Alert workflows for adverse event trends

Purpose

1.1. Detect and alert stakeholders to unusual patterns or spikes in adverse events during anesthesia care.
1.2. Ensure clinicians receive timely notifications to enable rapid intervention and reporting compliance.
1.3. Aggregate data from EHRs, surgical logs, and monitoring devices for real-time and historical analysis.
1.4. Support regulatory and quality assurance by documenting trend detection and notifications.
1.5. Reduce manual review time and improve patient safety through automated vigilance.

Trigger Conditions

2.1. When adverse event count (by type or severity) surpasses a pre-set threshold in a defined period.
2.2. Pattern deviations—detected by comparison against rolling averages or seasonal baselines.
2.3. Specific event markers: e.g., Malignant Hyperthermia alerts, unexpected hypotension clusters, opioid overmedication instances.
2.4. Medico-legal risk keywords or regulatory reporting criteria met in event notes.
2.5. Feedback from post-op assessment surveys showing abnormal complication rates.

Platform Variants

3.1. Microsoft Power Automate
• Feature/Setting: "Monitor EHR data (Power Query); Alert via Teams message"
• Sample: Configure Scheduled Flow, connect to Azure SQL, & automate Teams chat notification on threshold breach.

3.2. AWS Lambda
• Feature/Setting: "Trigger lambda on S3 adverse event log update"
• Sample: Lambda reads CSV, compares metrics, sends alert via SNS if criteria met.

3.3. Google Cloud Functions
• Feature/Setting: "Function responds to BigQuery data anomaly"
• Sample: Scheduled query runs; triggers function to email clinicians via Gmail API.

3.4. Twilio SMS
• Feature/Setting: "Trigger SMS on adverse event trend detection"
• Sample: Webhook calls Twilio API to send instant text alerts to on-call anesthesiologists.

3.5. SendGrid
• Feature/Setting: "Send automated email alert"
• Sample: API invoked by workflow with template—receivers are risk management or QA teams.

3.6. Slack
• Feature/Setting: "Push alert to dedicated incident channel"
• Sample: Slack Bot posts message with trend details using Incoming Webhook.

3.7. PagerDuty
• Feature/Setting: "Incident trigger via Events API"
• Sample: On event spike, API generates urgent incident in on-call schedule.

3.8. ServiceNow
• Feature/Setting: "Automatic incident ticket creation"
• Sample: Use REST API to open item with event summary and required actions.

3.9. Salesforce Health Cloud
• Feature/Setting: "Task creation on new event"
• Sample: Configure Process Builder to create follow-up task on adverse event trend.

3.10. Splunk
• Feature/Setting: "Search and trigger alert from log analytics"
• Sample: Create saved search, alert action runs webhook/integrates with internal comms system.

3.11. Datadog
• Feature/Setting: "Custom monitors & anomaly detection"
• Sample: Monitor EHR ingestion pipeline, send webhook on anomalous spike.

3.12. Jira Service Management
• Feature/Setting: "Auto-create ticket for event review"
• Sample: Jira REST API receives adverse event payload and generates task for review.

3.13. Zapier
• Feature/Setting: "Multi-app integration for notification chain"
• Sample: EHR update triggers multi-step workflow—email plus Slack alert cascade.

3.14. Tableau
• Feature/Setting: "Data-driven alert rule"
• Sample: Scheduled alert from dashboard to stakeholders if metric threshold breached.

3.15. Power BI
• Feature/Setting: "Data Alert"
• Sample: Custom visuals, alert rule, notification via Teams/Outlook on out-of-range values.

3.16. Meditech Expanse
• Feature/Setting: "Clinical decision support (CDS) rules"
• Sample: Configure rules to page clinicians upon adverse event criteria matching.

3.17. Epic Systems (EHR)
• Feature/Setting: "Automated inbasket message on trend"
• Sample: EHR integrated reporting tool—triggers advisory message.

3.18. Cisco Webex
• Feature/Setting: "Bot notification to clinical groups"
• Sample: Custom bot posts critical alerts into anesthesiologist team room.

3.19. Discord
• Feature/Setting: "Incident alert to secure medical channel"
• Sample: Webhook posts with anonymized event summary.

3.20. Freshservice
• Feature/Setting: "Ticketing and workflow automation"
• Sample: API creates incident ticket, starts approval chain.

4. Benefits

4.1. Faster incident response and compliance with reporting regulations.
4.2. Reduces manual monitoring burden and human oversight risk.
4.3. Supports robust audit trails for patient safety investigations.
4.4. Enhances multidisciplinary communication and documentation consistency.
4.5. Customizable notification logic for institutional policy adaptation.