Weltmeister im Schneckentempo – eine Umfrage zum Status quo der Digitalisierung in Anästhesie und Intensivmedizin

Objectives: The German healthcare system is relatively far behind in the area of digitisation compared to other European countries, although various legislative initiatives attempted to improve the framework conditions in recent years. The aim of this work is to record the degree of digitisation in the anaesthesia departments of German hospitals and practices and to elicit the attitude of anaesthesiologists to the topic of digitisation. Methodology: An email link to a structured questionnaire was sent via the distribution list of the Professional Association of German Anaesthesiologists (BDA) to all chief physicians or heads of anaesthesia departments in hospitals as well as to practice owners. Of 2,930 individuals contacted, 736 participated in the survey. Results: Many of the respondents see barriers to digitisation primarily in high costs, lack of refinancing, lack of feasibility, and poor service from software providers. Accordingly, the percentage of anaesthesiology departments and practices using digital documentation software is low. Smaller hospitals and mobile practices in particular continue to rely on paperbased documentation for the reasons mentioned above. Conclusion: The BDA is called upon to create the basic conditions for all hospitals and practices to be able to benefit from the advantages of digital applications. Not only financial support is needed, but also the realisation of standards of interoperability and software ergonomics as well as an influence on the providers to keep the costs for practicable software manageable.