Perioperative and Anaesthesia
The EMR solution for surgical and anaesthesia supports clinical documentation for patients going to theatre and includes monitoring of infusions and daily tracking of theatre cases.
All clinical documentation previously completed in iPM is now entered into the EMR, allowing for a one-stop-shop for all documentation and a reduction in duplication of documentation. IPM is still used for ESIS waitlists and reporting.
The EMR was implemented in Theatres at our Sunshine, Footscray, Williamstown and Sunbury sites, and is designed to provide better access to patient information; helping with managing allergies, anaesthetist procedure to-do lists, medication processes and procedures. This has streamlined complex processes and allowed staff to provide the patient’s family and carers with the most up to date information about their loved one’s care journey.
New EMR functionality implemented in Perioperative and Anaesthesia includes Scheduling Management, Surgical Management, Surginet Anaesthesia, Perioperative Tracking and Case Selection.
Surgical Management and Scheduling Management has streamlined documentation of all surgical case details from recording personnel, codified procedure descriptors for clinical coding, and key case times required for reporting and prostheses used.
The EMR functionality includes the assignment of unique case numbers to each procedural document to allow for accurate tracking and reporting and provides automation for the major functions in the perioperative environment. It allows the booking of theatres with pre-defined documentation defaults for specific cases, and can also be used for emergency and day surgical cases.
Theatre nurses are able to personalise the EMR with the ability to have pre-populated documentation fields based on the generic preference card for the scheduled procedure. Workforce planning is further supported with the ability to customise scheduling (i.e. – if a clinician averages longer or shorter to complete a particular procedure, this timing can be saved in the system to assist scheduling and patient flow through the department).
Anaesthetic Documentation (SurgiNet Anaesthesia) including medications and IV fluids and interventions. This solution integrates to PowerChart which allows clinicians across the care spectrum to view medications, fluid balances given intraoperatively, and care given in near real-time.
This solution allows clinicians access to what was documented in theatre once the case has been finalised and supports real-time integration to the Anaesthetic Delivery Unit and associated patient monitoring. This has improved patient visibility across the department and with other teams involved, allowing for enhanced care of our patients as information is more accessible at all times.
Anaesthetists are able to review patients remotely and in real time through the EMR, and can also create Macros for documenting procedures or for their own preferences. The availability of more patient data and trends from across the hospital has also assisted with clinical decision making.
Perioperative Tracking and Case Selection has introduced tracking lists and digital tracking boards, bringing a range of information into a central source and allowing more time for clinicians to spend caring for patients and their families. This includes electronic patient charts, patient locations, requested or completed events, provider availability, real-time case events and other real-time patient and provider data, which is now available via PowerChart.
This solution further integrates the department with the other areas of the hospital by giving the wards access to a printed version of the tracking board so they will know when their patient is scheduled for theatre. This has also provided greater visibility for family members, who can view a tracking board to find out how their loved ones are progressing through the department.
EMR Mobile Apps will also be trialed in the Perioperative area, giving clinicians the capability to use hand held devices to capture perioperative clinical images and operative drawings to load directly into the patient record. For more information on EMR Mobile Apps, please see here.
* Please note: Surgical and Endoscopic Imaging will remain on ProVation, however PDF reports from ProVation will be sent to the EMR documents page.
Perioperative EMR Change Champion sessions
The Perioperative EMR Change Champion group currently meet monthly.
To view the recent session presentations and recordings please visit the password protected Presentations page of this site. If you do not already have the password for this page, please email Paul.Hampson@wh.org.au
Frequently Asked Questions
Please click here to view Perioperative and Anaesthesia Frequently Asked Questions.
Contact
For further information please contact Paul Hampson – Project Manager, Perioperative and Anaesthesia – Paul.Hampson@wh.org.au