Vanderbilt Anesthesiololgy

Vigilance

Vanderbilt’s Vigilance technology has been highlighted on CBS Evening News and by Ivanhoe. Click on the above links to watch video clips or read the article. 

Vanderbilt’s Department of Anesthesiology is also among the 2008 winners of the Healthcare Innovation Award from the Microsoft Healthcare Users Group. The department won the award for “Best Use of Clinical Records - Inpatient.” for two connected pieces of technology - Vigilance and VPIMS.

Vanderbilt Perioperative Information Management System (VPIMS)

VPIMS was developed by the Department of Anesthesiology at Vanderbilt to bring electronic charting and data analysis to surgical patient care. The system is designed to be a complete solution providing documentation and management tools for all care providers (nurses, surgeons, anesthesiologists) throughout the entire care process from the initial preoperative visit in the surgical clinic through all phases of operative care. In addition to providing for electronic documentation and information sharing, the system was developed to support billing, quality improvement, cost containment, and clinical research efforts.

Background of VPIMS

VPIMS began development in 1995 with implementation of the Preoperative Evaluation module. The Perioperative Outcomes Module, which documents postoperative care and supports quality improvement efforts, began clinical implementation next. The anesthesiology intraoperative charting component of the Intraoperative Module, GASChart, began roll out in 1996. Recently, GasChart was implemented in an entirely electronic process, so that anesthesiology charting no longer involves paper. The patient tracking product, PatientTracker, was implemented in early 1997 and received several additions/modifications including FamilyView, Scheduler, and Report Manager, achieving its current form in early 1999. Both applications are used routinely across all OR suites.

Why use VPIMS?

Data collection and reporting

VPIMS provides dozens of useful process and data reports to a variety of institutional departments. It is but one way that the data collected by VPIMS is used to improve and increase the efficiency of patient care processes. VPIMS contains data on literally hundreds of thousands of OR cases. This data can be analyzed for the effectiveness of changes in OR policy, changes in medical protocols, outcomes analysis, and time studies. Several researchers and residents in the department have published studies, abstracts and poster presentations based on VPIMS data.

A useful tool for the Anesthesia Resident

The VPIMS web site makes the life of the anesthesia resident easier. The OR schedule, patient anesthesia evaluations, and past intraoperative reports are all available over a secure internet connection. In addition, special equipment needed for the next day (fiberoptic bronchoscopes, rapid infusers, etc.) can be reserved on-line. Resident case logs are available along with vacation schedules, call schedules, lecture schedules, and other useful information such as departmental policies, protocols and clinical pearls.