Hospital Information System, a Tool for Effective Decision Making of Healthcare Managers

Document Type : Review

Authors

1 Department of Medical Information, Faculty of Health Service Management and Medical Science, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

2 South Khoran Province Health Center, Birjand University of Medical Science, Birjnd, Iran

3 Health management and economics research center, Isfahan University of medical science, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

Statistics and information are considered the most important source of power in organizations and the source for all managerial activities. If correct and comprehensive information are readily at hand, incorrect decisions will be reduced to a minimum. The purpose of this study is to review the effects of hospital information system in regards to effectiveness of decisions made by managers. The present study is a review and search of relevant articles in authentic national and international databases including articles from 2001 to 2016. Keywords used were: health information system, hospital information system, etc. Seventy articles were obtained from the search and 32 (abstracts and whole articles) were ultimately selected after removing irrelevant articles. During initial review, abstracts were first read and if needed the entire article was studied. Results of this review indicate that hospital information system play a significant role in improving hospital management performance along with performance of medical staff. Use of such systems were highly recommended in all articles. Application of such systems has also been considered amongst main requirements of managerial development. Also, most articles claimed that managerial decision making based on real information lead to increased performance and progress of management and ultimately increased hospital effectiveness and performance. In conclusion, hospitals must create and develop hospital information systems and recruit trained experts in providing practical information and knowledge in order to improve their current status.

Keywords