Patient Safety Alert 5: Surgical Fires: Electrosurgical Cases (PDF)
The AMC PSO has identified a series of practices employed to address the factors that can contribute to surgical fires.
Safety STRATEGIES: Prevention
Interventions should be directed at the entire team rather than the provider wielding the electrosurgical unit (ESU).
- Each member of the team must be constantly aware of changing risks during the case (e.g., patient shifting causing tenting that creates an oxygen rich environment) and be empowered to identify and address these risks.
Library of All AMC PSO Patient Safety Alerts
For even more patient safety alert material, please review our series of AMC PSO Patient Safety Alerts to understand the variety of topics covered by our members. AMC PSO makes patient safety learnings available to the public as part of CRICO’s ongoing commitment towards improving patient safety across the continuum of care.
