Electronic Anesthesia Records

Electronic medical records are an incredibly pragmatic and exceedingly boring topic to think about, but currently, the main operating rooms at Stanford are switching from paper charting to electronic charting, and that's got me thinking. Although the activation barrier is high (there are a dozen training classes to get every anesthesiologist at Stanford plugged in), it's likely to increase overall efficiency, accuracy, legibility, and effectiveness of documentation. I write this blog because it always seems to me that the design team of electronic medical records (EMRs) don't employ a resident, and that's who they need. Residents do the grunt work from the physician side of the hospital. We navigate the chart, put in orders, follow-up tests, look at radiology scans. But the current system is horribly inefficient; I have to sift through completely useless notes ("Please see dictated note"), load up EKGs, and search through reams of PDFs (from consent forms to insurance requisitions to outside records) to find old anesthetic charts. When I admit patients, the general order set does not include things like IV acetaminophen or insulin or electrolyte replacement scales. There's the ability to customize things, but it's not the easiest to navigate, and so I wish the design team got input from a resident to start.