2008 ASA Recommendations for Pre-Anesthesia Checkout

In 1993, a pre-anesthesia checkout recommendation was developed and widely accepted to be an important component of safe anesthesia practice. Since that time, new anesthesia delivery systems have been developed that require new checkout procedures. Further, new equipment designs are so different that a single checkout procedure is no longer applicable to them all. Updated recommendations have been developed over the last few years by a multi-disciplinary sub-committee of the ASA Committee on Equipment and Facilities including representatives of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, American Academy of Anesthesiologist Assistants, and American Society of Anesthesia Technicians and Technologists. All of these professional organizations have also endorsed the final recommendations. The checkout design guideline is also supported as educational information by the Office of Device Evaluation, Food and Drug Administration.

The updated recommendations are intended to serve as general guidelines for individual departments and practitioners to design pre-anesthesia checkout procedures specific for the delivery systems and the needs of the local practice. A number of checkout procedures are also available that have been developed by individual departments using the design guideline and are tailored to specific anesthesia delivery systems. These sample checkout procedures are intended to serve as examples for other departments using similar equipment and facilitate developing their own checkout procedures. Both the general Recommendations and sample checkout procedures are available here for viewing and download by selecting the link below.

2008 Pre-Anesthesia Checkout Design Guidelines (View/Download)

Sample Pre-Anesthesia Checkout Procedures