This report originally appeared in the October 2010 issue of DOTmed Business News

Anesthesia experts believe that anesthesia today is nearly 50 times safer than it was back in the 1980s. Various studies support this belief, detailing advancements in monitoring equipment, anesthesia machines and injection devices. Regardless of the equipment updates, one constant still emerges to present serious challenges — the inconsistency of the human reaction to anesthesia.

The fact that people of the same age, weight and health can have significantly different reactions to anesthesia keeps research and development teams busy. And while advancements in production of more effective anesthetic drugs, stricter standards and guidelines for anesthesia practice and patient safety; and increased education requirements are all ongoing, the big topic currently getting the most attention is what’s happening with the implementation of Anesthesia Information Management Systems in clinics and hospitals.
“There are a number of areas in anesthesia delivery that are being highlighted and those would include the ability to monitor and determine levels of anesthesia appropriately. In the U.S., a lot of talk has to do with the communication of the data out of the system to centralized recordkeeping,” says Bruce Dammann, director of global strategic marketing for anesthesia delivery and ventilation for Spacelabs Healthcare. “The government has put a big emphasis on going electronic and a lot of hospitals have started down that path, but anesthesia seems to be the last bastion of paper records.”

AIMS will be critical in making the transition and are intended to create a robust medical record. They can also help the anesthesia care provider monitor and track a patient’s vitals during surgery along with other perioperative data as the bedside components of the system are interfaced directly with anesthesia machines and patient monitors.

“The problem is, that even as systems become much more electronic and automated, a large percentage of the customer base seem more interested in maintaining the standard way of delivering anesthesia with numeric controls and the look and feel they have grown up with and known throughout their careers,” Dammann says.

In this case, sticking to tradition can cause problems. Missed revenue opportunities can occur when handwritten records are illegible or when records are incomplete and pharmaceutical and supply charges can be missed if a case unexpectedly becomes complex.

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