Quality improvement and patient safety organizations in anesthesiology.

Quality Improvement in Anesthesiology Anesthesiology is the medical specialty that provides anesthesia during surgery and other invasive procedures, in critical care, and in management of acute and chronic pain. Through its core expertise of keeping patients safe and comfortable during invasive or painful procedures, anesthesiology enables the activities of every surgical discipline and an increasing percentage of nonsurgical specialties as well, including complex cardiac catheter-driven procedures. Like every specialty, the practice of anesthesiology is undergoing rapid change in the Information Age, which has presented the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) with the need to create new mechanisms for continuous quality improvement. This essay explores the creation of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) in 1985, the creation of the Anesthesia Quality Institute (AQI) in 2008, and the subsequent progress that has resulted from the synergy between the two organizations.