How tired is your anaesthetist?
Use of a fatigue risk prediction tool in medical roster analysis
Fatigue is a critical safety issue within anaesthesia that has potentially catastrophic consequences for patients and staff. Fatigue risk management policies are widespread in other safety critical industries, such as aviation, but uncommon within healthcare. This study, published in June 2022 in the BJA, led by Dr Matt Roche, demonstrated feasibility for use of a fatigue risk assessment tool (FAID Quantum® version 1.0; InterDynamics, Brisbane, QLD, Australia) to a cohort of 122 UK anaesthetic trainee rosters. The tool makes use of a large real-world data set to produce an algorithm that makes predictions of sleep and wake patterns, and in turn, predictions of future alertness, with outcomes expressed as a ‘FAID score’. FAID Quantum software was applied to anaesthetic rosters across three acute hospital NHS Trusts.
65.8% of night shifts worked had a peak FAID score >80, indicating a period of potentially unsafe working during that shift. The study concluded that Fatigue risk assessment tools may offer a novel opportunity to support formalisation of policy, prospective interrogation of rosters and audit fatigue risk.