Surgery and Anesthesia Preoperative "Virtual Huddle": A Pilot Trial to Enhance Communication across the Drape

Nicole H Goldhaber; J Jeffery Reeves; Dhruv Puri; Jennifer A Berumen; Minh Tran; Brian J Clay; Christopher A Longhurst; Byron Fergerson

doi:10.1055/s-0043-1772687

Surgery and Anesthesia Preoperative "Virtual Huddle": A Pilot Trial to Enhance Communication across the Drape

Appl Clin Inform. 2023 Aug;14(4):772-778. doi: 10.1055/s-0043-1772687. Epub 2023 Sep 27.

Authors

Nicole H Goldhaber¹, J Jeffery Reeves¹, Dhruv Puri², Jennifer A Berumen¹, Minh Tran³, Brian J Clay⁴, Christopher A Longhurst⁴, Byron Fergerson³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Surgery, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States.
² School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States.
³ Department of Anesthesiology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States.
⁴ Department of Medicine, Division of Biomedical Informatics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States.

PMID: 37758227
PMCID: PMC10533219 (available on 2024-09-27)
DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1772687

Abstract

Objectives: Effective communication between surgeons and anesthesiologists is critical for high-quality, safe, and efficient perioperative patient care. Despite widespread implementation of surgical safety checklists and time-outs, ineffective team communication remains a leading cause of patient safety events in the operating room. To promote effective communication, we conducted a pilot trial of a "virtual huddle" between anesthesiologists and surgeons.

Methods: Attending anesthesiologists and surgeons at an academic medical center were recruited by email to participate in this feasibility trial. An electronic health record-based smartphone application was utilized to create secure group chats among trial participants the day before a surgery. Text notifications connected a surgeon/anesthesiologist pair in order to introduce colleagues, facilitate a preoperative virtual huddle, and enable open-ended, text message-based communication. A 5-point Likert scale-based survey with a free-text component was used to evaluate the utility of the virtual huddle and usability of the electronic platform.

Results: A total of 51 unique virtual huddles occurred between 16 surgeons and 12 anesthesiologists over 99 operations. All postintervention survey questions received a positive rating (range: 3.50/5.00-4.53/5.00) and the virtual huddle was considered to be easy to use (4.47/5.00), improve attending-to-attending communication (4.29/5.00), and improve patient care (4.22/5.00). There were no statistically significant differences in the ratings between surgery and anesthesia. In thematic analysis of qualitative survey results, Participants indicated the intervention was particularly useful in interdisciplinary relationship-building and reducing room turnover. The huddle was less useful for simple, routine cases or when participation was one sided.

Conclusion: A preoperative virtual huddle may be a simple and effective intervention to improve communication and teamwork in the operating room. Further study and consideration of broader implementation is warranted.