Significant anesthetic emergencies in oral and maxillofacial surgery offices are rare events. However, emergencies do occur, and being prepared is key for mitigating the impact of these events. Today’s guest is a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon, Dr. David Salomon. He is on staff at Yale-New Haven Hospital, where he also serves as faculty for the Yale Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Residency Training Program. In today’s episode, Dr. Salomon shares how he stays prepared for emergency situations using what he calls ‘monthly familiarity drills’, quarterly emergency simulations, and implementing a 911 protocol, as well as making sure that his staff has clearly defined roles should an emergency occur. This episode is full of practical advice for keeping your office emergency-ready, so make sure to tune in today!

Key Points From This Episode:

• How often the State of Connecticut requires that anesthesia certifications are renewed.
• What those renewals entail versus the initial certification; an evaluation of supplies and emergency scenarios.
• Learn about what Dr. Salomon calls a familiarity drill, which his staff does on a monthly basis. 
• How regularly you should be simulating anesthesia emergency scenarios with your staff.
• The importance of having a 911 protocol in your office and involving your front desk.
• Why your front desk personnel should use a landline rather than a mobile phone to call 911.
• Why your staff needs to know what emergency equipment looks like, where it is, and what their individual roles are.
• You can create useful tools like laminated emergency cheat sheets; education is key!
• The importance of documenting everything in an emergency to avoid legal action.

Tweetables:

“We’ve actually created a schedule where, now, we’re at the point where we do a monthly what’s called a ‘familiarity drill’ and, at quarterly, we do actual emergency scenarios.” — Dr. David Salomon [0:07:54]

“A front desk individual will be the one on the phone [with 911] because, if you take an assistant away to be on the phone, I think you’re taking away potential useful hands.” — Dr. David Salomon [0:18:06]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Dr. David Salomon on LinkedIn