Your Attention Please: Personal Electronic Device Use in the O.R.

The O.R. is a complex interactive environment with intricate inter-moving parts, composed of a patient, surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurses as well as electrical and non-electrical equipment. Within this environment, it is commonplace to find the use of smartphones and other personal electronic devices (PEDs). Smartphones confer a variety of clinical benefits that enable the efficient and efficacious care of patients. However, smartphones may also distract from patient care by their use for non-clinical purposes such as personal texting and visiting social media sites. In addition, this non-clinical activity on PEDs and computers is easily tracked by the devices’ documentation of the activity through metadata. This data, while beneficial for enhancing our browsing experience and enriching commercial interests, can also be used in legal proceedings to imply that a clinician was distracted during a critical event.¹  Our role as anesthesiologist is to be vigilant in the care of our patient...