Automatic anesthesia record keeping

Historically a tremendous amount of paper has been used for medical records. Much of this has been in the form of charts recorded in the operating room, recovery room, and critical care units. Originally for operating room records, of course, only the heart rate was recorded; later blood pressure was added. Today, a large number of data from many different sources must be recorded. At a presentation of their "Epic" system, John Stein of Marquette Medical mentioned one hospital with an intensive care unit flow sheet made of eight pages of 8.5 by 11-inch (22- by 28-cm) sheets attached together. This flow sheet had to be folded up like a road map. This part of the symposium has concentrated on the anesthetic record. This summary will present several of the issues for discussion in regard to the papers of Drs Gravenstein, Ream, Gibbs, and Peters.