Healthcare Information Systems
Healthcare information systems have become increasingly critical to hospital settings. Research papers on healthcare information systems discuss various types of systems and the future of health care management and technology.
These have included computer-based systems designed to automate many transactions in the hospital setting, largely in clinical and administrative areas. The end result of the introduction of healthcare information systems has been the increased availability of digital information.
Today's modern healthcare system is surrounded by digital technology. There are five major healthcare information systems that the average patient may not be aware of. These include the following:
- Electronic medical records
- Health information exchanges
- Activity based costing systems
- Patient reported outcomes systems
- An enterprise data warehouse
While a host of regulation has covered the first two areas, very little is still understood about the other three. The inability of a hospital to integrate and analyze data through an enterprise data warehouse continues to be a point of frustration among hospital administers.
The ultimate goal of healthcare information systems is the application of IT in order to provide better care at a lower cost. The reality, however, has merely been to add additional layers of bureaucracy and administration, which have only managed to increase the cost of healthcare delivery in the United States in recent decades. Critics charge that managed health care, the most visible product of healthcare information systems, is one of the worst things to happen to American medicine.