TOTBV-01: BEING PREPARED FOR TRAGIC EVENTS INVOLVING RESIDENTS: DESIGN OF A TRAGIC EVENT COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL
Robert Hayne Hollis, MD, MPH; University of Alabama at Birmingham

What problem in education is addressed by this work?:
Tragic events are fortunately rare and often unpredictable in residency training programs, such that most program directors will not have prior experience to draw from. As these events demand an urgent response and proper communication from program directors and leadership in the institutional graduate medical education (GME) office to many individuals, we developed a tragic event communication protocol to better prepare for these events.

Describe the intervention:
The tragic event communication protocol prioritizes five phases of communications separated into immediate verbal notifications, 24-hr verbal notifications, 48-hr notifications, same-day e-mail notifications, and longer-term to-do lists for program coordinators. Leadership communication is systemized into a call tree mechanism that specifies the individual responsible for communicating to each group in order to ensure rapid dissemination of critical information.

Describe how this intervention could be applied at other institutions. Please specifically comment on identified barriers that could exist and how they could be overcome:
Due to the rare frequency of tragic events involving residents, many programs and GME offices may not have effective communication strategies in place when these events occur and may unintentionally omit important parties or not transmit the message in the ideal timing. Development of a tragic event communication protocol is straightforward and can help streamline communication in a proper, effective, and compassionate manner.