SAP BusinessObjects in Medical Informatics.

Electronic health record (EHR) generates a large amount of data filled with opportunities to enhance documentation compliance, quality improvement, and other metrics. Various software tools exist, but many clinicians are unaware of them. Our institution switched from a hybrid of paper and multiple small EHRs to one all-inclusive EHR system. We faced significant challenges beyond the typical new software deployment phase that affected our departmental regulatory compliance, quality measures, and research initiatives. We aimed to navigate these issues through the use of medical informatics. We used a multidimensional database software analysis tool called SAP BusinessObjects® (SAP SE. Released 2020. SAP BusinessObjects, Version 14.2.8.3671. Waldorf, Germany) to design automated queries for the patient database to generate various reports for our department. As a result, We improved our anesthesia documentation non-compliance from 13-17% of all cases to 4% within months. We have also used this tool to automatically generate various reports such as preoperative beta-blocker administrations, caseloads, case complications, procedure logs, and medication records. Even today many departments rely on manual checks for even the most basic documentation and quality metric compliance, which can be time consuming and costly. Using medical informatics tools is a highly efficient alternative. Fortunately, many software tools exist within most modern EHR packages, and most people can learn to use these tools productively.

Airway Management and Anesthesia for Tracheal Resection in a 68-Year-Old: 3 Airways for the Price of 1.

Subglottic tracheal stenosis can occur after prolonged intubation or tracheostomy. This stenosis can become severe and causes symptoms refractory to endoscopic interventions that require tracheal resection. This surgery presents unique anesthetic issues due to the airway anatomy, physiology, and shared airway management with the surgical team. We present the case of a 68-year-old patient who underwent cervical tracheal resection and reconstruction due to persistent symptoms despite balloon dilation and medical management with oxygen and heliox. Our anesthesia management involved several techniques that allowed the safe completion of this procedure. Firstly, we started the airway management with a combined size 4 Ambu® AuraStraight™ (Denmark) supraglottic airway device and flexible bronchoscopy to allow localization of the stenosis and dilation before endotracheal tube (ETT) placement. The conventional approach for this endoscopic evaluation phase is to use rigid bronchoscopy. Secondly, we used prior CT images to help guide our ETT tube size selection. Thirdly, we used total intravenous anesthesia during most of the procedure because of the intermittent apnea necessary to complete the tracheal resection. Lastly, extubation had to be done very carefully to minimize excessive patient neck movement and avoid any reintubation. Both could lead to a catastrophe with the newly reconstructed trachea.