Informatics

 Informatics comes from the French word informatique which means computer science.
 Informatics is defined as computer science + information science.
 Used in conjunction with the name of a discipline, it denotes an application of computer science
and information science to the management and processing of data, information, and
knowledge in the named discipline.
 is the science of processing data for storage and retrieval.
 is the study of the behavior and structure of any system that generates, stores, processes and
then presents information; it is basically the science of information.
 is a branch of information engineering. It involves the practice of information processing and the
engineering of information systems, and as an academic field it is an applied form of information
science.
 is the study of the structure, behaviour, and interactions of natural and engineered
computational systems.

What is healthcare informatics?

• Healthcare informatics is the integration of information science , health science , computer
science and cognitive science.
• Healthcare informatics is the derivative of the holistic objective of the medical practitioners such
as the nurse, healthcare providers, physicians, healthcare staffs, etc.
• This can also be regarded as the derivative of the business healthcare application . Under
healthcare informatics, specialties divide into smaller subgroups: Medical informatics , health
informatics, dental informatics, and nursing informatics.

What is nursing informatics?

 Hebda (1998 p. 3), defines nursing informatics as:
“The use of computers technology to support nursing, including clinical practice, administration,
education, and research.“
 American Nurses Association (ANA) (1994) has defined nursing informatics as:
“The development and evaluation of applications, tools, processes, and structures which assist
nurses with the management of data in taking care of patients or supporting the practice of
nursing.”
 Graves, J. R., & Corcoran, S. (1989). The Study of Nursing Informatics. Image: Journal of Nursing
Scholarship, 27, 227-231. define nursing informatics as:
“A combination of computer science, information science and nursing science designed to assist
in the management and processing of nursing data, information and knowledge to support the
practice of nursing and the delivery of nursing care.”
“Computer science, information science, and nursing science combined to assist in the
management and processing of nursing data, information and knowledge to support the
practice of nursing and the delivery of nursing care.”
 1996—Turley defined Nursing Informatics as the intersection point with Nursing Science,
Computer Science and Information Science.
 1995—Graves et al, began to incorporate knowledge as a product of the sciences into the
definition.
 Saba and McCormick
The use of technology and/or a computer system to collect, store, process, display, retrieve, and
communicate timely data and information in and across health care facilities that administer
 nursing services and resources, manage the delivery of patient and nursing care, link research
resources and findings to nursing practice, and apply educational resources to nursing
education.

Why Nsg Informatics definition is important to nurses?

 A definition is a fundamental element for shaping a specialty
 A definition for nursing informatics guides role delineation for nurses interested in informatics
and suggests directions for practice, education, training, and research
 Also, a definition is one foundational element of national scope documents for the nursing
informatics specialty.
 a definition of nursing informatics may be useful to other disciplines as they define informatics
practice within their own specialties
 a definition for nursing informatics is needed to help others, within and outside nursing,
understand the legitimacy of the practice and the general competencies of a nurse who
specializes in informatics.

Manual Health Care Systems

Advantages
 Easy to implement  cannot be easily corrupted open (with
 low cost proper data storage)
 No extra training required  Easy to prepare
 requires minimal effort  data profiling can be processed easily
 Quick processing  Readiness of data
 can be stored anywhere

Disadvantages
 Problem with maintenance  accessibility to any healthcare
 volume of data becomes a problem personnel
(storage problem)  accessibility to any healthcare
 needs lots of paper institution
 problem with flavescent paper  Once the data is burned it cannot be
 problem with reproduced easily
interpretation/transcription  coordination of data and information
 data is not converted easily to  integration with the other systems such
information as laboratory, accounting, etc., is a
 readiness of the information problem
 Data handling is a problem

Computer Information Systems

Advantages
 data maintenance
 Low maintenance cost
 volume of data is not an issue
 no paper is required
 no problem with interpretation transcription
 data can be converted easily to information
 readiness of the information and data
 accessibility to any healthcare personnel and accessibility to any healthcare institution
  Data cannot be corrupted easily with proper backup
 can integrate with other system such as laboratory, pharmacy, accounting, management etc.
 data handling is easy
 data integrity is preserved
 data communication is possible
 Statistical information system can be provided
 migration to other system is easy
 can be expanded
 easy data profiling
 Automatic searching of parallel records for medically ill person and critical medical information
 Automatic switching of nationwide databases holding registries of patients with critical
problems
 Automated review of similar patients to determine expected length of stay, costs and rates of
complications - allowing better financial forecasting for the hospital and better information for
the patient and caregiver
 System will allow the user to very easily pull information from vast number of patients (without
names) into spreadsheets speech, databases, graphing packages to create instant displays of
outcome, treatment facts and options
 Improve communication between multiple providers to reduce the "it slipped through the
cracks" syndromes that plagued the smooth running of operating rooms
 Patient care and management - care providers are using data entry devices to document care
given both at the bedside and at central terminals
 Patient records - compilation of patient or test data , maintenance and retrieval of these records
and use of these records for billing and usage and outcome analysis
 Patient monitoring - by recording patient data online and from various tests
 Exchange of medical data - from the compilation and maintenance of databases
 Interactive medical education - from database and tutorial software
 Physician decision making - from the patient records and other databases

Disadvantages
 implementation requires severe justification
 High starting cost (requires training for nursing and healthcare giver)
 requires additional effort to implement
 additional manpower is necessary
 special storage is necessary
 data communication system will have an additional cost
 Data can easily be corrupted if no backup is provided
 readiness of data and information is possible when software is provided in the healthcare
information system
 requires extensive planning, finding and commercial implementation
 Information management is essential

Framework for Nursing Informatics

 The framework for nursing informatics relies on the central concepts of data, information and
knowledge:
◦ A DATA is defined as discrete entities that are described objectively without
interpretation
◦ An INFORMATION as data that is interpreted, organized or structured
 ◦ A KNOWLEDGE as information that has been synthesized so that interrelationships are
identified and formalized.
◦ Resulting in DECISIONS that guide practice

Application of Nursing Informatics

 Nursing Informatics can be applied to all areas of nursing practice, which include; clinical
practice, administration, education, and research.
 Nursing Clinical Practice (Point-of-Care Systems and Clinical Information Systems)
 Work lists to remind staff of planned nursing interventions
 Computer generated client documentation
 Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Computer-Based Patient Record (CPR)
 Monitoring devices that record vital signs and other measurements directly into the
client record (electronic medical record)
 Computer - generated nursing care plans and critical pathways
 Automatic billing for supplies or procedures with nursing documentation
 Reminders and prompts that appear during documentation to ensure comprehensive
charting
 Nursing Administration (Health Care Information Systems)
 Automated staff scheduling
 E-mail for improved communication
 Cost analysis and finding trends for budget purposes
 Quality assurance and outcomes analysis
 Nursing Education
 Computerized record-keeping
 Computerized-assisted instruction
 Interactive video technology
 Distance Learning-Web based courses and degree programs
 Internet resources-CEU's and formal nursing courses and degree programs
 Presentation software for preparing slides and handouts-PowerPoint and MS Word
 Nursing Research
 Computerized literature searching-CINAHL, Medline and Web sources
 The adoption of standardized language related to nursing terms-NANDA, etc.
 The ability to find trends in aggregate data, that is data derived from large population
groups-Statistical Software, SPSS

Benefits of Computer Automation in Health Care:

 Many of these benefits have came about with the development of the electronic medical record
(EMR), which is the electronic version of the client data found in the traditional paper record.

Electronic Health Record (EHR), or Electronic Medical Record (EMR)

- is a systematic collection of electronic health information about an individual patient or
population.
- It is a record in digital format that is theoretically capable of being shared across different health
care settings.
- may include a range of data, including demographics, medical history, medication and allergies,
immunization status, laboratory test results, radiology images, vital signs, personal statistics like
age and weight, and billing information
EMR benefits include:
 Improved access to the medical record.
◦ The EMR can be accessed from several different locations simultaneously, as well as by different
levels of providers.
 Decreased redundancy of data entry.
◦ For example, allergies and vital signs need only be entered once.
 Decreased time spent in documentation.
◦ Automation allows direct entry from monitoring equipment, as well as point-of-care data entry.
 Increased time for client care.
◦ More time is available for client care because less time is required for documentation and
transcription of physician orders.
 Facilitation of data collection for research.
◦ Electronically stored client records provide quick access to clinical data for a large number of
clients.
 Improved communication and decreased potential for error.
◦ Improved legibility of clinician documentation and orders is seen with computerized information
systems.
 Creation of a lifetime clinical record facilitated by information systems.
 Benefits of automation and computerization are related to the use of decision-support
software, computer software programs that organize information to aid in decision making for client
care or administrative issues; these include:
◦ Decision-support tools as well as alerts and reminders notify the clinician of possible concerns or
omissions.
◦ Effective data management and trend-finding include the ability to provide historical or current
data reports.
◦ Extensive financial information can be collected and analyzed for trends. An extremely
important benefit in this era of managed care and cost cutting.
◦ Data related to treatment such as inpatient length of stay and the lowest level of care provider
required can be used to decrease costs.
An example of this, is the documentation of patient allergies in the computer system. The health care
providers would be alerted to any discrepancies in the patient medication orders.
Effective data management and trend-finding include the ability to provide historical or current data
reports.
Extensive financial information can be collected and analyzed for trends. An extremely important benefit
in this era of managed care and cost cutting.
Data related to treatment such as inpatient length of stay and the lowest level of care provider required
can be used to decrease costs.

Nursing Informatics Specialist

 Because of the increased importance of computers and information technology in the practice of
professional nursing; a new role has emerged, the Nursing Informatics Specialist (NIS).
 The NIS is a nurse who has formal education, certification and practical experience in using
computers in patient care settings.
The Role of the Nursing Informatics Specialist (NIS)
The American Nurses Association (ANA, 1994), lists several functions of the NIS:
 Theory development.
◦ The NIS contributes to the scientific knowledge base of nursing informatics.
 Analysis of information needs.
◦ The identification of information that nurses' need to in order to accomplish their work; client
care, education, administration, and research
 Selection of computer systems.
◦ The NIS, guides the user in making informed decisions related to the purchase of computer
systems.
 Design of computer systems and customizations.
◦ The NIS collaborates with users and computer programmers to make decisions about how data
will be displayed and accessed.
 Testing of computer systems.
◦ Systems must be checked for proper functioning before they are made available for use in
patient care.
 Training users of computer systems.
◦ Users need to be trained in how the system works, the importance of accurate data entry, and
how the system will benefit them, and more importantly how it will improve patient outcomes
 Evaluation of the effectiveness of computer systems.
◦ The unique role of the NIS makes them the ideal person to evaluate the effectiveness of
computer systems.
 Ongoing maintenance and enhancements.
◦ The NIS makes sure the computerized system functions properly and explores possible
enhancements to the system that will better serve the users and the patients.
 Identification of computer technologies that can benefit nursing.
◦ The NIS must keep abreast of the changes in the fields of computers and information
technology, including new hardware and software that will benefit the nurse and patient.

Nursing Informatics Specialist

To employ informatics at theories, concepts, methods, tools to analyze information and information
system requirements, design, select, implement and evaluate information systems , data structures ,
and decision-support mechanisms that support patients, medical practitioners, and their human-
computer interaction within healthcare context; and to facilitate the creation of new basic knowledge .

THEORIES IN NURSING INFORMATICS

A. Change Theories
- Computerization of information system involves change, moving from paper-based environment to
a completely paperless environment. It can be minor change depending on the maturity of the
previous system, most importantly the users of the information system.
- Change may be UNPLANNED or PLANNED. (Thede, 2003).

1. Roger’s Diffusion of Innovation Theory (Unplanned Change)

- examines the pattern of acceptance that innovations follow as they spread across the population of
people who adopt it.
Adopters are divided into 5 categories:
Innovators (2.5%)
- Readily adopt the innovation
- Often seen as troublesome
- Are not able to sell others on the innovation
Early Adopters (13.5%)
- Are respectable opinion leaders who act as promoters for the innovation.
Early Majority (34%)
- Are averse to risk of the innovation, but are willing to make safe investments.
Late Majority (34%)
- Adopts innovation because of peer pressure, not because they see the use for the innovation.
Laggards (16%)
- Are suspicious about innovation and change
- Are very stubborn.
- May grasp those weaknesses that others have failed to recognize.

2. Lewin’s Change Theory (Planned Change)

Describes the processes that occur in a planned change into three stages:
 Unfreezing
- Making use of processes that reinforces an individual’s involvement in the change, having their
opinions respected and with continuous communication during the process while reducing
forces that restrains the same individual from committing himself to the process such as
psychological defenses or group norms.
 Moving
- Planned change is implemented where anxieties are high that has to be dealt with
- To be successful, the process should be heavily supported by the administration.
- Users should be involved so that the system serves them rather that creating more work for
them.
- The new system should be well tested prior to implementation, and users be provided with
adequate training.
 Refreezing
- The planned change becomes the norm.
- The users should be made to feel confident with the change and the feel in control of the new
process.
- A help system or support group should be made available to provide answers to their needs.

B. Information Theories
1. Blum’s Theory
Blum stated in 1986 that computer functions can be categorized into three groups:
- One where data is processed
- Another group where information is processed
- And another one where knowledge is processed.
2. Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom Continuum
- Graves and Corcoran based the theory on nursing informatics on data, information, and
knowledge as initiated by Blum
- They regarded that information has various levels of complexity depending on how much
interaction is done to attain it.
 - Data are elements that are uninterpreted and plainly recorded and viewed as is. (e.g., VS, Data
from history taking, lab results and pt’s billing).
- Information comprises interpreted data based on one’s capacities, attitude and behavior.
- A patient’s data may be interpreted by care providers I various ways depending on their
profession, experience, goal and behavior.
- Knowledge is an organized collection of information. All decision support systems are made up
of knowledge bases.
- Wisdom (added by Joos and Nelson) considers the use of ethical, moral, personal, social,
cultural, religious, political and other values in decision making.

C. Cognitive Theories
- Includes mental models, skill acquisition, perception and problem solving that adds an
understanding of how the brain perceives and interprets a computer screen (Turley, 1996).
- Screen elements like types, pictures , and screen properties like colors and resolutions, can
affect clinical judgment.
- The amount of info assimilated by a person into useful pattern is also of concern in cognitive
science.
- Provides principles that may be used to develop systems that concentrate on the tasks at hand,
rather than requiring cognitive tasks to deal with the computer interface.
- It helps a health informaticist in understanding the process during decision making for better
designing of program tools.

Applications of Nursing Informatics Theories

 Automating data entry.
 Sharing of information through network systems
 Knowledge bases and decision support system.
 Knowledge base is not merely a collection of information but rather formed from
interrelationship between the pieces of information
 Knowledge bases and decision support system.
 Decision support system are systems that process information by comparing a selected or an
entered data against a standard set of information also known as a knowledge base.
 Wisdom and expert systems.
 An expert system is a knowledge-based system with built-in procedures for determining when an
how to use knowledge.
 It evaluates data and creates a recommendation simulating what an expert would make given
the same information and situation.
 It is composed of three parts:
- database or knowledge base
- inference engine that includes statistical and analytical methods for processing data.
- a user interface

Information Literacy in Nursing

 In late 1980’s, a fast growing internet called for all nurses to become informative literate.
 Evidenced-based nursing practice, critical thinking, and long-term learning all points to upgrading to
information literacy rather than just computer literacy.
 Information literacy develops search skills by providing information tools. The greater the nurse’s
proficiency in developing search strategies, the greater the value is of the information retrieved.
The American Library Association identified 5 information literacy standards for higher education:
1. Ability to identify information need.
2. Ability to access the information efficiently.
3. Ability to evaluate the veracity and usefulness of an accessed data.
4. Ability to use the information for a specific purpose.
5. Ability to recognize economic, legal, social, and ethical issues surrounding information use.

Ability to identify information need.

- To recognize when information is needed.
- Ability to locate, evaluate, and use the needed information as needed.
- Use the needed information effectively.
- Nurse should be able to determine the scope of an info need by developing recognition of when and
how information can be used to improve patient care.

Ability to access the information efficiently.

- Choosing the best database.
- Find resources in online journals or websites, some of which are free, but others require a fee,
subscription or membership.
- Files retrieved comes in different formats.
- Files may require special plug-in/s to run.
- Nurse should be able to open the file by installing or using the appropriate program.

Ability to evaluate the veracity and usefulness of an accessed data.

- After retrieval of information, the nurse must be able to evaluate and discern the veracity and
usefulness of the information.

Ability to evaluate the veracity and usefulness of an accessed data.

Criteria to evaluate information:
1. Reliable
2. Timely
3. Accurate
4. Verifiable
5. Accessible
6. Useful
7. Disclaimer and feedbacks

Ability to use the information for a specific purpose.

- Used for a very specific purpose why it was retrieved.
- Information must be synthesized and translated into an action plan.
- Information may require the nurse to modify or develop new procedures so it can be implemented
more effectively in the current scenario.

Ability to recognize economic, legal, social, and ethical issues surrounding information use.
- Nurse must be able to understand the ethical, economic, legal and social issues surrounding the use
of that information so she can better handle and make use of the information.
Electronic Websites for Nurses
AMED
 Allied and Complementary Medicine Database
 is a unique bibliographic database produced by the Health Care Information Service of the
British Library.
 It covers a selection of journals in complementary medicine, palliative care, and several
professions allied to medicine.
CINAHL
 is a comprehensive and authoritative source of information for nurses, allied health
professionals, and others interested in health care.
 Cinahl covers all aspects of nursing and allied health disciplines. Seventeen allied health
disciplines are covered: cardiopulmonary technology, dental hygiene, emergency services,
medical/laboratory technology, the medical assisting, athletic training, occupational therapy,
optometry, physical therapy and rehabilitation, the physician's assistant, radiologic technology,
respiratory therapy, social service in health care, speech-language pathology, nutrition and
dietetics, audiology and surgical technology.
MEDLINE
 Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online
 is the U.S. National Library of Medicine's® (NLM) premier bibliographic database that contains
over 16 million references to journal articles in life sciences with a concentration on
biomedicine. A distinctive feature of MEDLINE is that the records are indexed with NLM's
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®).
 The majority of the publications covered in MEDLINE are scholarly journals; a small number of
newspapers, magazines, and newsletters considered useful to particular segments of NLM's
broad user community are also included. For citations added during 2000-2005: about 47% are
for cited articles published in the U.S., about 90% are published in English, and about 79% have
English abstracts written by authors of the articles.
MedlinePlus
 is an online information service produced by the United States National Library of Medicine.
 The service provides curated consumer health information in English and Spanish.
 The site brings together information from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), other U.S. government agencies, and health-related organizations.
 The service is funded by the NLM and is free to users.
 MedlinePlus provides encyclopedic information on health and drug issues, and provides a
directory of medical services. MedlinePlus Connect links patients or providers in electronic
health record (EHR) systems to related MedlinePlus information on conditions or medications.
clinicaltrials.gov
 Covers federally and privately supported clinical researches using human volunteers
MD Consult
 integrates a comprehensive set of full text peer-reviewed resources from over 50 publishers,
medical societies, and government agencies, including 42 online textbooks, full text of 33
biomedical journals, many Clinics of North America, Yearbooks of Medicine, more than 3000
patient education handouts, CME credits online, and sections on what your patients are reading
or hearing in popular media, with links to relevant full-text content on the topic.
 has been replaced by ClinicalKey, which is an upgraded and expanded edition of MD Consult
PsycINFO
  is an expansive abstracting and indexing database with more than 3 million records devoted to
peer-reviewed literature in the behavioral sciences and mental health, making it an ideal
discovery and linking tool for scholarly research in a host of disciplines.
SPORTDiscus
 Covers all aspect of sport, fitness, recreation and related fields.
Health and Wellness Resource Center
 Provides over 700 journals with hundreds of pamphlets many of which are full text.
ProQuest Nursing Journals
 Full-text information from leading nursing and related publications.
 Articles cover a wide range of allied health topics including general nursing, obstetrics, geriatric
care, oncology, and more.
 Designed to meet the needs of researchers at health-care facilities as well as students enrolled
in nursing programs at academic institutions.

The Department of Health (DOH) manages national health bibliographic databases that can be accessed
online.
HERDIN NeON
 is a specialized network of documentation and information centerswhich hosts electronic
collection or database of bibliographic entries of published and unpublished health researches
in the Philippines.
MIMS
 Searchable database that contains drug information such as drug interaction, images, latest drug
updates, diagnoses, patient education on drugs and medical events.
Philippine e-Lib
 The Philippine e-Lib is a collaborative project of the National Library of the Philippines (NLP),
University of the Philippines (UP), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department
of Agriculture (DA), and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED)
 Available resources include: Union catalog of the five partners; Digitized Filipiniana materials
including theses and dissertations; Special collection/researches of the five partners; and, Online
resources/subscription to electronic databases.
Union List of Health Periodicals
 This database contains list of medical and health periodical holdings of the leading medical and
health libraries in the country.
.
Some international health databases favored by DOH:
Medline
The Lancet’s H1Ni Resource Center
 The Lancet's H1N1 Resource Centre is the result of a collaborative effort by the editors of over
40 Elsevier-published journals and 11 learned societies who have agreed to make freely
available on this site any relevant content.
 All of the papers have been selected by a Lancet editor, grouped by topic, and fulltext PDFs have
been made available to download free of charge.
GreenFILE by EBSCO
 This comprehensive resource draws on the connections between the environment and a variety
of disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology.
 Topics covered include global climate change, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture,
renewable energy, recycling and more.
Healthopedia.com
 This is a site where you can find exclusive information related to medical content from A to Z.
 The site is directed to a large amount of medical consumers, interested to know more about
different health issues, such us drug, medications, diseases and specific treatments.
 The content of the web is organized by areas: drugs and medications, medical encyclopedia and
medical centers. In health centers area you can find data related to community and family
issues, and the information is shown in a patient-friendly language (i.e.: psychological abuse).
Memidex
 is a free online dictionary and thesaurus with a simple interface, complete inflections, auto-
suggest, adult-filtering, frequent updates, a browsable index, support for mobile devices, and
millions of external reference links for definitions, audio, and etymology.
PubMedCentral
 is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National
Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM).
WHOLIS
 The library database (WHOLIS) is the collective electronic memory for all WHO documentation.
 It contains bibliographic information with subject headings and, for some records, abstracts.
Separate entries are made for English, French and Spanish versions when available. Other
language versions are indicated in the record.
 In some of the records, there is a field labelled "Electronic Access" which gives a link to the full
text of the documentation.

The Central Library of the DOH has an in-house databases namely:

Online Public Access Catalog
 often abbreviated as OPAC or simply library catalog, is an online database of materials held by a
library or group of libraries. Users search a library catalog principally to locate books and other
material available at a library.
Health News Clippings
 This is a collection of health-related news taken from leading newspapers of the country. It is
searchable by date or keywords.
Serial Holdings
 This a list of journals, magazines and other periodicals available in the DOH Central Library.
RCHSD e-Library
 The Resource Center for Health System Development (RCHSD) is the DOH'S physical and virtual
repository of knowledge products on health sector reform. Its long term goal is to provide and
make available relevant, appropriate and timely information through multimedia resources for
better policy and decision making options.

AUTOMATING THE HOSPITAL INFORMATION SYSTEM

• A hospital information system (HIS) is an element of health informatics that focuses mainly on the
administrational needs of hospitals.
• In many implementations, a HIS is a comprehensive, integrated information system designed to
manage all the aspects of a hospital's operation, such as medical, administrative, financial, and
legal issues and the corresponding processing of services.
• The purpose of a hospital information system (HIS) is to manage the information that health
professionals need to perform their jobs effectively and efficiently.
What is a Hospital Information System?
• It is divided into clinical and non-clinical information systems.
• The clinical division include s medical, nursing, departmental and setting specific information
systems.
• The non-clinical division includes financial, administrative, and personnel information systems.

Clinical Information System

• process data related to patient care.
• Includes documentation in the medical, nursing setting specific areas and departmental systems.

1. Medical Information Systems

- Includes face sheet, patient history, physical assessment, working diagnosis, physician order,
physician’s notes, care and treatment plan, abstract, insurance processing, advance directives, discharge
plan and summary, referral/consultation, and incident report
2. Nursing Information System
- Documentation system includes patient assessment and health condition data, developing care
plans, managing order entry, administering and recording medication and treatment,
developing work list, accessing and viewing clinical information and producing reports.
- Many of the clinical functions are done at point of care.
3. Departmental Systems
- Support daily operation of a clinical department.
- Includes services done by the lab, pharmacy, radiology, cardiology, ……. and other ancillary
departments.
- Functions include receiving patient orders or requests, scheduling patients, equipment and rooms,
print labels and work lists, and maintain inventories.
- The primary benefit of these types of systems is the improved efficiency of individual department.
4. Setting Specific Information Systems
- Include any of the functions already discussed, however, the functions are customized for the
specific setting.
- E.g., emergency room systems, ICUs, OPD and ambulatory care clinics, physician office systems,
nurse center clinics, and home healthcare systems.

Non Clinical Information System

1. Financial Systems
- Include a combination of information systems that are used to manage and report money matters
of an institution.
- Its system keep track of billing and contract monitoring, capital and operating budgets, payroll and
cost accounting.
- It communicates directly with ADT and personnel system.
2. Admission, Discharge, Transfer
- Includes management of registration and assigning of beds and rooms to patients, transfer to other
rooms or facilities and discharging of patients.
- ADT systems track all demographic, employment and health insurance-related data of the patient.
- It has a close link with the financial information system.
3. Personnel Systems
- Include a combination of systems that are used to track characteristics of employees and/or the
use of these employees within the institution.
- It consists of human resource management systems and scheduling systems.
 Human Resource Management Systems
- keeps details about an employee.
 Scheduling Systems.
- used to arrange dates and times an employee will be working or not working.
- these will keep track of his historical record of work, vacation, holiday and sick leaves used.
4. Administrative Systems
- Automate data used in the daily operation of the healthcare institution as well as data used for
strategic and long range planning.
- Consists of classification systems, quality assurance systems, and material management systems.
Classification Systems
- Use patient data to classify patients by the amount and type of care required.
Quality Assurance Systems
- Keep track of outcome of health care delivered to a patient.
- Their information can be used to measure and account on cost-effective quality care
resulting in higher level of patient satisfaction.
Material Management Systems
- Used to manage the supplies and other inventory of the healthcare institution.
- This include a list of material items that can be searched, an interface to budget systems,
an interface to automate reordering of supplies, and an interface equipped with an alert
function to warn of significant increase or decrease of inventory orders.