To improve patient safety, hospitals must proactively identify potential medical errors and eliminate mistakes before they happen. This is especially true in the operating room, where proper anesthesia documentation helps reduce medication errors and decrease hospital liability.

1. Ensure Patient Safety and Reduce Risk With Anesthesia Documentation:
To improve patient safety, hospitals must proactively identify potential medical errors and
eliminate mistakes before they happen.
This is especially true in the operating room, where proper anesthesia documentation helps
reduce medication errors and decrease hospital liability.
Fast, accurate documentation throughout the patient’s case results in a complete and legally
sound electronic medical record. Clinicians can share details of the patient’s history
and current condition as the case progresses – improving patient care. Documentation of
medication reconciliation provides regulatory compliance.
Proper anesthesia documentation helps prevent errors from occurring by ensuring that correct
procedures are followed.
When considering automated anesthesia documentation, healthcare organizations should keep
these 7 points in mind:
1. Make sure the solution cross-checks for adverse drug events.
2. Leverage a solution with formulary reference for allergies and medication.
3. Ensure the solution provides an automated capture feature for physiological data.
4. Remember that solutions should complement, not replace, the clinician’s expertise.
5. Ensure pre-anesthesia evaluations are included as part of patient history documentation.
6. Find a solution with templates for common procedures to speed the documentation process.
7. Look for a solution that includes prophylactic antibiotic alerts to promote timely
administration of medication.
Armed with the latest technology, anesthesiologists and operating room healthcare
professionals can focus less on documentation and more on delivering the highest-quality
patient care during procedures.
For additional information on how automated anesthesia documentation can enable healthcare
providers to enhance patient safety and reduce risk, visit:
http://www.mckesson.com/en_us/McKesson.com/For%2BHealthcare
%2BProviders/Hospitals/Surgical%2BSolutions/McKesson%2BAnesthesia%2BCare.html