From Data Chaos to OR Clarity: The Rise of Perioperative Informatics Nurses

More Data. More Complexity. More Pressure on the OR to Perform.

Robotic-assisted surgeries. Intraoperative 3D imaging. And augmented-reality headsets for nav-guided procedures. What was once the tech of futuristic sci-fi is now reality. Advanced perioperative tech—and the data behind it—is shaping daily surgical practice in modern ORs, and with good reason.

The Financial Stakes Behind Perioperative Performance

The OR carries a big share of both cost and revenue—nearly 30% of costs and over 40% of revenue.¹ With thinning margins, even small shifts that increase utilization and turnover—or improvements in workflow or reductions in avoidable delays—can impact the bottom line.

Perioperative Nurse Informaticists: Connecting ORs for Improved Performance

Layer in rising documentation demands and EHR-driven workflow complexity, and perioperative teams are navigating an environment that looks very different than it did even a few years ago. That's why informatics nurses are rising stars on the perioperative team.

How Informatics Nurses Break Down Perioperative Data Silos

As data silos and digital complexity challenge perioperative service line performance, nurse informaticists have become imperative to the modern OR—connecting ORs and harnessing information to:

• Standardize and structure perioperative data
• Focus on OR efficiency improvement, creating smooth workflows
• Improve OR performance through better data
• Strengthen communication across the perioperative continuum
• Enhance intraoperative decision-making and safety
• Advance safety, quality, and organizational resilience

Why Perioperative Informatics Nurses Are Now Imperative

A Rapidly Growing Field Shaped by Digital Demands

It takes a rare skill set to keep today's tech-intensive OR running smoothly—and nurse informaticists are increasingly the ones turning data chaos into clinical clarity. While the Bureau of Labor Statistics counts them within the broader category of medical and health services managers, that field is expected to grow 23% by 2034, underscoring just how essential nursing informatics is becoming.²

The Rise of Perioperative Informatics Leadership

As demand accelerates, something else is happening inside healthcare—an entire informatics leadership tier is also taking shape. The Chief Nursing Information Officer (CNIO) role has surged to 54% of organizations, a 10-point bump since 2020 (HIMSS 2022 Nursing Informatics Workforce Survey).³

OR Leaders Need Informatics-Driven Performance

The rise of the nurse informaticist shows how essential data and workflow expertise have become in the modern OR. "Ask any OR leader what keeps them up at night, and the answers sound familiar: quality, safety, efficiency and financial pressures, technology integration, staffing and overall data chaos" says Janice Kelly, MS, RN, NI-BC, President of AORN Syntegrity.

In a digitally driven surgical environment, Kelly says, "informatics nurses translate all that chaos into structured, usable data and clinically aligned workflows—laying the foundation for safer, more predictable perioperative performance."

Standardizing & Structuring Perioperative Data

AORN emphasizes that accurate, complete documentation aligned with nursing workflow is essential to continuity and safe perioperative practice.⁴

The Patient Information Management Guideline highlights documentation that promotes continuity, supports safe care, and ensures essential information follows the patient across perioperative phases.⁴

Why Standardization Matters in Perioperative Documentation

ANA defines nursing informatics as the integration of nursing science with computer and information sciences to manage and communicate data.⁵ In the OR, that includes shaping documentation templates, terminology, and data elements so perioperative activity is captured consistently.

How PNDS Aligns Documentation with Real Perioperative Workflow

AORN Syntegrity's PNDS-based documentation provides:

• Standardized perioperative terminology⁶^, ⁷
• Standardized procedure content⁷
• More consistent, comparable data across teams and sites⁶^, ⁷^, ⁸

Reliable, structured documentation is the backbone of consistent perioperative practice. AORN notes that when documentation follows real workflow, uses standardized terminology, and captures complete data, teams communicate more clearly, and care moves safely from phase to phase.⁴

The PNDS reinforces this by unifying terminology, data elements, and procedure content across teams and sites.⁶^, ⁷^, ⁸ Research backs it up: structured, standardized electronic documentation improves the clarity and completeness of clinical records—giving leaders higher-quality data for care and performance monitoring.¹⁰

Improving OR Performance Through Better Data

Reliable documentation is the foundation for accurate perioperative metrics and meaningful performance monitoring.

Data Quality as the Basis for OR Performance Metrics

When case times, delays, and workflow details are captured inconsistently, leaders lose visibility into improvement opportunities. AORN's guideline underscores documentation as foundational to continuity, quality monitoring, and safe practice.⁴

Informatics nurses support this foundation. By helping design documentation structures that improve consistency, comparability, and completeness, they strengthen the quality of perioperative data.

How AORN Syntegrity Strengthens OR Reporting & Visibility

• A structured framework for documenting nursing care, reducing variability and ambiguity in OR records.
• Documentation structures that enable more comparable performance metrics,⁴^, ⁷^, ⁸

Structured electronic documentation is associated with clearer, more complete documentation.¹⁰

Advancing Safety, Quality & Organizational Resilience

Standardization Strengthens Safety in the OR

AORN guidance and recent reviews show that standardized, structured documentation is associated with more consistent data capture⁴^, ¹⁰—and supports safer perioperative practice.⁴

The AORN Patient Information Management Guideline emphasizes documentation that supports safe practice and continuity, and that captures essential patient identifiers, orders, safety details, and workflow-related information.⁴

PNDS-based documentation standardizes:

• Perioperative nursing diagnoses
• Interventions
• Expected outcomes

Reducing Documentation Burden to Improve Clinician Well-Being

The ONC burden reduction strategy further identifies poor usability, documentation burden, and workflow misalignment as risks to clinician well-being and patient safety—reinforcing the value of informatics expertise in aligning documentation with real practice.⁹

Support Your Informatics Nurses with Tools That Let Them Lead

Give Them the Structures That Make Insight Possible

When perioperative informaticists have standardized documentation, procedure content, and workflows to build from, they are better positioned to support clearer data, more consistent reporting, and better alignment between clinical practice and EHR design. That's why it's so important to ensure your team has the nursing informatics tools and resources they need to succeed.

AORN Syntegrity's PNDS with Documentation

How AORN Syntegrity Supports Perioperative Informatics Leadership

• A unified documentation framework that supports consistent EHR configuration
• More consistent data for throughput and utilization reporting
• Documentation structured to reduce duplication and align with workflow
• Standardized data elements that support downstream automation and analytics
• Documentation and procedure content that help promote consistency across ORs, specialties, and sites

Learn how AORN Syntegrity, perioperative informatics, and standardized documentation help leaders improve OR performance, efficiency, and data quality.

End notes

1. Al Amin M, Baldacci R, Kayvanfar V. A comprehensive review on operating room scheduling and optimization. Oper Res Int J. 2025;25:3. doi:10.1007/s12351-024-00884-z
2. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. Medical and Health Services Managers. Occupational Outlook Handbook. Updated 2024.
3. HIMSS. 2022 Nursing Informatics Workforce Survey: Value and Future Outlook. Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. Published June 27 2023.
4. AORN. Guideline Implementation: Patient Information Management.
5. American Nurses Association. What Is Nursing Informatics?
6. AORN Syntegrity. PNDS Overview.
7. AORN Syntegrity. PNDS: Standardized Perioperative Documentation and Procedure Content (Sell Sheet).
8. AORN. Perioperative Documentation: A Guide to Best Practice Using the PNDS. Accessed 2025.
9. Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. Strategy on Reducing Regulatory and Administrative Burden Relating to the Use of Health IT and EHRs.
10. Ebbers T, Kool RB, Smeele LE, et al. The impact of structured and standardized documentation on documentation quality: a multicenter, retrospective study. J Med Syst. 2022;46(7):46. doi:10.1007/s10916-022-01837-9