title: Information needs for the OR and PACU electronic medical record.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The amount of clinical information that anesthesia providers encounter creates an environment for information overload and medical error. In an effort to create more efficient OR and PACU EMR viewer platforms, we aimed to better understand the intraoperative and post-anesthesia clinical information needs among anesthesia providers.
  
  
  METHODS
  A web-based survey to evaluate 75 clinical data items was created and distributed to all anesthesia providers at our institution. Participants were asked to rate the importance of each data item in helping them make routine clinical decisions in the OR and PACU settings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 107 survey responses with distribution throughout all clinical roles. 84% of the data items fell within the top 2 proportional quarters in the OR setting compared to only 65% in the PACU. Thirty of the 75 items (40%) received an absolutely necessary rating by more than half of the respondents for the OR setting as opposed to only 19 of the 75 items (25%) in the PACU. Only 1 item was rated by more than 20% of respondents as not needed in the OR compared to 20 data items (27%) in the PACU.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Anesthesia providers demonstrate a larger need for EMR data to help guide clinical decision making in the OR as compared to the PACU. When creating EMR platforms for these settings it is important to understand and include data items providers deem the most clinically useful. Minimizing the less relevant data items helps prevent information overload and reduces the risk for medical error.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine , Rochester, MN ; Multidisciplinary Epidemiology and Translation Research in Intensive Care (METRIC), Mayo Clinic College of Medicine , Rochester, MN.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Herasevich
authors.affiliation: Division of Neonatal Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine , Rochester, MN.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Ellsworth
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine , Rochester, MN.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Hebl
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine , Rochester, MN.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine , Rochester, MN ; Multidisciplinary Epidemiology and Translation Research in Intensive Care (METRIC), Mayo Clinic College of Medicine , Rochester, MN.
authors.forename: B W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Pickering
mesh_terms: D000762:Anesthesia Recovery Period; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003625:Data Collection; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000458:organization & administration*; D055991:Health Records, Personal; D008910:Minnesota; D020380:Needs Assessment; D009870:Operating Room Information Systems / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016528:Postanesthesia Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*
keywords: Anesthesia; electronic medical record; health information technology