Deploying an Anesthesiology Information System Based on Business Process Management for Cardiac Surgery.

This study aims at exploring the opportunities of Business Process Management (BPM) to design a workflow of information along the patient treatment process at the Operating Room (OR). It also includes optimization processes and supporting Information Systems (IS) development in the Anesthesia Department for Cardiac Surgery at "Hospital Arrábida" in Oporto (Hospital da Arrábida 2010). None hospital or health system today is immune from concerns regarding quality of patient care, bottom-line performance, increasing regulations, and staffing shortages. Physicians are constantly being pressured to increase efficiency while reducing costs in order to provide patient satisfaction on healthcare services. New technologies and organizing trends like voluntary practice guidelines, financial incentives, case management programs, social-technical issues, clinical restrictions have had variable success in controlling costs associated with physician's clinical decision-making (Kuhn et al. 2007). The OR is probably the most complex location in any hospital and critical care areas are more demanding with regard to costs and resources (Grover 2006). Every minute and every day decisions are taken that affect the clinical outcomes and costs of treatments. According to a Harvard study report, surgery is the fastest growing and most resource-intensive area of the hospital (Butler 2005). On average, the surgical environment accounts for more than 50% of a hospital's total budget and 95% of the costs associated with clinical decisions are taken near the patient (Grover 2006). At critical areas it is possible to automatically capture up to 80% of data from medical devices/nurse documentation from a patient (Butler 2005). It is also recognized that there is a discrepancy between the potential and the actual usage of IT in healthcare (Kuhn et al. 2007; Lenz and Manfres 2005). To cope with this challenge hospitals should be more process-oriented and business-focused (Grover 2006). The next generation of clinical IS will distribute automatically the Right Work to the Right User at the Right Time across patients and users (Eder and Haumann 2007). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]