Using Informatics to Improve the Care of Patients Susceptible to Malignant Hyperthermia.

Perioperative nurses and nurse leaders should understand how to apply a nursing informatics framework and informatics concepts to strengthen data interpretation, transitions in care, and engagement with patients susceptible to malignant hyperthermia (MH) and their family members. Patient outcomes can be improved when informatics solutions facilitate identifying risks, clinical decision making in a crisis situation, retrieving priority information during transitions of care, and involving patients in planning care. Incorporating informatics solutions into existing quality improvement processes can help evaluate knowledge and preparedness related to managing care for a patient in an MH crisis. Informatics solutions can also help enhance interoperability by evaluating workflow related to transitions in care. Perioperative nurses and nurse leaders should advocate for diligence in submitting reports of MH-suspected events to databases. Improved data collection and data sharing enhance aggregated standardized data sets, which can advance research and increase the quality of evidence available with which to guide practice.