Table 2:
Patient and Case Characteristics
| SA Error Claims N (% of 198) | Other Claims N (% of 68) | P | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 108 (55%) | 42 (62%) | 0.300 | |
| Adult | 189 (95%) | 66 (97%) | 0.735 | |
| Age in yrs: mean [SD] | 50 [18] | 56 [17] | 0.023 | |
| Obese (n=214) | 89 (54%) | 23 (47%) | 0.389 | |
| ASA Physical Status 3–5 (n=264) | 125 (64%) | 50 (74%) | 0.143 | |
| Emergency (n=263) | 45 (23%) | 14 (21%) | 0.783 | |
| Outpatient (n=260) | 59 (31%) | 12 (18%) | 0.045 | |
| Primary Anesthetic | 0.053 | |||
| General Anesthesia | 143 (72%) | 57 (84%) | ||
| Monitored Anesthesia Care | 46 (23%) | 7 (10%) | ||
| Regional Anesthesia | 9 (5%) | 4 (6%) | ||
| Most Common Damaging Events* | <0.01 | |||
| Respiratory Events | 111 (56%) | 14 (21%) | ||
| Inadequate oxygenation/ventilation | 48 (24%) | 2 (3%) | ||
| Difficult intubation | 21 (11%) | 4 (6%) | ||
| Pulmonary aspiration | 20 (10%) | 6 (9%) | ||
| Cardiovascular events | 53 (27%) | 32 (47%) | ||
| Hemorrhage | 19 (10%) | 8 (12%) | ||
| Myocardial infarction | 0 (0%) | 4 (3%) | ||
| Pulmonary embolus | 0 (0%) | 4 (6%) | ||
| Payment made (n=265) | 169 (85%) | 31 (46%) | <0.001 | |
| Median payment | $567,450 | $387,000 | 0.163 | |
| Interquartile range | $263,250-$1,096,500 | $191,400-$937,500 | ||
Payments made on behalf of the anesthesiologist and/or anesthesia corporation or group adjusted to 2015 dollar amounts. Claims with missing information were excluded. Claims with no anesthesia or anesthesia corporation payment excluded from median/interquartile range. p-values by chi square test, Fisher’s exact test (adult, primary anesthetic), t-test (age), and Mann Whitney U-test (payment amount) with Monte Carlo estimates are based on 10,000 randomly sampled tables. SA =situational awareness; SD = standard deviation; ASA = American Society of Anesthesiologists
*
Other primary damaging events shown in Figure 3.