press pass or a digital media kit that will be updated throughout the Summit by emailing [email protected]

About The Patient Safety Movement Foundation

More than 200,000 people die every year in U.S. hospitals and 4.8 million worldwide in ways that could have been prevented. The Patient Safety Movement Foundation is a global non-profit which creates free tools for patients and hospitals. The Patient Safety Movement Foundation was established through the support of the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation, and Competition in Healthcare to reduce that number of preventable deaths to ZERO. Improving patient safety will require a collaborative effort from all stakeholders, including patients, healthcare providers, medical technology companies, government, employers, and private payers. The Patient Safety Movement Foundation works with all stakeholders to address the problems with actionable solutions for patient safety. The Foundation also convenes the World Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit. The Summit brings together some of the world’s best minds for thought-provoking discussions and new ideas to challenge the status quo. By presenting specific, high-impact solutions to meet patient safety challenges, called Actionable Patient Safety Solutions, encouraging medical technology companies to share the data their products are purchased for, and asking hospitals to make commitments to implement Actionable Patient Safety Solutions, the Patient Safety Movement Foundation is working toward ZERO preventable deaths. Visit www.patientsafetymovement.org.

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