Vital Times 2020 - 61

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

Anesthesia Information Management
Systems (AIMS) - Epic vs. Cerner
Ellen Wang, MD, William Feaster, MD, and James Xie, MD

I

f you are working in a hospital environment,
chances are your Electronic Medical Record
(EMR) vendor is either Epic (29%) or Cerner
(26%), as these two vendors control 55% of the
EMR national market.1 Both of these vendors offer
integrated solutions that span across ambulatory,
inpatient, and perioperative settings. It is likely that if
you are using an Anesthesia Information Management
System (AIMS), it is provided by your EMR vendor.
Hospitals are unlikely to decide on which EMR vendor
to adopt based on which AIMS the anesthesiologists
prefer, so don't count on having much influence on an
EMR decision. On the other hand, small hospitals or
surgery centers who cannot afford an enterprise-scale
EMR such as Epic or Cerner, can adopt a solution
preferred by the anesthesia team. The choices and
features of these independent solutions will not be
covered in this article. However, implementations of
AIMS often have these key features:
1.	 Improved intraoperative documentation
ease and accuracy
2.	 Increased anesthesia-related charges
and services
3.	 Ability to meet regulatory and
compliance requirements

1

4.	 Clinical decision support for quality and
process improvements
5.	 OR management
6.	 Analytics and reporting
It is informative to compare Epic and Cerner's
anesthesia solutions as these two systems both
provide a view into the value of an AIMS system
to the practice of anesthesia. If you want more
information on this topic than we cover here, there are
several academic and informational articles for your
reference.2,3,4,5

Epic vs. Cerner - Who Would Win.
You Be the Judge
Many non-academic facilities are not using an
enterprise EMR system that includes an anesthesia
information management system (AIMS). However,
the trend in healthcare facilities partnering with
larger networks has led to further proliferation of
EMR systems. How will adoption and use of the
two major EMR systems, Cerner and Epic, affect
anesthesiologists?

https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/innovation/epic-dominates-emr-market-share-wars-cerner-loses-ground

2 Ehrenfeld JM, Rehman MA. Anesthesia information management systems: a review of functionality and installation considerations. J Clin Monit Comput. 2011;25(1):71-9.

(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3387486/)
B; Feaster, W; Macario, A; Ehrenfeld, J: Anesthesia Information Management Systems: Past, Present, and Future of Anesthesia Records. Mount Sinai Journal of
Medicine 79(1): 154-165, 2012.
4 Muravchick S, Caldwell JE, Epstein RH, Galati M, Levy WJ, O'Reilly M, Plagenhoef JS, Rehman M, Reich DL, Vigoda MM. Anesthesia Information Management System
Implementation: A Practical Guide. Anesth Analg 2008 Nov;107(5):1598-608.
5 Gálvez JA, Rothman BS, Doyle CA, Morgan S, Simpao AF, Rehman MA. A Narrative Review of Meaningful Use and Anesthesia Information Management Systems. Anesth
Analg. 2015 Sep;121(3):693-706.
3 Kadry,

Annual Publication 2020

| 61


https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/innovation/epic-dominates-emr-market-share-wars-cerner-loses-ground https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3387486/

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