Perianesthesia nurses are on the cutting edge of clinical information systems. Caring for patients throughout their perioperative experience gives the perianesthesia nurse a unique opportunity to provide care at multiple levels—from preparatory evaluation to critical care. These phases of care expose the perianesthesia nurses to documentation systems congruent to the workflow within that phase. As our practice develops, these systems adapt to meet our needs and establish an archive of the care our patients receive. Documentation provides the ability to permanently record the provision of care without our practice settings and the patient's response to that care. It depicts for others the actions and activities, but it does not always provide a depiction of the critical thinking or intuition of the care providers. It is for this reason that we, as professional perianesthesia nurses, must learn from our colleagues and from the potential role of electronic medical records in civil actions, such as malpractice suits. Sarah M. I. Cartwright, BA, RN, CAPA, is a Nurse Manager, Perioperative Services Clinical Informatics, Special Projects and OR Scheduling, and Leslie A. Edney, BSN, RN, CAPA, is a Charge Nurse, Post Anesthesia Care Unit in Perioperative Services, Georgia Health Sciences Medical Center, Augusta, GA.