Learnings From an Audit of Anesthesia Information Management System for Neurosurgery Operating Room Utilization

An anesthesia information management system (AIMS) can be used to assess operating room utilization. The aim of this study was to assess neurosurgery OR utilization patterns using an AIMS.

This retrospective audit was performed at a tertiary neurosciences university hospital over a 1-year period. The time taken for various OR activities were identified from the timestamps recorded in the AIMS and used to assess whether the type of surgical procedure, patient's American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status score, case schedule order, or surgeons' experience impacted operating room utilization.

Data from 1800 patients were available for analysis. Utilization times for various operating room activities were different based on the type of surgery, ASA grade, case order, and surgeon seniority. The main differences were found in the durations of surgery and anesthesia, and the time from the arrival of a patient into the operating room and the start of surgery, which were significantly impacted by the type of surgery, case order, and surgeon seniority ( P <0.001), but not by ASA score.

AIMS can effectively track and identify operating room utilization patterns by analyzing the durations of various operating room activities. Prospective multicenter studies are required to validate these findings in different surgical populations and centers.