TRAUMA QUALITY IMPROVEMENT
Utilizing Intraoperative TVR to Assess OR Preparedness for Emergent Trauma Surgery Cases
Published on
Oct 1, 2025
Journal of Surgical Research
Chase Caswell, BS; William Butak, BS; Danielle Wilson, MD; Jaclyn Gellings, MD; Anna Tatakis, MD; Amir Farah, MD; Christopher Jankowski, MD, MBOE; Ruturaj Vala, CAA, CRNA; David Milia, MD; Daniel Holena, MD
Overview
Timely initiation of emergent trauma surgery depends heavily on operating room (OR) preparedness during the transition from the emergency department, yet objective data to assess this preparedness are limited. This study used intraoperative audiovisual recordings of emergent trauma operations to evaluate variability in OR readiness prior to patient arrival. A structured data collection tool based on an institutional Trauma Anesthesia Checklist was applied to assess preparation of essential equipment and to examine whether patient hemodynamic instability influenced anesthesia team preparedness. By leveraging trauma video review, this work aimed to identify strengths and gaps in OR readiness and to explore the feasibility of video-based assessment as a quality improvement (QI) methodology.
Results
A total of 53 consecutive trauma cases recorded over an 8-week period were analyzed. The median OR setup time was 9.4 minutes (interquartile range [IQR] 4.8–16.1) and did not differ significantly between hypotensive and non-hypotensive patients (9.38 [IQR 5.21–15.14] vs 9.43 [IQR 4.70–17.58] minutes, P = 0.76). Overall preparedness for essential equipment was high across cases; however, recurrent gaps were identified in the preparation of specific items, particularly patient warming devices and video laryngoscopes. These findings highlight both consistent baseline readiness and discrete, actionable opportunities to improve OR preparation for emergent trauma surgery.
Peer-reviewed Research
