The Anesthesia Incident Reporting System (AIRS) is a reporting tool that began online and is now available as a consolidated app for mobile platforms.
Who Can Report: Any anesthesia provider
What to Report: Any unintended event or near-miss related to anesthesia or pain management with the significant potential for patient harm. Some examples are:
- Drug shortage
- Unusual reaction to anesthetic medication
- Unusual manifestatino of patient disease/surgery
- Challenging diagnostic situation
- Novel or unexpected system failure
All AIRS reports are maintained in strict confidence (and firewall isolation) on the AQI server. Legal protection is conferred by AQI’s standing as a Patient Safety Organization (PSO). Federal law protects any "patient safety work product" generated by an accredited PSO from legal discovery and in fact imposes strict guidelines on the way in which the PSO must preserve the confidentiality of its work.
Per these regulations, the AQI may NEVER reveal the identity of any patient, provider, facility or practice gathered through AIRS.
AIRS data is abstracted by a committee of physicians who help publish interesting cases which appear each month in the ASA Newsletter. The AIRS Committee will also periodically examine the entirety of AIRS for emerging trends in anesthesia patent safety.