Essay on "Computerized Hospital Management Systems"

Essay 6 pages (2566 words) Sources: 6

[EXCERPT] . . . .

1). Clinical system sophistication varies widely from hospital to hospital and has the strongest presence in tertiary care centers and teaching hospitals. Some hospitals have become nearly "paperless" due to the installation of leading edge clinical information systems. Whereas the typical hospital only has about 3 to 5 of its budget allocated toward information systems, these medical centers often have a much greater percentage earmarked for such systems (Metfessel 2007, p. 6). Both budget outlays and implementation strategies for these systems are highly variable and require much deliberation and foresight. The start-up costs of these systems can vary from several hundred thousand dollars for a departmental system in a community hospital to tens of millions of dollars for EMR systems in large centers. In addition, ROI calculations become more subjective, as ROI is more dependent on cost avoidance (e.g., from fewer medical errors, more efficient work processes) rather than revenue generation. However, improvements in quality of care from well thought-out system development and implementation can still provide significant financial returns (Metfessel ibid). Improved quality of healthcare is very likely to lead to cost reduction in our hospital for the following reasons: Expedited ordering process and reduced time from ordering to execution; automated documentation standardizing process; remote access to system; elimination of duplicate orders; reduction in order verification and processing time; improved charge capture; reduction in length of stay (LOS) and cost per admit; reduced data entry needs; decrease in medical malpractice exposure; alternative medication suggestions including alternative cost-saving tests and formula medications (Metfessel, 2007, p. 14). Furthermore, significant decreases in resource utilization can occur. In one study, inpatient costs were 12% lower and average Length of Stay (LOS) was 0.89 day shorter for patients residing on general medicine wards that used a CPOE system with decision support. Rather simple decision support tools can reap cost benefits as well. When a computerized antibiotic advisor was integrated with the ordering process, one institution realized a reduction in costs per patient ($26,325 vs. $35,283) and average LOS (10.0 days vs. 12.9 days), with all differences statistically significant (Metfessel ibid).

F. Discuss the benefits these new systems can offer to patient care and nursing care delivery

I would recommend that our small 100 bed community hospital buys the following two hospital management systems: Hospital Information System (HIS) with few full-time equivalents (FTEs) per 100 beds for very basic off-site processing systems that would include a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system. In my opinion, ELECTRA and Microsoft Dynamics GP would be equally choices for our small hospital that has limited financial and personnel resources. For our hospital, investments in more complex and sophisticated management systems are not affordable. According to my research on the matter, many vendors offer "stripped down" versions of their systems at a more affordable price, specifically tailored to the unique needs of a small hospital (see Metfessel, 2007, p. 10). I think that the software product suite ELECTRA would be a good choice for our hospital for the following reasons: ELECTRA is advertised as being very accurate in its approach to allow for efficient healthcare management and cutting healthcare costs and suits all environments including small one such as our 100 bed community hospital. ELECTRA contains all the modules imperative for an efficient hospital management systems such as Electronic Medical Records (EMR), PACs Radiology, Nursing and Ward Management, Service Order Processing and many others (see Hospital Information Management System p. 1). The other system I would recommend to buy is Microsoft Dynamics GP, formerly known as Great Plains (see Spitzer & Cerullo, 2006, p. 1). The system has the following benefits: It allows for quick implementation with best practices with a reasonable amount of effort and in a small hospital's time frame. Furthermore it is flexible enough to give our hospital the controls needed around its process improvements without having to customize every detail of a system and built it from the ground up (see Spitzer & Cerullo, 2006, p. 8). In addition, the product is said to provide additional flexibility because its modules are not very expensive and will therefore fit into the hospital's tight budget (see Spitzer & Cerullo ibid). Both systems could increase the quality of care in our hospital because they allow for the integration of disparate information systems in the operative environment. This will ensure access to medical information that is typically unseen or unused. Currently, different departments of our hospital do not have any electronic communication with each other. Duplicate data are kept in separate systems. This creates additional work to enter the data multiple times. This is a waste of precious time that we all, doctors, nurses and technicians could be far better made use of for the benefit of the in-house care of our patients. In comparison, through a collaborative effort, a variety of information systems and surgical equipment are being integrated. This provides improved context-sensitive information display and decision support and improved access to information to improve workflow, safety and visualization of information that was previously unattainable (Meyer et al., 2005). Just-in-time access to information is essential in the operative environment yet much of information flow occurs from disparate systems and goes unrecorded, unseen or unutilized. An integrative approach to surgical information management would increase nurses' access to information, decrease stale or duplicate data, and potentially improve operative and peri-operative safety (see Meyer et al. ibid).

List of References

Berczuk, C. June 2008. The Lean Hospital. 1-5. The Hospitalist, June 2008. 1-5. Accessed 16 March 2012.

Cached - Similar

Dugas, M. & Eckholt, M. & and Bunzemeier, H. (2008). Benchmarking of hospital information systems: Monitoring of discharge letters and scheduling can reveal heterogeneities and time trends. 1-6. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making 2008, 8:15 doi:10.1186/1472-6947-8-15. Accessed 16 March 2012.



Dunn, D. (2009). 5 Key Principles for Hospitals from Toyota's Lean Production System. 1-3.

Accessed 16 March 2012.



Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) (An electronic Management)

(2012). Accessed 17 March 2012.

< www.acgil.com/products/hospital_management_system_001.htmCached - Similar>

Cached -- Similar

Meyer, M. et al. (2005). Integration of Hospital Information Systems, Operative and Peri-operative Information Systems, and Operative Equipment into a Single Information

Display. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2005; 2005: 1054. Accessed 16 March 2012.

... > AMIA Annu Symp Proc > v.2005; 2005>Similar

Metfessel, B.A. (2007). Financial and Clinical… READ MORE

How to Reference "Computerized Hospital Management Systems" Essay in a Bibliography

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