Implementation of pre anesthesia assessment for emergency patients at Muhima District Hospital

Abstract

Pre anesthesia is an important component in anesthesia professional practice worldwide in general and Rwanda in particular. Therefore anesthesia administration to patients without prior anesthesia assessment can lead to life threatening side effects to patients. At Muhima District Hospital (MDH) pre anesthesia assessment for emergency patients has always been given little or no attention despite clinical implication to patients. It is in this regard that this study was conducted with objective to implement the pre anesthesia assessment for emergency patients in MDH. We used pre and post interventional study design to investigate pre anesthesia assessment practice in anesthesia department at MDH. Having analyzed the baseline data, the results revealed that the pre anesthesia assessment for emergency patients was nonexistent in other words it was not done at all. The intervention was to develop and implement a policy on pre anesthesia assessment for emergency patients and train anesthetists. The post intervention results showed that there has been a significant improvement of 67.5% from 0% of pre anesthesia assessment for emergency patients by anesthetists. On comparing pre and post intervention results, the results revealed a significant association between pre and post intervention results with a P- value of 0.000. Developing and implementing a policy on pre anesthesia assessment for emergency patients is of significant positive clinical outcome. This approach therefore can accelerate the attainment of quality health care service delivery for emergency patients at MDH.