Foundation of Information System Health Information Systems

Question: Discuss about theFoundation of Information Systemfor Health Information Systems. Answer: Introduction Health information systems (HIS) are systems that collect, manage and shares health information about individuals or organizations that come under the health sector. It includes district level routine information systems, surveillance systems, patient administration systems and HRM information systems. HIS aims to use the data collected to influence policies, actions, and decision-making and health outcomes. These systems are required to be simple, and sustainable in nature, and reduce burdens from health service staff. The feedbacks from the systems are required to build capacity in the staff and help them improve the overall data quality. The information collected from the HIS betters the value and utilization of health information (Kaur Rani, 2015). Literature Review The health information industry has a long history with health information systems. The industry is in existence from the 1920s, commencing with an aim of improving standards of record management in the health sector. The management industry is still in working today, bringing in new implementation of electronic health data recording systems. The industry has a varied history of health information management and is continuously growing with bright promises for the future. In the 1920s, the health information management industry learnt the importance of documenting healthcare information of patients as well as the providers. The records set up the details, complications and results related to healthcare. The documentation process became popular nationwide and became recognized by providers as an effective way to ensure safety and quality (Ball, Weaver Kiel, 2013). The documenting methods continued until the 1920s, until the new systems were introduced in the 60s and 70s. In the 60s, the main healthcare drivers were Medicare and Medicaid. Mainframe computers and storage, and centralized processing systems were used in hospitals and medical centers. Administrative and financial systems were launched. The 70s saw the debut of minicomputers, although the mainframes were still in use. The drivers of the 60s made expenditures rise. The turnkey systems were available via vendor community. However, the systems were not interoperable. In the 80s, microcomputer s were unveiled and the healthcare software development progressed with huge leaps. Local area network made an advent and expansion of financial and clinical information systems happened. The 90s faced a drive in healthcare with an increase in competition and consolidation. Internet made an entry and hardware costs dropped. Managed care and integrated service delivery systems showed a growth (Collen, 2015). In the 2000s, more outcome-based reimbursement showed an advent and PDAs were introduced. EHR adoption was called for and HIT funding was infused. Cloud computers, big data analytics and clinical decision supports systems emerged. Current healthcare organizations are introducing more intense EHR systems. Healthcare systems were designed to computerize transactions, which led to an increase in easily accessible data and resulted in improved interoperability. Implementation of dashboard reporting also experienced a growth and they have been crucial in providing bits of information about the healthcare organizations to the management or the board or to data groups (Gagnon et al., 2012). Computerized and interoperable health information systems are implemented with an aim to improve medical support, cost effectiveness, efficiency development, error reduction and stakeholder satisfaction. At the same time, reimbursement based patient healthcare suppliers are intended to be optimized. EHR/EPR (electronic health record/electronic patient record) systems are central to health care information systems as a whole. These are a patients digitalized health record that can be utilized by healthcare suppliers and organizations. PHR or personal health records are incorporated in health information systems as self-maintained health records of individuals. HIE or health information exchange is a medical data pool or an association of healthcare providing organizations that support interoperability between different healthcare departments and facilitates data sharing among different health care information systems. These systems have been in use for the last few years and have been authorized by several healthcare service organizations. Health Telematics system were used to transfer electronic complex data from one system to another. These system mostly involves videos or multimedia files. PACS (picture archiving and communication system) is a broadly used health information system, along with VNAs (vendor neutral archives). Healthcare specialists or healthcare outlets to mange patients medical data, reports and images mostly use these technologies. Earlier, a healthcare providing organizations radiology departments were the main repositories for such kind of image files. However, VNAs and PACS are incorporating radiology in the actual healthcare organization work process, along with other departments like neurology or cardiology also experiencing a large-scale generation of clinical images and medical reports. The VNAs have been installed with an aim to merge image and media data with different departments report and image banks inside a multi-faceted health care information system. Financial and clinical systems are integrated in the health information system to manage patient costing, invoicing and payment follow-ups (Haux et al., 2013). Health information systems have led to a reduction in productivity of the physicians due to the integration of EHR systems. However, on a broader scale, large amounts of benefits can be seen. There is an increase in the usage of data analytics and big data that help in managing public health programs. There is a reduction in extreme expenses incurred in chronic health issues. In addition, there is an increased usage of cognitive computing and data analytics to carry out medicinal provisioning to every single patient. Scholars gained more ability to examine on innovative medical therapies and medicines. Patients gained the rights to access their own health records and consult with their personal physicians. However, some critical obstacles remain the industry. Like lack of interoperability and commonly agreed transactions of health information levels. Health standard developing organizations are working on that. Moreover, some vendors also create information blockages to stunt the dat a sharing in systems, and generate profits from that. In addition, the EHR systems are poorly designed - clinicians face problem in managing those and they are susceptible to cyber attacks and hacking (Basu et al., 2012). Conclusion The health information industry is still in its initial years, acting as librarians of medical records. Their goal remains the same improve and augment medical documentation levels. The industry overall has come a long way, however, their ultimate goal of achieving a properly functional EHR system is not yet fulfilled. Health care support organizations are working on pushing the industry to the heights of success and provide the stakeholders with their proper rights and services. The management is still to learn a lot on the usage of information system properly, thus conventional methods are still in use. References Ball, M., Weaver, C., Kiel, J. (Eds.). (2013).Healthcare information management systems: Cases, strategies, and solutions. Springer Science Business Media. Basu, S., Andrews, J., Kishore, S., Panjabi, R., Stuckler, D. (2012). Comparative performance of private and public healthcare systems in low-and middle-income countries: a systematic review.PLoS med,9(6), e1001244. Collen, M. F. (2015).A history of medical informatics in the United States. M. J. Ball (Ed.). New York: Springer. Gagnon, M. P., Desmartis, M., Labrecque, M., Car, J., Pagliari, C., Pluye, P., ... Lgar, F. (2012). Systematic review of factors influencing the adoption of information and communication technologies by healthcare professionals.Journal of medical systems,36(1), 241-277. Haux, R., Winter, A., Ammenwerth, E., Brigl, B. (2013).Strategic information management in hospitals: an introduction to hospital information systems. Springer Science Business Media. Kaur, K., Rani, R. (2015). Managing data in healthcare information systems: many models, one solution.Computer,48(3), 52-59.