Question

Describe computer information systems used in health care settings.

Hospital information systems (HIS)

Financial information systems (FIS)

Clinical information systems (CIS)

Pharmacy information systems (PIS)

Nursing information systems (NIS)

Laboratory information systems (LIS)

Radiology information systems (RIS)

Describe computer information systems used in health care settings.

–Picture archiving and communication systems (PACS)

Discuss the issues raised by several studies of the computerization of health records.

Answer 1

A hospital information system (HIS) is an element of health informatics that focuses mainly on the administrational needs of hospitals. HIS is a comprehensive, integrated information system designed to manage all the aspects of a hospital's operation, such as medical, administrative, financial, and legal issues and the corresponding processing of services.

Hospital information systems provide a common source of information about a patient's health history. The system has to keep data in a secure place and controls who can reach the data in certain circumstances. These systems enhance the ability of health care professionals to coordinate care by providing a patient's health information and visit history at the place and time that it is needed.

Benefits of Hospital Information System are-

• Easy access to doctors data to generate varied records, including classification based on demographic, gender,age, and so on.
• Improved quality of patient care.
• It helps as a decision support system for the hospital authorities for developing comprehensive health care policies.
• Efficient and accurate administration of finance, diet of patient, engineering, and distribution of medical aid. It helps to view a broad picture of hospital growth.
• Improved monitoring of drug usage, and study of effectiveness. This leads to the reduction of adverse drug interactions while promoting more appropriate pharmaceutical utilization.
• Improved quality of documentation.
• Enhances information integrity, reduces transcription errors, and reduces duplication of information entries.
• Hospital software is easy to use and eliminates error caused by handwriting. New technology computer systems give perfect performance to pull up information from server or cloud servers.
• Development of a common clinical database.

Different Information System Under HIS are-

1. Radiology Information System (RIS) - These systems are also popular for their ability to provide radiology billing services appointment scheduling as well as reporting and patient database storage.
2. Clinical Information Systems (CIS): A Clinical Information System is a computer based system that is designed for collecting, storing, manipulating and making available clinical information important to the healthcare delivery process. Clinical Information System helps healthcare organizations improve the delivery of clinical services.Hospital information systems present clinical information and reports that enable clinicians to make more informed decisions at the point of care.
3. Nursing Information Systems (NIS) – These computer based information systems are designed to help nurses provide better patient care. A good NIS can perform a number of functions and deliver benefits such as improving staff schedules, accurate patient charting and improve clinical data integration. The nursing department can have a better managed work force through schedule applications enabling managers to handle absences and overtime. Patient charting applications allow users to enter details regarding patients’ vital signs etc.
4. Physician Information Systems (PIS) - As the name suggests, PIS systems aim to improve the practice of physicians and are also recommended by the government for deployment. Physicians can avail themselves of the Federal Government stimulus package aimed to provide better medical care. Physician information systems are delivered through computers, servers, networks, and use widely deployed andp popular applications such as, electronic medical records (EMRs), electronic health records (EHRs), and more.
5. Pharmacy Information Systems (PIS) - Designed to address the demands of a pharmacy department, PIS helps pharmacists monitor how medication is used in hospitals. PIS helps users supervise drug allergies and other medication-related complications. The system allows users to detect drug interactions and also helps administer the proper drugs based on the patient’s physiologic factors.
6. Financial Information System (FIS): Financial Information Systems are computer systems that manage the business aspect of a hospital. While healthcare organization’s primary priority is to save lives and not making profits, they do acquire running costs from day to day operations; including purchase and staff payroll.
7. Laboratory Information System (LIS): A Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS), sometimes referred to as a Laboratory Information System (LIS) or Laboratory Management System (LMS), is a software-based laboratory and information management system that offers a set of key features that support a modern laboratory Operations.

8. Picture Archiving And Communication System (PACS): a PACS is a medical imaging technology which provides economical storage of, and convenient access to, images from multiple modalities .Electronic images and reports are transmitted digitally via PACS; this eliminates the need to manually file,retrieve, or transport film jackets. PACS consists of four major components: The imaging modalities such as X-ray plain film (PF), computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a secured network for the transmission of patient information for interpreting and reviewing images.

Various Issues Raised due to Computerisation Of Health Records are-

• Financial issues
• Changes in workflow
• Temporary loss of productivity associated with EHR adoption
• privacy and security concerns
• Malpractice Concerns
• Time Consuming
• Data security
• Duplicate Entries