Breaking Through the Economic Barriers of Anesthesia Information Management Systems

Anesthesia information management systems (AIMS) are being increasingly used to assist the delivery and documentation of anesthesia services in the United States. The major benefits of AIMS cited in the literature are the ability to (1) reduce costs, (2) facilitate quality assurance and quality improvement processes, (3) increase the accuracy and completeness of the anesthesia record, and (4) improve adherence to recommended guidelines. The major drawback, especially for rural hospitals, is the cost. This article identifies 2 of the main elements of AIMS that exist in information technology and data systems already present in a hospital. In this project, the medication dispensing system was used to achieve a 70% reduction in drug costs, and a simple electronic database was created, which detected adverse events that were missed with the legacy quality assurance system. There was no additional cost to the hospital to realize these benefits because this project utilized technologies and data systems already in place and staff time was part of the normal workload. This project showed that it is possible to achieve 2 of the major benefits of an AIMS without the major cost of purchasing one.