Anesthesia Patient Safety Podcast
The official podcast of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) is hosted by Alli Bechtel, MD, featuring the latest information and news in perioperative and anesthesia patient safety. The APSF podcast is intended for anesthesiologists, anesthetists, clinicians and other professionals with an interest in anesthesiology, and patient safety advocates around the world.
The Anesthesia Patient Safety Podcast delivers the best of the APSF Newsletter and website directly to you, so you can listen on the go! This includes some of the most important COVID-19 information on airway management, ventilators, personal protective equipment (PPE), drug information, and elective surgery recommendations.
Don't forget to check out APSF.org for the show notes that accompany each episode, and email us at podcast@APSF.org with your suggestions for future episodes. Visit us at APSF.org/podcast and at @APSForg on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Anesthesia Patient Safety Podcast
#271 Empowering Patients: The Key to Safer Anesthesia
Patient engagement stands as the cornerstone of perioperative safety, bringing together the knowledge of medical professionals with the lived experiences of those receiving care. Through powerful personal testimonies and expert insights, we explore how this critical partnership transforms surgical outcomes.
Vonda Vaden Bates shares her heartbreaking journey that began with her husband's successful brain surgery but ended tragically with a fatal pulmonary embolism. Despite their active engagement with the healthcare team, a crucial knowledge gap existed - they didn't recognize the symptoms of a developing blood clot. This experience crystalized what Vonda calls "the intersection of engagement with education," highlighting why simply asking questions isn't enough when patients don't know which questions are most crucial.
The episode explores the comprehensive Patient Guide to Anesthesia and Surgery developed by the APSF, covering everything from understanding anesthesia types to post-surgical pain management strategies. This resource aims not just to inform but to empower patients to actively participate in their care journey, potentially taking preventative steps long before the morning of surgery.
Dr. Della Lin, an anesthesiologist and APSF board member, offers a profound perspective that reshapes how we think about the patient-provider relationship: "Patients are not the visitors to hospitals; we are visitors in their lives." This fundamental shift moves healthcare away from doing things to or for patients toward genuinely co-designing care with them. The APSF resources undergo rigorous review by both clinicians and patients, ensuring they address real questions using accessible language and helpful visuals. We encourage anesthesia professionals to not only share these materials but to study them as tools for better understanding patient perspectives. Have you incorporated these resources into your practice? Share your story at podcast@apsf.org and help us continue building bridges between medical expertise and patient experience.
For show notes & transcript, visit our episode page at apsf.org: https://www.apsf.org/podcast/271-empowering-patients-the-key-to-safer-anesthesia/
© 2025, The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation
You're listening to the Anesthesia Patient Safety Podcast, the official podcast of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation. We're bringing you the very best from the APSF newsletter and website, as well as the latest information in perioperative patient safety. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome back to the Anesthesia Patient Safety Podcast. My name is Allie Bechtel and I'm your host. Thank you for joining us for another show. We are continuing to cover the excellent articles from the June 2025 APSF newsletter. This week we are continuing our theme from last week the role of patient engagement in patient safety. We have even more exclusive content. We'll be hearing from the patient representative on the APSF patient engagement work group and more, so stay tuned.
Speaker 2:Before we dive further into the episode today, we'd like to recognize BD, a major corporate supporter of APSF. Bd has generously provided unrestricted support to further our vision that no one shall be harmed by anesthesia care. Thank you, bd. We wouldn't be able to do all that we do without you. Wouldn't be able to do all that we do without you. Our featured article today is once again Patient Engagement the Cornerstone of Patient Safety, by Maria Van Pelt and colleagues. To follow along with us, head over to apsforg and click on the newsletter heading. The first one down is the current newsletter. Then scroll down until you get to our featured article today, and I will include the link in the show notes as well. To kick off the show today, let's meet our patient representative. Here she is now.
Speaker 3:Hi, my name is Vonda Vaden-Bates. I'm a patient advocate in the Patient engagement work group for the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation. I'm based out of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Speaker 2:I asked Vonda why she feels so passionate about this area. Let's take a listen to what she had to say.
Speaker 3:In 2012, my husband went into the hospital quite unexpectedly for an insidious brain bleed required a craniotomy, and the surgical team very, very promptly addressed that issue as he was recovering in the hospital for 13 days and moving through his rehabilitation.
Speaker 3:For 13 days, and moving through his rehabilitation, he developed a blood clot in his leg, and we didn't understand that the symptoms that he was experiencing and describing were related to that fatal pulmonary embolism that would take his life.
Speaker 3:What I did is I reflected back on that time and I realized that we were very engaged in his care and we asked all the questions we knew to ask, and the practitioners were attentive and kind, and so I had to ask what might be missing here, and part of what was missing was the intersection of engagement with education, and that's what I feel like this committee is working towards. We're interested in hearing from patients about what questions they have when they're approaching surgeries, especially related to anesthesia, but we're also interested in helping raise awareness and encouraging those questions and finding ways to create articles and landing pages that are informative in real time for patients, so that they're both going in with. The questions that patients have identified are important, as well as questions that the providers know to be important and bringing these two pieces into the equation, my hope is that it will benefit the entire efforts of the care team, of the care systems and the patients and their family members toward a very safe environment and hopefully avoid some of the complications that can be lasting.
Speaker 2:Thank you to Vonda for discussing her passion for patient engagement and patient safety. Let's return to the article to talk about the patient guide to anesthesia and surgery. Check out table one in the article for the content overview. If you haven't seen the patient guide yet, this is what you will find.
Speaker 2:The first category is understanding anesthesia, with these important questions how safe is anesthesia? Common fears and concerns, what are the types of anesthesia? What drugs are used in anesthesia? The next category is pre-surgery considerations, with these questions no-transcript. Another category is risk assessment, and questions from patients include what are risk factors for surgery? Moving down the table. The next category is post-surgery pain, with the questions will I feel pain after surgery and how do I speed up healing after surgery? And how do I speed up healing after surgery?
Speaker 2:A big area for questions and patient engagement is pain management, which includes these questions what are the types of pain? What should I know about pain management? How can I manage pain without medications? What non-opioid medications are used in pain management, what opioids are used in pain management and what are the risks of using opioid medications? Finally, there are some additional important questions that patients can use during their preoperative visits Questions to ask your anesthesia professional and questions to ask your surgeon. This guide is designed to provide more than just information to patients. The ultimate goal is to encourage patients to be active participants in their healthcare journey throughout the perioperative period. There may even be steps that they can take before the morning of surgery to help minimize perioperative risk and complications. This is a big step towards patient empowerment and patient safety. We are going to hear from the patient representative again. I also asked Fonda what she envisions for the future when it comes to patient engagement and patient safety.
Speaker 3:This is what she had to say 13 years has given me a lot of time to look at progress, and there has been quite a bit of progress over time since I first started paying attention to patient safety in 2012. That there can be real-time engagement with the patients and the care teams that create just the right information to make sure that there's informed consent along the way by the patient, as well as all the information provided that would give those caregivers what they need to be safe on behalf of that patient, what they need to be safe on behalf of that patient. And providing that real-time information that's based on real inputs that have been given by patients and reviewed diligently from professional anesthesiologists as well as other care providers, gives me hope that every surgery can be looked at through the lens of that particular patient in that particular environment at that particular time, and that we are drawing on what we know from the generalizations and we are also meeting the patient exactly where that patient is with the technologies that we have available to us at this time.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much to Vonda for contributing to the show today and sharing your story. We are looking forward to the future with incorporating available technology and real-time patient engagement to provide safe and quality patient care. There is another member of the APSF family and the Patient Engagement Working Group that we are going to hear from today. Thank you to Della Lynn for helping to contribute to the show.
Speaker 4:Thank you, allie. I'm Della Lynn. I'm a practicing anesthesiologist in Honolulu, hawaii, and on the board of APSF.
Speaker 2:I asked Della how she first got interested in patient safety and patient engagement. Let's take a listen to what she had to say.
Speaker 4:It was about 20 years ago. I was in a room with many others wanting to make a difference in patient safety, listening to Don Berwick. What he said, and I'm going to paraphrase, was during healthcare touch points between hospitals and patients, between clinicians and patients, patients are not the visitors to hospitals, we are visitors in their lives. Wow, this flipped my frame. It made sense. It's not just about treating patients, it's about stepping into their lives. So, whether it's a project to fill a gap in patient education materials like this work to fill a gap in patient education materials like this work or if it's the patient I will be anesthetizing tomorrow, patient engagement is a fundamental principle for me and the frame of being a guest in our patients' lives.
Speaker 2:I also asked Ella to share how patient engagement became a focus for the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation and how these resources can be used by anesthesia professionals, members of the surgery team and anyone on the perioperative team. Here is her response.
Speaker 4:Three years ago, the APSF board made a specific strategic decision to increase our focus on patient engagement. For me, this means we are on a continuous path to co-design with our patients. It is no longer the paternalistic mindset of doing things to patients. It's not even the stewardship service goal of doing things for our patients. It's really and truly about co-designing with our patients. So, wherever we can, every day, we need to seek the voice of the patient. We need to pause before we implement a policy or procedure. Has there been a patient voice? Have we really listened? Have we really listened? What can the listener do?
Speaker 4:What's likely not intuitive about these APSF patient engagement resources is how they are a resource for us, the anesthesia professional, the surgeon professional, any clinician in this space.
Speaker 4:Usually, you know, we see resources, glance briefly at them, make sure there's no misinformation and then we make them available to our patients through URL links, brochures, videos. What our clinician listeners should take advantage of is how there has been a really distinct, robust, continuous process of utilizing data analytics and other things to find out the why of utilizing data analytics and other things. To find out the why, the how, the what that patients need, the problems they are trying to solve and where they currently are going to try to meet that need. Our materials continuously go through layers of both clinician and patient review, as well as assessing accessibility and understanding. So what this can mean to you, the listener, is we have done a lot of the homework for you the language we use, the frame of the responses, the infographics that we have created. Take advantage, go beyond just sharing with your patients. Take the time yourselves to look to read, to adopt these dynamic resources for yourselves. The more we can reach, understand and meet patients where they are, the better.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, jodella, for contributing to the show today. This is such an important call to action. The APSF's Patient Guide to Anesthesia and Surgery is not just for patients, and we hope that you will use this resource to better meet your patients where they are. And we'd love to hear from you Are you using this resource in your preoperative clinic, or have you shared the patient guide with your anesthesia department or surgery and nursing colleagues? What was the response? Send us an email at podcast at apsforg to share your story of patient engagement and you might be featured on an upcoming podcast episode. If you have any questions or comments from today's show, please email us at podcast at APSForg. Please keep in mind that the information in this show is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or legal advice. We hope that you will visit APSForg for detailed information and check out the show notes for links to all the topics we discussed today.
Speaker 2:Have you checked out the other APSF patient safety resource initiatives? Head over to APSForg and click on the patient safety resources heading. The first one down right above this podcast is initiatives. From here you can check out the following Lookalike drug vials, continuous blood pressure monitoring. Surgical fires a preventable problem, workplace violence prevention, drug-drug interactions and the COVID perioperative resource center. So many great initiatives to help improve anesthesia patient safety. Until next time, stay vigilant so that no one shall be harmed by anesthesia care.