Health Information Systems Report

Thuku D Maina
5 min readMay 31, 2022

Introduction

HIS’s integrate data collection, processing, publishing, and use of information to enhance the efficacy and effectiveness of health services through better management at all health care levels (Wang, 2018). They’ve been hailed as a crucial tool for healthcare reform. Health information systems also handle data on the behavior of clinicians and health entities. They may be combined to enhance the quality of care, inform research, and influence policy and decision-making. Because health information systems frequently access, evaluate, or store large amounts of personal data, security is a primary responsibility.

Integrating healthcare information systems in hospitals entails simply connecting databases; information is sent to a global healthcare integrated system. According to Kaur and Hani (2015), there is also a need for healthcare continuity and information interchange both inside and beyond the health sector, which has prompted an urgent appeal for the effective deployment of WHO’s health care information system. HIS’s are comprehensive, interconnected, and specialized information systems that help hospitals manage their administrative, financial, and clinical operations. The use of HIS’s in hospitals has ushered in a round-the-clock change from old, paper-based methods to computerized processes, ensuring the delivery of healthcare and improving the quality of services.

The Statistics and their Significance

Descriptive statistics have been utilized in the different studies. There was a 50% decrease in rheumatoid inflammation among arthritis patients when Patient-Focused Registries were introduced in the Swedish Rheumatology (Nelson, 2016). The patient-centered registry has been proved to help patients track their symptoms and have them in control. The data collected has had a significant impact on how health services are delivered, as discussed below.

HIS’s usage in hospitals has risen in recent years; they are used to record, process, store, retrieve, share, and show data for better hospital decision-making. By utilizing the platforms, healthcare practitioners progressively exchange clinical data with other clinicians worldwide caring for the same patient. The usage of healthcare information systems in hospitals is thought to improve readability, reduce medical mistakes, lower medical expenses, and raise healthcare quality.

HIS’s provide a lot of potential advantages over traditional medical records. They save money. They raise the standard of care and reduce drug administration mistakes (Wang, 2018). In hospitals, the capacity to electronically capture, integrate, and evaluate data and information has allowed administrators and clinicians to swiftly shift from knowledge synthesis to wisdom development, which they may apply to patient care.

It has created a complicated ecosystem of heterogeneous, dispersed, and omnipresent information systems that speak various languages, integrate medical equipment, and modify many entities, all established by different persons with different purposes in mind. Healthcare information systems can improve patient care and healthcare provider performance, resulting in higher quality and more cost-effective hospital care. With most healthcare personnel opting to employ hospital information systems, they can explain the hospital system’s strength or weakness and its implementation inside the hospital. Furthermore, the primary purpose of healthcare information systems is to provide effective and high-quality healthcare and support hospital management development, simplification, and improvement. As technology advances and electronic healthcare records become more ubiquitous, patients and professionals aim toward a safer, more personalized form of healthcare provision. Patients are healthcare consumers who have witnessed the fundamental change in health-information availability and alterations in information.

How HIS Gather and Analyze Data

Health system policy formulation and execution, governance and legislation, biomedical research, capacity building, health training, education, service delivery, and finance require sound and trustworthy information. Data creation, compilation, analysis and interpretation, and transmission and usage are the four major tasks of the health information system, which offer sound decision-making foundations (Nutley, 2013). Data from the health sector and other related areas is collected through the health information system. It checks and confirms the data’s overall quality, importance, and timeliness before converting it into information for health-related decisions.

The information system is required for assessment and monitoring, but it also serves broader goals by providing alert and early warning capabilities and supporting patients and healthcare facility management. It helps a broad spectrum of users with planning, scientific research and stimulation, health condition and trend analysis, global reporting, and health problem communication is meaningless if the information is not available in formats that meet the needs of a wide range of users, including legislators, planners, managers, clinicians, communities, and individuals. Consequently, the distribution and communication capabilities of the health information systems are crucial.

Conclusion

In hospitals around the country, healthcare information systems are frequently employed. The technologies are used to track patients, admittance dates, and hospitals and manage their medical information electronically from many sources. It also aids in the analysis of healthcare data to make better decisions. Current healthcare information system failures may be prevented by utilizing trustworthy systems designed with confidentiality and protection in mind and increasing awareness of the technologies’ potential in hospitals.

The confidentiality, security, and privacy of patients’ data are primary considerations impacting services and healthcare information system products in the industrialized world. Individuals must decide when, how, and to what degree information is shared with others. Electronic health and mobile health technology are crucial problems for promoting equal access to healthcare due to a scarcity of healthcare personnel.

Appendices

H I S- Health Information System

WHO-World Health Organization

References

Nelson, E. C., Dixon-Woods, M., Batalden, P. B., Homa, K., Van Citters, A. D., Morgan, T. S., … & Lindblad, S. (2016). Patient-focused registries can improve health, care, and science. Bmj, 354.

Nutley, T., & Reynolds, H. (2013). Improving the use of health data for health system strengthening. Global health action, 6(1), 20001.

Kaur, K., & Rani, R. (2015). Managing data in healthcare information systems: many models, one solution. Computer, 48(3), 52–59.

Tiase, V. L., Hull, W., McFarland, M. M., Sward, K. A., Del Fiol, G., Staes, C., … & Cummins, M. R. (2020). Patient-generated health data and electronic health record integration: a scoping review. JAMIA Open, 3(4), 619–627.

Wang, Y., Kung, L., & Byrd, T. A. (2018). Big data analytics: Understanding its capabilities and potential benefits for healthcare organizations. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 126, 3–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2015.12.019

Ma, X., Wang, Z., Zhou, S., Wen, H., & Zhang, Y. (2018, June). Intelligent healthcare systems assisted by data analytics and mobile computing. In 2018 14th International Wireless Communications & Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC) (pp. 1317–1322). IEEE.

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Thuku D Maina

Freelance Writer, Articles writer, Copywriter and academic writer