Perioperative Workflow and Patient Care Documentation Perpetuated through Electronic Medical Records via Integrated Hospital Information Systems

This study examines electronic medical records (EMRs) applied within the hospital environment to monitor, measure, and improve perioperative workflow and patient care documentation. This paper identifies how dynamic technological activities of analysis, evaluation, and synthesis, applied to internal and external organizational data, can highlight complex relationships within integrated hospital processes to target opportunity for improvement and ultimately yield improved capabilities. The identification of existing limitations, potential capabilities, and the subsequent contextual understanding of perioperative workflow events coupled to EMRs for documentation are contributing factors that yield opportunities for measured perioperative improvement. Based on a 134-month longitudinal study of a 1,046 registered-bed academic medical center, this case study investigates EMRs impact through integrated information systems’ to improve perioperative workflow efficiency, patient care documentation, , and tightened process to hospital information systems coupling. The theoretical and practical implications and study limitations are also discussed with respect to practitioners and researchers alike.