Healthcare Discussion: Information Systems (Essay Sample)

Healthcare Discussion 2
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Healthcare Discussion 2
The literature on health information systems (HIS) has been wholly outlined with information to affirm that healthcare is a complex field. HIS is designed to manage healthcare data by collecting, storing, and transmitting all the patient electronic medical records in the hospital operation. Notably, HIS is a supportive system that facilitates healthcare policies and other decisions in the hospital setting. Indeed, the implementation of HIS systems simplifies the structure and processes in clinical business management. Therefore, healthcare administrators need to understand the architecture of HIS and the pros and cons of enterprise medical information systems (EHIS). The paper describes the principal features in the HIS and EHIS architecture while developing the methods used to analyze HIS architecture.
HIS Architecture
Hospital information systems (HIS) are developed in sections united to provide one information-sharing network. The basic architecture of the HIS systems sets different sections in the technical framework of the hospital by focusing on the data on patient needs. Most hospitals have developed or adopted electronic health records to integrate patient data and related needs as the primary system development (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2017). The developed systems have a broad integration of informatic aspects such as medical communications related to prescription, administration, or related financial services in the hospital. The HIS architecture is designed to perform information recording activities on all aspects of the patient interaction with the hospital. HIS systems are linked in a series that subject communication of core healthcare information to the result management, decisional support, order management, reporting, and patient support. Therefore, HIS uses one complex software or many organized systems to facilitate a process-based extension of wide-ranged information coordination to address all medical needs in a hospital.
Why Healthcare Administrators need to Understand HIS Architecture
The application of HIS introduces a series of data handling software that is integrated with an effort to leverage and improve patient outcomes. So, HIS poses a pressing need to the healthcare staff to understand its logistics and smoothen the information flow from research to policymaking to decision making while maintaining a high volume of sensitive data in electronic systems (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2017). HIS is designed to help healthcare professionals in obtaining data related to patient history. In this light, the administrator needs to understand the architecture to pull the specific user accounts and details effectively. An understanding of the HIS improves the drug tracking services minimizing the medical errors in the healthcare systems. Therefore, detailed knowledge of the HIS architecture improves pharmacological utilization and other services in the healthcare setting.
Enterprise Hospital Information System (EHIS)
Enterprise architecture is a connection tool that links business information and information technology. Enterprise health information systems (EHIS) have been designed to capture comprehensive patient information in healthcare. The scope of EHIS spread to the continuum of care that is integrated with healthcare delivery models. Under EHIS, the health records are collected and stored in multiple media forms such as prints, videos, and audio files (Mistades, 2017). Primarily, the EHIS is designed to assimilate various modes of information that can help recover history from medical occurrences such as lab tests or medical images. All records in the EHIS are stored in warehouses that are physically accessible to enhance easier retrieval of healthcare information.
The flexibility of the EHIS is designed to accommodate alternative records that capture logical data and virtually assemble the documents to meet the patient requirements. Hence, EHIS has many virtual programs that compile data and analytical comments used in each case, making it ideal for retrieving patient data under different professional standards as desired (Mistades, 2017). Fundamentally, the EHIS system's characteristics focus on the welfare of the patients instead of the departments or disciplines involved. Therefore, the data in these systems relate to the patient's characteristics receiving healthcare services from multiple settings with a standard organizational structure. Generally, EHIS consists of workflow management, functional integration, and data integration in healthcare information systems.
Advantages
EHIS systems are beneficial because they combine all the healthcare information in one software, allowing easier retrieval from professional healthcare. Further, the system records all healthcare transactions professionally and allows effective management of the healthcare operations. Additionally, the system has an effective way of accessing healthcare information because it organizes data professionally. The correlation of the healthcare settings with similar healthcare structures allows escalation of healthcare data as a single enterprise (Mistades, 2017). EHIS automates all the practices and workflow management in the organization by automating the functions that enhance faster information transfer across different healthcare departments in a hospital. Besides, the systems also improve the coordination of operants dealing with interrelated departments allowing easy tracing of the involved activities.
Disadvantages
The main con of the EHIS is the implementation cost and the expenses incurred during regular maintenance of the systems. Besides, the systems require robust supervision and regulation to maintain a bugless flow of the processes. In the EHIS systems, there exists a limited scope of customization because it entails many intertwined processes that