DIFFICULT AIRWAY ALERT WORKING GROUP – SWAPNet

It has been a successful two year effort for the Difficult Airway Alert Working Group. Our goal has been to improve early recognition of patients with difficult airways, by all health clinicians.

Queensland’s Difficult Airway Alert (DAA), a collaborative effort facilitated by SWAPNet, was published on the internet and in October 2018.

https://clinicalexcellence.qld.gov.au/priority-areas/clinician-engagement/statewide-clinical-networks/anaesthesia-and-perioperative-1

Since then, over 200 Difficult Airway Alert Forms and Alerts have been uploaded to Queensland’s electronic health platforms. 

The clinical utility of this system being the coded difficult airway alert being present in the patients banner bar – analogous to a drug allergy alert, and the standardised forms for clinical documentation.

The Airway Alert Form permits documentation of the clinical findings of the patient, and the Clinical Support Document defines a difficult airway and its elements and suggests when an alert is required.

Our process has been adopted by private hospitals in Queensland, and by some interstate hospitals.

As a longer term goal, we have commenced negotiating with MyHealthRecord to incorporate the DAA into this national digital health record as an alert and an event summary.