title: Video capture of clinical care to enhance patient safety.
abstract: Experience from other domains suggests that videotaping and analyzing actual clinical care can provide valuable insights for enhancing patient safety through improvements in the process of care. Methods are described for the videotaping and analysis of clinical care using a high quality portable multi-angle digital video system that enables simultaneous capture of vital signs and time code synchronization of all data streams. An observer can conduct clinician performance assessment (such as workload measurements or behavioral task analysis) either in real time (during videotaping) or while viewing previously recorded videotapes. Supplemental data are synchronized with the video record and stored electronically in a hierarchical database. The video records are transferred to DVD, resulting in a small, cheap, and accessible archive. A number of technical and logistical issues are discussed, including consent of patients and clinicians, maintaining subject privacy and confidentiality, and data security. Using anesthesiology as a test environment, over 270 clinical cases (872 hours) have been successfully videotaped and processed using the system.
authors.affiliation: Anesthesia Ergonomics Research Laboratory of the San Diego Center for Patient Safety, Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, and the Department of Anesthesiology, University of California, San Diego, USA. mweinger@ucsd.edu
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Weinger
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Gonzales
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Slagle
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Syeed
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D017751:Safety Management / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D014481:United States; D014741:Video Recording