Keywords
Anesthesia; Medical errors; Patient handoff; Music; Operating rooms
Abstract
Background: Transfers of care between healthcare providers are a focus of recent patient safety efforts. Anesthesia providers often transfer care in noisy operating rooms where music or other noise is present during the handover. This study aimed to determine if presence of background music during an intraoperative handoff between anesthesia providers affected quality of handoff and subsequent recall.
Methods: Anesthesia providers including staff anesthesiologists, anesthesia residents, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA), and Certified Anesthesia Assistants (C-AA) were recruited to participate in this prospective randomized comparative trial. Anesthesia providers (N=19) were randomized into one of two study groups: presence or absence of background music during transfer of care. Experimental and control groups received verbal handoff in their respective sound environments. After five minutes the study participants were given a data collection form and asked to recall as much information from the transfer of care as possible.
Results: Nineteen anesthesia providers participated in the investigation. Initial descriptive analysis showed that the total scores for the control group (no music) had a lower average score based on the correct answers (18.89 vs. 24.1 out of 44) but smaller standard deviation (3.9 vs. 5.8) compared to the experimental group (music on) (CI 95%, P=0.037).
Conclusion: The presence of background music playing in a simulated operating room did not impair the ability of the anesthesia providers to recall information from a transfer of care from another anesthesia provider.
Citation
Stroud J, Chen Y, Kohn CE, Pond GC, Sharaf PH, Perrault JT, et al. Brief Report: Background Music Does Not Diminish Recall of Information during Handoffs between Anesthesia Providers. SM J Anesth. 2017; 3(2): 1014.