The implementation of an anesthesia information management system

Background and objective: Anaesthesia information management systems, though still not used widely, will inevitably replace handwritten records and may eventually serve as a core for the development of computerized decision support. We investigated staff expectations and the accuracy of data entry in a recently implemented commercially available anaesthesia information management system. Methods: A structured questionnaire was administered to the staff before and 1 week and 3 months after implementation in order to assess their opinion. The quality of manual data entry, and of automatic data record was evaluated by looking for missing data and the prevalence of artefacts. Results: Despite initial fears the users quickly accepted the system. Both automatic and manual data entry were found to be accurate and reliable while the prevalence of artefacts was relatively low. Conclusions: A commercially available anaesthesia information management system can be easily implemented and used instead of paper charts.