Can anesthesia information management systems improve quality in the surgical suite?
OBJECTIVE
To summarize developments related to the use of anesthesia information management systems (AIMS) and quality assurance and quality improvement.


RESULTS
A real challenge for AIMS is that the technology is too often seen as a solution. The reality is that the technology is simply a tool, which is increasingly being installed by hospitals to give anesthesiologists better capabilities for managing quality assurance programs, developing guidelines, facilitating computerized decision support, and standardizing care in the surgical suite so that every patient receives optimal care. Anesthesia groups will likely have to assign a dedicated biomedical team and programmer to fully realize the clinical and business benefits of AIMS.


CONCLUSIONS
Implementation of information technologies in anesthesia as well as in all aspects of healthcare redesigns how patients receive care. AIMS accurately measure, store, query, and recall vital sign data, and enable the systematic analysis of anesthesia-related perioperative data. Using AIMS, quality management programs will be able to study more incidents and analyze them more quickly. Ideally, decision-support systems with practice guidelines delivered via AIMS should help overcome the usual barriers to guideline adherence, and improve care and safety.
Balust
Jaume
J
Department of Anesthesia, Hospital Clinic Barcelona, Spain. jbalust@clinic.ub.es
Macario
Alex
A
D000776:Anesthesiology; D003658:Decision Making, Computer-Assisted; D006801:Humans; D019451:Information Management; D009870:Operating Room Information Systems; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000592:standards*