In the Operating Room
10:30 am: An Operation is in Progress
In the operating room (OR), anesthesiologist Joseph Previte, MD, monitors his patient, assessing blood pressure, temperature, heart rate, oxygenation and other indicators that tell him how the child is responding to the anesthesia he's giving and to the operation.
He is responsible for the child's medical condition while the surgeons operate and will keep a detailed record of the child's condition at every stage of the operation. In the past this would have been a handwritten record, but today he's using a new computer system.
As the project leader for the anesthesia portion of a complex new OR management tool, Dr. Previte is testing an anesthesia documentation system that has been under development for the last year. With it, he can make his notes more quickly while producing a more complete, legible record. The less time he spends on paperwork, the more time he can focus on the patient.
As beneficial as this new tool is to anesthesiologists, what makes it more important is that it is part of a much more ambitious project. The larger goal is to link everything involved in running the OR — scheduling, supplies and equipment, patient history, nursing documentation, anesthesia documentation. And to create a free flow of information between the OR and the intensive care units, and link the OR system to clinical order entry and radiology picture archiving.
"This is a groundbreaking project," Dr. Previte says. "What we're doing has never been done to this extent. It's exciting to be involved in it from the beginning."
