Time-motion analysis of anesthetists during CABG reveals that 10-15% of time is spent on manual record-keeping, highlighting the potential utility of automated monitoring systems.
May justify automated record-keeping to increase observation time in CABG anesthesia; leaves open impact on vigilance and outcomes.
A comprehensive task analysis of the anesthetist's activities during coronary-artery bypass procedures was carried out using time-lapse cinematography. This film was analyzed frame by frame to detect types of activities and the proportion of time spent on each. Link analysis was used to reveal recurring sequences of activities. Of the 9 activity categories, the anesthetist spends the greatest portion of time observing the patient and scanning the entire operative and monitoring field. Ten to 15% of the time is spent logging data on the anesthetic record. The challenge for the anesthetist is to optimize his performance, and those under his direction, in the face of the changing workload resulting from variations in patients' conditions. Use of an automated monitoring system that charts patient vital signs would allow the anesthetist to apportion this time among other tasks.
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Kennedy et al. (1976) studied this question.
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