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Patient Safety

A Focus On Improving Safety

Complications from anesthesia have declined dramatically over the last 25 years. Since 1970, the number of anesthesiologists has more than doubled and, at the same time and at virtually the same rate, patient outcomes have improved.

In just the last decade, estimates for the number of deaths attributed to anesthesia have dropped 25-fold from 1 in 10,000 anesthetics to 1 in 250,000 today. All this has occurred during a time when the youngest of premature infants in neonatal units survives intricate, lifesaving procedures and 100-year-old patients undergo and recover from major surgeries that were once thought to be impossible.