Managing Health Care Information Systems

Chapter One

Although it may seem self-evident, it is worth stating: health care information is the reason we need health care information systems. No study of information systems in health care would be complete without an examination of the data and information they are designed to support. The focus of this chapter will be on the data and information that are unique to health care, such as the clinical information created during patients' health care encounters, the administrative information related to those encounters, and the external information used to improve the clinical care and administrative functions associated with those encounters.

We begin the chapter with a brief discussion of some common definitions of health care information. Then we introduce the framework that will be used for exploring various types of health care information. The first section of the chapter looks at data and information created internally by health care organizations, discussing this information at both the individual level and the aggregate level. This chapter also examines some core processes involved in an inpatient and an ambulatory care clinical encoun ... read full excerpt from Managing Health Care Information Systems: A Practical Approach for Health Care Executives ebook