Facts About Health Care Information Systems

The modern health care system involves managing an enormous amount of information about millions of people. Only with the help of modern information technology can the health care industry provide quality care to its patients. Because health information systems are an integral part of most modern hospitals and doctor practices, there is now an educational pathway to be a health information technology specialist.

Evolution

• Once computers had become commonplace during the 1990s, you could find them in every doctor's office and hospital, but their use was limited until recently. Initially, health information systems were only used to simplify medical appointment scheduling, but eventually a patient's complete medical history was stored on them. Not only does this technology save paper, but it also allows instant provider orders, shared patient data, and comparison studies that were previously impossible.

Types

• Health care information systems come in two forms: practice management and electronic health records (EHR). Practice management software allows the organization of patient appointments, lab results, and referrals, but does not organize with the specific information on each patient. EHR stores data on a patient's health history. An electronic health record contains the same information about a patient as a regular medical chart, such as medical history, medications, allergies, lab results, immunizations, and billing information.

Technological Components

• All health information systems consist of the software itself and the hardware. Although health information technology (HIT) software is utilized on computers by receptionists and medical staff, the data is often stored and managed off site by the HIT provider. Scanners and printers play a big role in EHR because of the amount of data that must be transformed into and from a digital format. Wireless routers are the next essential piece of a full EHR system that allows doctors to work with laptops or tablets for ease of workflow.

Costs

• Health care information technology can be very expensive, but this depends on the demands of the clinical system it serves. If a small practice is thinking about investing in a basic practice management system for appointments, lab results, and referrals, then costs are only about $250.00 per month. If a medium-sized clinic with several doctors wants to integrate a full EHR system along with practice management software, they would be looking at $400.00 to $500.00 per month or an upfront cost of $10,000.00 for the first provider and $5,000.00 for each additional doctor. That doesn't include the cost of necessary computer equipment, data storage, scanners, printers, wireless routers, and individual laptops.

Benefits of Health Information systems

• According to the U.S. Department of Health are Human Services, there were three studies of EHR done in the U.S. and one in the Netherlands that all highlighted an increase in the quality of provider performance. This is attributed to each health care provider in the study having instant access to clinical information management systems and decision support. These studies and others from the department also demonstrate overall benefits in lab testing accuracy, billing accuracy, workflow, medication errors, refills, and staffing costs.