How an AIMS Streamlines Post-Operative Workflows

Jacob Krygier, Clinical Application Specialist, IMDsoft
Published: Oct 30, 2024

This article explores how an anesthesia information management system (AIMS) can help streamline anesthesia workflows in the post-operative stage.

Providing more efficient post-operative care in the PACU

The post-operative anesthesia period begins once surgery is complete, regardless of whether the patient remains sedated post-surgery. In the post-operative stage, patients require careful monitoring and precise management, which can be challenging without the right tools. An anesthesia information management system streamlines critical post-operative workflows, helping smooth the transition of care from the OR to the recovery room, or post anesthesia care unit (PACU), and ensuring all needed information is available to support patient recovery.

Workflow issues in the PACU include:

Inefficient patient monitoring and data recording: Manual entering of data about patient vitals and recovery progress can lead to errors, delays in critical interventions, and incomplete records.

Solution: An anesthesia information management system automates the collection and recording of patient vitals and recovery data, integrating seamlessly with other hospital systems. This ensures up-to-date, accurate documentation and allows healthcare providers to access comprehensive patient records quickly. Automated notifications can alert clinicians to critical changes in vital signs or other patient data, prompting timely interventions.

Insufficient pain management: Post-surgical pain is a significant concern, yet under-treatment is a common issue. Factors like unclear communication of pain levels or inadequate staff training on pain management protocols can contribute to this.

Solution: Pain assessment tools integrated with the AIMS can prompt PACU nurses to regularly document patient pain levels. Order sets within the system can streamline the process of ordering and administering pain medication based on standardized protocols.

Communication gaps: Effective communication and coordination between nurses, doctors, and patients is essential for a smooth recovery. As part of this, it is vital that the patient’s record be transferred from the OR to the PACU, but this transition is not always smooth. Miscommunication or delayed information sharing can result in unnecessary or redundant actions by caregivers, and delayed responses to patient needs.

Solution: The AIMS serves as a central location for documenting patient care plans, discharge instructions, and follow-up information, ensuring everyone involved has access to the latest updates. Improved communication is further facilitated through messaging and note taking/leaving abilities within the system. Standardized protocols and integrated messaging features within the AIMS ensure that all team members are on the same page, reducing the risk of miscommunication and improving the efficiency of post-operative care.

Medication reconciliation: Ensuring patients take the correct medications after surgery is crucial to avoid complications. However, discrepancies between pre-operative medications and post-operative prescriptions can occur, leading to medication errors.

Solution: The pre-operative, intra-operative, and post-operative medication records are typically integrated in the anesthesia information management system. The system can support reconciliation of medications and issue alerts about discrepancies or potential interactions between pre-operative medications and new prescriptions post-surgery. This reduces the risk of human error and ensures that all relevant information is accessible to healthcare providers at every stage.

Discharge delays: Patients often wait longer than necessary to be discharged due to incomplete paperwork, lack of clear discharge instructions, or delays in coordinating follow-up care. Beyond frustrating patients and their families, this also ties up valuable PACU beds that could be released sooner for incoming patients.

Solution: Electronic discharge checklists within the AIMS streamline the process and ensure all necessary steps are completed. The AIMS can also automate tasks like generating discharge summaries and sending prescriptions electronically to pharmacies.

MetaVision Anesthesia streamlines workflows in the post anesthesia care unit, enabling clinicians to:

• Access patients’ entire anesthesia records
• Review and validate medication orders
• See a single view displaying pain scores and medications, so clinicians can correlate them, simplifying pain management
• Create and view reports automatically populated with patient information, enabling streamlined patient discharge decisions

Key takeaways

• An anesthesia information management system (AIMS) automates data recording, ensuring accurate and updated documentation during the post-operative stage.
• Integrated pain assessment tools and standardized protocols within an AIMS help streamline post-surgical pain management, reducing under-treatment risks.
• An AIMS improves communication and coordination among clinical teams by centralizing patient care plans and discharge instructions, reducing the risk of miscommunication and reducing discharge delays.
• An AIMS can support medication reconciliation and automated discharge processes, ensuring safe medication management.

Conclusion

Effective post-operative care is crucial for ensuring patient recovery and minimizing complications after surgery. An Anesthesia Information Management System (AIMS) streamlines workflows in this stage of perioperative care by automating the recording of patient data, supporting standardized pain management protocols, enhancing communication among the clinical team, and removing bottlenecks during the discharge process. By centralizing patient data from the pre-operative and intra-operative stages, AIMS improves continuity of care, reducing the risk of errors, and improving post-operative care efficiency.

FAQs

• How does an anesthesia information management system reduce the risk of medication errors in the post-operative stage?

  An AIMS integrates and reconciles pre-operative, intra-operative, and post-operative medication records, automatically flagging discrepancies and potential interactions. This helps healthcare providers ensure that patients receive the correct medications post-surgery, reducing the risk of errors.

• How does an AIMS improve pain management in the post anesthesia care unit?

  An AIMS enhances pain management in the PACU by integrating pain assessment tools that prompt regular documentation of pain levels. It also streamlines the process of ordering and administering pain medications through standardized protocols, to ensure patients receive timely and appropriate pain relief.

REFERENCES

1. Streamlining Pre-Op Anesthesia Workflows to Boost Efficiency & Safety

2. Improving Intra-Op Workflows with an Anesthesia Info Management System

3. MetaVision Anesthesia

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