MOD 1

• Health Information System


  A system that integrates data collection, processing, reporting, and use of information to improve health service effectiveness and efficiency and inform management at all levels of health services
• Components of Health Information System

  • Data collection
  • Data processing
  • Data reporting
  • Use of information
• Health Information System


  • Encompasses all health data sources and the use and communication of this information
  • Includes health facility and community data, electronic health records for patient care, surveillance information, population-based data, human resources information, financial information, supply chain information
  • Covers different systems that capture, store, manage, transmit health-related information from individuals and activities of a health institution
• Systems included in Health Information System

  • Disease surveillance systems
  • District-level routine information systems
  • Hospital patient administration system (PAS)
  • Human resource management information systems (HRMIS)
  • Laboratory information systems (LIS)
• Importance of Health Information System


  Essential for collecting and generating quality data to inform on time all relevant stakeholders for planning, review, program monitoring, overall quality assurance and improvement of all aspects of the health system
• Benefits of an efficient Health Information System

  • Improves the quality of patient care
  • Reduces operational costs
  • Makes administration data error-free
  • Shapes the entire internal management process to be more organized
• Benefits of Health Information System

  • Organized and coordinated treatment process
  • Improved patient safety
  • Betterment in patient care
  • Hassle-free process of performance analysis
  • Transfiguration in clinical procedures
  • Circumvention of medical errors
  • Instant and seamless accessibility to patients' details
  • Minimized operational expense
  • Saving of time
  • Improved patient satisfaction
• Attributes of a Well-Functioning Health Information System

  • Generation of individual-level, facility-based and population-based data from multiple sources
  • Capacity to detect, investigate, communicate, and contain events that threaten public health security
  • Ability to synthesize information and apply this knowledge
• Health Information Technology


  The application of information processing involving both computer hardware and software that deals with the storage, retrieval, sharing, and use of health care information, data, and knowledge for communication and decision making
• Health Information Technology includes

  • Electronic physician's orders and E-prescribing
  • Electronic Health Records
  • Clinical decision support
  • Electronic sign-out and hand-off tools
  • Bar code medication administration
  • Smart pumps
  • Automated medication dispensing technology
• Electronic Physician's Orders and E-Prescribing


  Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) - electronic or computer support to enter physician orders, including medication orders using a computer or mobile device platform, integrated with clinical decision support system
• Electronic Health Records (EHRs)


  An electronic version of a patient's health record that was historically created, used, and stored in a paper chart, created, managed, and held by a healthcare organization, accessed and used by healthcare professionals involved in a patient's care
• Electronic Medical Records (EMRs)


  Digital versions of the paper charts in clinician offices, clinics, and hospitals, containing notes and information collected by and for the clinicians in that office, clinic, or hospital, used by providers for diagnosis and treatment
• Personal Health Records (PHRs)


  Health records that patients control and can change, containing the same types of information as EHRs, designed to be set up, accessed, and managed by patients
• Clinical Decision Support (CDS)


  Provides healthcare professionals with information and patient specific information to enhance the healthcare provider's decision, includes notifications, alerts, reminders, clinical guidelines, condition specific order sets, patient-specific clinical summaries, documentation templates, investigation, and diagnostic support
• Electronic Sign-out and Hand-off Tools


  Tools used to provide a structured transfer of patient information during healthcare provider hand-offs to ensure patient care continuity and safety
• Bar Code Medication Administration


  Electronic systems that integrate electronic medication administration records with barcode technology to prevent medication error by ensuring the right patient receives the right medication at the right time
• Smart Pumps


  Intravenous infusion pumps equipped with medication error-prevention software that alerts the operator when the infusion set is set outside of pre-configured safety limits
• Automated Medication Dispensing Technology (ADC)


  Electronic drug cabinets that store medication at the point of care with controlled dispensing and tracking of medication distribution, used as a medication inventory management tool that helps in automating the medication dispensing process by minimizing the workload on the central pharmacy
• Barcode systems


  • Some software produces alerts when sound-alike or look-alike medications may be confused
  • Others provide clinical advisories for specific drugs when scanned
  • Others may assist with documentation
• Smart pumps


  Intravenous infusion pumps equipped with medication error-prevention software
• Smart pumps


  • Software alerts the operator when the infusion set is set outside of pre-configured safety limits
• Automated medication dispensing technology (ADC)


  Electronic drug cabinets that store medication at the point of care with controlled dispensing and tracking of medication distribution
• Automated medication dispensing technology (ADC)


  • Includes more sophisticated software and digital interface to synthesize high-risk steps in the medication dispensing process
  • Used as a medication inventory management tool that helps in automating the medication dispensing process by minimizing the workload on the central pharmacy
  • Tracks medication dispensing and patient billing
• Retained surgical items prevention technology


  Various technologies used to enhance the prevention of retained surgical items
• Retained surgical items prevention technology

  • Barcoding and radiofrequency (RFID) tagging of surgical items
• Patient electronic portals


  A secure online application that provides patients access to their personal health information and 2-way electronic communication with their care provider using a computer or a mobile device
• Numerous studies have shown that patient portals improve outcomes of preventive care and disease awareness and self-management
• Telemedicine


  Use of telecommunication technologies to facilitate patient to provider or provider to provider communication
• Telemedicine


  • Communication may be synchronous with real-time 2-way video communication or asynchronous transmission of patient clinical information
  • In addition to communication, telemedicine may provide health information that is collected remotely from medical devices or personal mobile devices
  • This information may be used to monitor patients, track or change their behavior
• Synchronous telemedicine


  • Virtual visits are real-time 2-way audio/video communication between a healthcare provider and a patient
  • Electronic communication between the patient's primary care clinician and a specialist using a secure communication platform
  • This technology facilitates the specialist's guidance regarding the patient's management without the need for referring the patient
• Remote patient monitoring (telemonitoring)


  • Studies evaluating community based remote patient monitoring
  • Improves patient outcomes for certain chronic conditions, including; heart failure, stroke, asthma, and hypertension
  • Patient data management system (PDMS) are systems that automatically retrieve data from bedside medical equipment
• Electronic incident reporting


  • Web-based systems allow healthcare providers involved in safety events to report such incidents voluntarily
  • Such systems can be integrated with the electronic health record (EHR) to enable the abstraction of data and automated detection of adverse events through trigger tools
• Electronic incident reporting


  • Standardize reporting structure
  • Standardize incident action workflow
  • Rapid identification of serious incidents and trigger events
  • Automating data entry and analysis
• Reasons for failure to report incidents

  • Staff may be unsure if an incident is important enough to submit
  • Staff may not know if the incident they submitted is being followed up on or taken seriously
  • Submission forms can be long
• For every serious safety event, there are usually up to 1000 near-miss safety events where there was no harm
• If we can learn from near-miss events or events where there was very little harm, we can potentially avoid events where there is significant patient or employee harm
• Health Informatics


  • Defines how health information is technically captured, transmitted, and utilized
  • Focuses on information systems, informatics principles, information technology applied to the continuum of healthcare delivery
  • An integrated discipline with specialty domains that include management science, management engineering principles, healthcare delivery, and public health, patient safety, information science, computer technology
• Health information systems


  Cover the records, coding, documentation, and administration of patient and ancillary services
• Health information technology


  Focuses on tools