Amandeep Singh

HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM MANAGEMENT

Author Details:

Amandeep Singh,

Student, Netaji Subhash Institute Of Technology,

University Of Delhi, Delhi-110078, India.

Email id:

Abstract:Information management in the field of healthcare, has significantly improved and enriched our lives.Today, millions of people reap the benefits of the fusion of IT in healthcare, thereby yielding an information management system, which has shaped the world of medicine, healthcare and changed millions of lives.The information and data acquired shall be useful not only for current generations but for the future posterity as well. Managing leviathan data has created a complex network of information which can be accessed easily anywhere and anytime. This research is important to recognize the impact of fusion of information management in the field of health care. With advances in the field of health information management system, mortality rates across the globe wane drastically, thereby making coalesce of IT with healthcare a trailblazing success.

Objective: Information management in healthcare has become a success because of the feasibility and accessibility of data, eased communication between patient, doctor and healthcare managers, and making cogent decisions for the welfare of clients and patients. These decisions and insights are further used by insurance companies and healthcare professionals for the welfare of patients. So, the objective of this paper is to understand the role and importance of health information system management.

Introduction: Health care or healthcare is the maintenance and enhancement of health through treatment, diagnosis, prevention of diseases, canker, malady and hazard in human beings. Healthcare is delivered by professionals (practitioners) such as doctors and nurses in hospitals, nursing care facilities. Healthcare industry is a gargantuan industry worth 3 billion, with a 4% increase per year. With augmenting size of the industry, the amount of patient data, received by healthcare services has also grown tremendously. Flow of colossal patient data, lay emphasis on the need of a system to incorporate IT into healthcare.

Health Information System Management (HISM) is the fruitful result of amalgamation of IT and healthcare. HISM is a system that integrates data collection, processing and analyzing of information corresponding to a patient’s medical history to provide quality care. This data is analyzed for making well-informed and cogent decisions for the welfare of a patient, basis for policy making, program action and research on a particular field.

Health Information System Management Objectives:

  1. Strategic planning: HISM involves planning and sapient knowledge on accumulating and warehousing patient’s data.
  2. Disease Surveillance: With vast information related to healthcare, pestilential and insidious diseases are be easily surveilled and correspondingly obviated in embryonic stages.
  3. Use of ICD-10(10th revision of International Statistical Classification Of Diseases and Related Health problems)
  4. Healthcare database: Demographic health database of citizens locally or globally could be easily maintained.
  5. Medical Care:

a)Quality assurance: HISM ensures quality services provided to clients and patients.

b)Predicting health related problems: By analyzing a patient’s data, healthcare professionals can presage a disease or a chronic illness, which the patient may not currently possess but might have in future.

  1. Clinical Research: The brobdingnagian data on diseases and healthcare, can pave way for scientific breakthroughs in medicine.
  2. Evaluation: HISM enables healthcare professionals to analyze and evaluate the effects of medicine or treatment on patients over a vast period of time, in a hassle free manner.

Health information system management features:

Several features of health information system management are:

  1. Health care business similar to other businesses, needs good management.
  2. HISM has dwindled traditional methods of recording patient’s data, a cumbersome in which data was difficult to manage and maintain.
  3. HISM implies scrupulously maintaining, preserving, protecting and updating patient’s confidential and records.

a)Application: Purpose for which the data is collected.

b)Collection: Process by which data is collected.

c)Warehousing: Process and system used to store data.

Data characteristics to be considered while accumulating a patient’s data:

a)Accuracy: The data must be accurate and valid.

b)Accessibility: Data must be easily accessible by professionals such as doctors and nurses.

c)Consistency: Data must be consistent across different platforms, systems and applications.

d)Definition: Clear definition should be provided such that current and future data users are familiar with the data.

e)Granularity: Attributes and values of data must be defined and present at minutiae level.

f)Precision: Data values must be large enough to fill and support the application, such that no field of information is left empty.

g)Relevancy: The collected data must be relevant and meaningful for the process and services, for which they are collected.

Sources of data for healthcare:

  1. Hospital records: Hospitals are the primary source of information, used in health care services. Hospitals are teeming with data and information necessary for HISM.
  2. Periodic check-ups: Periodic check-ups are an integral source in providing concurrent information of a patient.
  3. Exit interviews: Data collected through exit interview is also used in health care services.
  4. National Survey: National surveys provide demographic data, necessary for health care information.
  5. Census: Census provide information on concurrent trends in national health and welfare.
  6. Special case studies: Special studies are conducted solely for gathering information on a particular field, thereby incorporating minutiae but indispensable data in health care.

Service providers who use Health information system management:

  1. Hospitals
  2. Nursing and residential care facilities
  3. Medical and diagnostic labs
  4. Dental Clinics
  5. Outpatient care centers

Electronic health record (EHR) and electronic medical record (EMR):

Electronic health records are digital version of paper charts of a patient, which accommodate information on total health, rather than limited standard data to clinics and laboratories. EHRs are meant to be shared across different platforms including but not limited to hospitals, clinics, diagnostic laboratories and health care facilities involved in patient’s care. EHRs make it easy and discernible for medical professionals to visualize patient’s health trends and patterns irresponsible of a particular healthcare facility.

Electronic medical records (EMRs) are similar to EHRs, but contains data limited to diagnosis by a clinician in one practice. EMRs don’t contain extensive data as compared to EHRs, but are made useful in several ways, such as, the records are delivered to specialist or other healthcare professionals, responsible for the welfare of patient.

Use of healthcare information:

The information gathered through the strenuous process is utilized by following:

  1. Healthcare Professionals: Healthcare professionals such as doctors and health care managers use this information in order to analyze trends and changes in client’s or patient’s health and make dialectical and well-informed decisions. This information enables them to estimate and allocate resources necessary for the welfare of patients. The strategic use of information also allows them to prioritize clients on the basis of their condition.
  2. Insurance companies: Insurance companies use the healthcare information about a patient and congruently base their decisions about the reimbursement of health claims. The extracted information suggests the type of insurance, a person needs depending upon the insight and sapient suggestions provided by the health care managers.
  3. National and state ministry: National and state ministry make use of this information in order to initiate healthcare government policies, lay more emphasis on healthcare expenses annually, such as constructing more hospitals and clinical facilities, based on provided demographic health care information.

What HISM is not?

HISM is process of analyzing data and make deft use of data analytics. It does not offer ‘ready-made’ solutions to health care problems. Each healthcare decision reached by analyzing information that is specific to an organization and the levels associated with it. HISM does not produce instant suggestions and decisions but is a gradual process. Hence, HISM does not provide ‘tailor-made’ solutions, rather is a process of culmination of analysis of patient’s information.

Conclusion:

After writing this paper on the basis of information gathered through several sources, I conclude that fusion of IT in healthcare has significantly enriched our lives, has benefited millions of lives across the globe and has acted as a serendipitous gain for the current and our future posterity. Managing healthcare information of patients is time compensatory, time an apex factor, when it comes to a person’s health and welfare.

References:

  1. AHIMA Education Strategy Committee
  2. HIMSS Journal Volume 25,
  3. Health Information: Management of a Strategic Resource By MervatAbdelhak