An Anesthesia Information Management System (AIMS) is an information technology (IT) system that is used as electronic anesthesia record keeper and allows the collection and analysis of anesthesia-related perioperative data gathered from patient monitors and/or anesthesia machine. These systems typically run on medical-grade hardware in the operating room. AIMS can be stand-alone systems or integrated modules of a clinical information system (CIS). A recent study showed that in the US, AIMS have become increasingly installed in US academic anesthesia departments since 2007 [1].
[edit] Benefits
AIMS have several benefits to the anesthesia departments as well to the hospital administration as documented in the scientific literature:
- Reducing Anesthesia-Related Drug Costs[2]
- Increased anesthesia billing and capture of anesthesia-related charges[3]
- Increased hospital reimbursement through improved hospital coding[4][5]
- Improvement of the data quality of the intraoperative anesthesia record[6][7]
- Support training and education of the anesthesia workforce[8]
- Support of clinical decision-making[9]
- Support of patient care and safety[10]
- Enhancement of clinical studies[11]
- Enhancement of clinical quality improvement programs[12]
- Support of clinical risk management[13]
- Monitoring for diversion of controlled substances[14]
[edit] References
- ^ Egger-Halbeis CB, Epstein R, Macario A, Pearl RG, Grunwald Z: “Motivations for and barriers to anesthesia departments to adopt Anesthesia Information Management Systems (AIMS) in the US”. Anesth Analg. 2008 Oct;107(4):1323-9.
- ^ Gillerman RG, Browning RA. Drug use inefficiency: a hidden source of wasted health care dollars. Anesth Analg 2000;91:921–4.
- ^ Reich DL, Kahn RA, Wax D, et al. Development of a module for point-of-care charge capture and submission using an anesthesia information management system. Anesthesiology 2006;105:179–83.
- ^ Martin J, Ederle D, Milewski P [CompuRecord: a perioperative information management system for anesthesia]. Anasthesiol Intensivmed Notfallmed Schmerzther 2002;37:488–91.
- ^ Meyer-Jark T, Reissmann H, Schuster M, et al. [Realisation of material costs in anaesthesia: alternatives to the reimbursement via diagnosis-related groups]. Anaesthesist 2007;56(4):364–5.
- ^ Cook RI, McDonald JS, Nunziata E. Differences between handwritten and automatic blood pressure records. Anesthesiology 1989;71:385–90.
- ^ Devitt JH, Rapanos T, Kurrek M, et al. The anesthetic record: accuracy and completeness. Can J Anaesth 1999;46:122–8.
- ^ Edsall DW. Computerization of anesthesia information management: users’ perspective. J Clin Monit 1991;7:351–8.
- ^ Merry AF, Webster CS, Mathew DJ. A new, safety-oriented, integrated drug administration and automated anesthesia record system. Anesth Analg 2001;93: 385–90.
- ^ O’Reilly M, Talsma A, VanRiper S, et al. An anesthesia information system designed to provide physician-specific feedback improves timely administration of prophylactic antibiotics. Anesth Analg 2006;103:908–12.
- ^ Hollenberg JP, Pirraglia PA, et al. Computerized data collection in the operating room during coronary artery bypass surgery: a comparison to the hand-written anesthesia record. J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth 1997;11: 545–51.
- ^ Rohrig R, Junger A, Hartmann B, et al. The incidence and prediction of automatically detected intraoperative cardiovascular events in noncardiac surgery. Anesth Analg 2004;98:569–77.
- ^ Feldman JM. Do anesthesia information systems increase malpractice exposure? Results of a survey. Anesth Analg 2004;99:840–3.
- ^ Epstein RH, Gratch DM, Grunwald Z. Development of a scheduled drug diversion surveillance system based on an analysis of atypical drug transactions. Anesth Analg 2007;105:1053–60.
