Clinical and Administrative Health Information Systems

case management information systems

Function: Identify resources, patterns, and variances

in care to prevent complications in chronic conditions

and enhance outcomes.

• Key Feature: Span past treatment episodes to search

for trends.

•Decision Support: Promote preventive care and

present standardized care plans (treatment protocols)

for best practices.

communication systems

• Function: Promote interaction among healthcare

providers and between providers and patients.

•Integration Trend: Historically separate, now

commonly integrated into other system designs.

Call light systems,

wireless phones, pagers, email, instant messaging.

clinician-focused examples of communication systems

Access to electronic charts

from home, review of scheduled tests/procedures,

meal choices, educational messages.

patient-focused examples of communication systems

core business systems

Enhance administrative tasks and support the

management of healthcare within an organization

(unlike clinical systems that focus on direct care)

adt systems

• Key Information: Maintain patient name, medical

record number, visit/account number, and

demographics.

• Central Source (Backbone): Central for collecting and

communicating patient basic info to other systems.

financial systems

• Function: Manage expenses and revenue for

healthcare provision.

•Departments: Used by finance, auditing, and

accounting.

• Strategic Role: Determine maintenance/growth

direction and pivotal in fiscal budgeting and strategic

planning.

acuity systems

• Function: Monitor the intensity of care required for

individual patients or groups, based on specific

indicators.

• Benefits: Promote better organizational management

of expenses/resources, predict organizational

capacity, and forecast future market demands.

scheduling systems

• Function: Coordinate staff, services, equipment, and

patient bed allocation.

•Integration: Frequently integrated with other core

business systems (e.g., provide data to financial

systems).

• Benefits: Track resources (e.g., OR use, ICU beds) and

manage their frequency/distribution.

order entry systems

• Function: Automate the initiation of patient orders

(replacing handwritten orders).

• Major Safeguards: Ensure legibility and completeness

of physician/provider orders.

• Patient Safety Impact: Provide decision support and

automated alert functionality, previously unavailable

with paper orders.

patient care support systems

Patient-centered systems collecting and

disseminating data related to direct care.

clinical documentation systems

• Most Common Type: Often called "Clinical Information

Systems (CIS)" or even EHR.

clinical documentation systems

• Function: Collect patient data in real time, putting data at

the clinician's fingertips at the point of care.

• Content: Observations, interventions, outcomes, care

plans, diagnostics, clinical notes, allergies, medications.

• Users: Accessed by all treatment team members

(pharmacists, allied health, nurses, physicians, support

staff).

pharmacy information systems

• Function: Allow pharmacists to order, manage, and

dispense medications.

• Safety Features: Incorporate allergy, height, and weight

information for effective medication management.

• Streamlined Processes: Order entry, dispensing,

verification, authorization.

laboratory information systems

• Pioneering Role: Among the first clinical information

systems used in healthcare.

• Function: Report on blood, body fluid, tissue samples,

and biological specimens.

•Decision Support: Provide reference ranges and direct

clinicians toward next courses of action.

radiology information systems

• Function: Schedule, result, and store information related to

diagnostic radiology procedures.

• Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS):

Often integrated with RIS (or standalone); collect, store,

and distribute medical images (CT, MRI, X-rays).