SURGICAL INFORMATICS IS A USEFUL MANAGEMENT TOOL

BACKGROUND: Management of surgery in the largest health care system in the country depends upon readily available and valid data. Use of an administrative data base had not fulfilled these requirements, An info rmation program based upon the computerized operating room log and sch eduling program presented a possible remedy, METHODS: Data elements pr eviously appearing in the computerized operating room log were expande d to include outcomes. Reports essential to the surgical management of VA surgery were developed through an advisory panel. Necessary change s were added to the surgical computer program and computers installed in each operating room throughout the system. RESULTS: The work load i nformation to manage a surgical service was determined to include the total number of operations performed, both major and minor, and a desc ription of the patient population including the American Society of An esthesiologists (ASA) classification, The breakdown into the individua l surgical specialties, information regarding index operations, extent of resident supervision, and incidence of postoperative occurrences c ompleted the required information. CONCLUSIONS: The information provid ed by this report is an example of the importance of the use of surgic al informatics in the management of VA surgery. The ability to obtain valid information for analysis and dissemination is a direct result of the computer-generated information taken directly from the surgical l og of each of the 126 VA Medical Centers. (C) 1997 by Excerpta Medica, Inc.