Published: July 6, 2020

COMMITTEE REPORT: PSQI

The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement (PSQI) Committee contributed significantly to raising awareness of patient safety and quality improvement issues within the specialty and identifying products, tools, services, and processes that lead to safer care for otolaryngology-head and neck surgery patients.

The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement (PSQI) Committee contributed significantly to raising awareness of patient safety and quality improvement issues within the specialty and identifying products, tools, services, and processes that lead to safer care for otolaryngology-head and neck surgery patients.

The committee continues to help develop resources to assist our members during the COVID-19 pandemic. Work products achieved in conjunction with other committees include development of an anosmia reporting tool for providers and patients, a publication of initial findings in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, and a podcast on COVID-19 and patient safety in otolaryngology. Furthermore, in partnership with the Telehealth Committee and the Future of Otolaryngology Task Force, committee members are working to develop guidance for safe, appropriate, and high-quality conduct of telehealth visits in otolaryngology.

There are several PSQI projects that have been developed to better understand safety and quality in the practice of otolaryngology. The committee surveyed Academy members about trends in sentinel intraoperative adverse events and prevention strategies and discussed their preliminary results in the April 2020 Bulletin. Their findings will ultimately help provide otolaryngologists with benchmarks and experiences in response to major safety events.

The PSQI Committee is developing another survey to understand evaluation of practitioner competencies, specifically how the mechanisms of Ongoing and Focused Professional Practice Evaluations (OPPE and FPPE) in otolaryngology are conducted within institutions. Findings will help to establish current and best practices for practitioner competencies within the otolaryngology community.

To raise awareness of additional patient safety and quality issues, the committee has actively contributed Bulletin articles on emerging areas of quality and patient safety including safety of clinic-based laryngology procedures (published in March 2020), telemedicine (published in this issue, see page 32), scary cases and error pyramids (tentatively scheduled for the Dec/Jan 2020/21 issue), and physician burnout (tentative). These contributions have helped to communicate concepts for our membership to relate to their practices.

Along with other stakeholder committees, the PSQI Committee championed the need for a guideline on analgesia use in otolaryngology. In late 2018 the AAO-HNSF selected this topic and began planning for the development of a single-specialty Clinical Practice Guideline: Opioid Prescribing for Analgesia after Common Otolaryngology Operations. Representatives of the PSQI Committee have been involved with in-person meetings, the second of which was in February 2020.

Partnership with other subspecialty committees is a key component to bringing together the best of ideas. Tracheostomy safety is of continuing interest with this committee. In conjunction with members of the Pediatric Otolaryngology Education Committee, a review of the literature and potential guidance with regard to pediatric tracheostomy care are in the works.

PSQI has also developed and/or cosponsored the development of numerous AAO-HNSF Annual Meeting Panel Presentation submissions on topics related to patient safety and quality improvement. These submissions cover the following topics for the 2020 Annual Meeting: scary cases, assessing your clinical practice using quality improvement, enhanced recovery after surgery, opioid sparing strategies, surgical competency, physician burnout and wellness, and vaping and emerging public health threats in otolaryngology. Seven PSQI Committee-sponsored Panel Presentations and three cosponsored Panel Presentations with other AAO-HNSF committees have been accepted for the AAO-HNSF 2020 Annual Meeting & OTO Experience.

In recognition of the accomplishments and passion of committee members, the PSQI Committee received a 2020 Committee of Excellence Award. The PSQI Committee remains at the forefront of developing and promoting guidance that optimizes quality of care and safety for our members and their patients.

More from July 2020 – Vol. 39, No. 6
Francis
Presidential Citations 2020
The Presidential Citations are given to individuals who have had a profound influence on the AAO-HNS/F President’s life and otolaryngology. President Duane J. Taylor, MD, has selected these individuals for their outstanding contributions.
Esophagitis
Eosinophilic Esophagitis: Implications for the Otolaryngologist
Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is a clinicopathological disorder characterized by eosinophil predominant inflammation of the esophagus (>15 eosinophils/hpf) and esophageal dysfunction. The prevalence in children in the United States is 10-50/100,000 and EoE has become increasingly recognized in children and adults over the past two decades.
OREBM
Out of Committee: Outcomes Research Evidence-Based Medicine Committee
Management decisions around tracheostomy have been at the forefront of international dialogue in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this Bulletin segment, our committee shares highlights from key developments in this space, with detailed analysis of the largest implementation to date of a prospective multidisciplinary tracheostomy team approach. We provide concise summaries of salient findings from current studies that may inform high-stakes decision making and surgical practice in otolaryngology.
Telemedicine
Out of Committee
With the goal of reducing disease exposure and transmission, telemedicine became an immediate necessity in 2020 due to COVID-19. This enormous and rapid leap forward in the utilization of telemedicine technology also provides an opportunity to address other challenges that physician practices face. As such, it is important to understand the many rapidly changing logistical, legal, regulatory, and financial implications as early as possible.
CancerImmunotherapy
From the Education Committees: Cancer Immunotherapy Update
Immunotherapy has the capability of restoring a patient’s own anti-tumor immunity as a means to target cancer. The emergence of checkpoint inhibitors in recent years has promoted immunotherapy as a major breakthrough in cancer therapy. Checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized treatment of advanced head and neck cancer (HNC), known to have a poor prognosis and low survival rate.
CCS
AAO-HNS Clinical Practice Guidelines and Clinical Consensus Statements Focused on Quality Improvement
With the goal of improving quality of care in otolaryngology, the AAO-HNSF has continued to develop guidance documents, in the form of Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) and Clinical Consensus Statements (CCSs), on a range of topics prioritized by the Guideline Task Force (GTF).
RegentStructure
What’s New with Reg-ent
As announced in May, and published in the June Bulletin, page 32, the AAO-HNSF has formed a partnership with OM1, a real-world outcomes and technology company. This partnership will connect Reg-ent to OM1’s real-world data and evidence platforms, thereby enhancing the value that the data repository will bring to our members.
Core
Core Grants Program Spotlights: Update
Download PDF
Cheng
Core Grants Program Spotlights: “An Academic Career Born and Bred in CORE”
Congratulations to the 2020 CORE Grantees!
Researchquality
Research and Quality
The American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Research and Quality Business Unit goal is to develop products and services to meet the needs of our members, their staff, and their patients in support of the overarching organizational vision to be the global leader in optimizing quality ear, nose, and throat patient care.
Nussenbaum
Complex Pediatric Otolaryngology Update from the American Board of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery
The American Board of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (ABOHNS) wants to provide an update about the progress toward subcertification in Complex Pediatric Otolaryngology (CPO). This effort started in 1992 with approval of subcertification by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), followed by accreditation of fellowship training programs in pediatric otolaryngology by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).
InOffice1
Transition to In-office Treatments: Head and Neck
Advances in technology have propelled the field of in-office diagnostics and minimally invasive surgery and allowed for transition to in-office treatment in head and neck surgery. This decreases lost time from work and costs for patients and allows for more speedy diagnosis and recovery from procedures.
AHNS
American Head & Neck Society
The American Head & Neck Society (AHNS) is a vibrant society committed to being patient centric, collaborative, innovative, ethical, value based, and global. To maximize member engagement, AHNS restructured to have sufficient organizational capacity in achieving their mission (as displayed in the graphic). So what are the challenges and opportunities in practice and patient care?
SRFFeature1
Resident Spotlight: Arvind K. Badhey, MD, PGY5, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai in New York City
I started my chief rotation at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, NY, with three coresidents. Soon after, news vans, agency nurses, and patients swarmed to the aptly labeled “epicenter of the epicenter,” COVID-19’s new New York City home. In contrast to our ER colleagues, we had a choice of whether to wait for ENT to be called upon or to volunteer.
HumanitarianGrant
Kijabe, Kenya Humanitarian Surgical Trip
International medical volunteer work has been a passion of mine since my wife and I first traveled to Quito, Ecuador, in 2007 to volunteer at a local children’s hospital and rural adult hospital. We subsequently spent eight months in Mbarara, Uganda, setting up the first children’s hospital in the region, Holy Innocents Children’s Hospital. I returned to Uganda with Chad A. Zender, MD, for a week-long surgical oncology mission trip to Kampala in October 2017.
OTOSource
At The Forefront
Introducing AcademyU’s new self-assessment module: Otolaryngology Patient Scenarios. Explore patient scenarios, such as Patient with Two Months of Hoarseness and Patient with Dizziness and Hyperacusis. Finish the course and evaluation to earn 1.0 CME/MOC credit for each topic. Stay tuned for more courses.
Financial Wellness
Financial Wellness
Physician wellness has taken the stage as a national issue, and rightly so. A recent Medscape survey revealed a 36% burnout rate among otolaryngologists. In response to similarly alarming numbers across medical disciplines, specialty societies have responded with wellness initiatives, the largest push nationally coming from the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) action collaborative on clinician wellness and resilience.
Denneny
Bringing Together the World of Otolaryngology Virtually
The AAO-HNS Board of Directors, after considerable thought and discussion, moved the in-person AAO-HNSF 2020 Annual Meeting & OTO Experience in Boston to one of a virtual experience due to safety concerns and unavailability of the facilities to hold the meeting.
Duane J. Taylor, AAO-HNS/F President
A Time for Leadership
The American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) realizes that our country is currently in the midst of a crisis and potentially at a crossroads. The recent current events have placed a spotlight on the racial injustice in our country and made us all question why we as a nation have tolerated the disregard for a human life solely based on our differences.