The Anesthesia Preparedeness Clinic (APC) triage score tool: an integrated electronic health record tool for improving resource allocation for preoperative care clinics.

Minhthy N Meineke, Alice Chien, Sophie W Mawdsley, Megan Meyer, Brian H Park, Elizabeth Kim, Rodney A Gabriel

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Article in Journal of clinical monitoring and computing, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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7 authors.

Minhthy N MeinekeDivision of Perioperative Informatics, Department of Anesthesiology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.

Alice ChienSchool of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.

Sophie W MawdsleyDepartment of Anesthesiology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.

Megan MeyerDepartment of Anesthesiology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.

Brian H ParkDivision of Perioperative Informatics, Department of Anesthesiology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.

Elizabeth KimDepartment of Anesthesiology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.

Rodney A GabrielDivision of Perioperative Informatics, Department of Anesthesiology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. ragabriel@health.ucsd.edu.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Pre-anesthesia clinics have been associated with improved patient outcomes, but with the rising surgical volume, there is a need to improve allocation of preoperative evaluations. We developed the Anesthesia Preparedeness Clinic (APC) Triage Score tool that was integrated into the electronic health record system and calculated a score based on preoperative factors. It was used to allocate preoperative evaluations for patients to either in-person, telehealth, or nursing phone screens. A retrospective cohort analysis was performed compare how resources were allocated prior to and after implementation (Pre-APC and Post-APC, respectively). There were a total of 9,986 and 10,487 surgical patients included in the analysis in the Pre-APC and Post-APC cohorts, respectively. The correlation coefficient between the triage score and American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status (ASA PS) score based on Spearmen test was 0.59 (P < 0.001). The median (quartiles) APC Triage Score in patients who were ASA PS 1 was 0 (0, 1.5), ASA PS 2 was 3.0 (1.0, 6.0), ASA PS 3 was 9.5 (4.5, 17.0) and ASA PS 4 was 21.0 (11.5, 29.5). Patients that received an in-person visit tended to have higher APC Triage Scores in the Post-APC versus Pre-APC cohort with a median (quartiles) score of 17.0 (12.0, 25.5) versus 10.0 (6.0, 19.5), respectively (P < 0.001). Patients that received a telehealth visit tended to have higher APC Triage Scores in the Post-APC versus Pre-APC cohort with a median (quartiles) score of 8.0 (5.0, 13.5) versus 7.0 (3.5, 13.0), respectively (P < 0.001). Finally, patients that received a phone visit tended to have a lower APC Triage Score in the Post-APC versus Pre-APC cohorts with a median (quartiles) score of 3.0 (1.0, 7.0) versus 4.0 (1.0, 8.5), respectively (P < 0.001). Our study demonstrated that implementation of the tool was associated with improved preoperative allocations.

Indexed as

AnesthesiaElectronic Health RecordsPreoperative CareTriageAdultAgedAnesthesiologyFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedRetrospective StudiesTelemedicineAnesthesiologyElectronic health recordPerioperative medicine

Identifiers

PMID41989525

DOI10.1007/s10877-026-01438-8

PMCPMC13391741

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