The best of breed approach to the health care information system was designed to provide support in the emergency department, where workforce requirements are complex. The key benefit of using the best of breed approach for IT systems implementation is its ability to allow healthcare providers to share information in an easy and secure manner. This allows medical providers to make the treatment process faster and cheaper than other approaches, since they have ready access to electronic medical records. This access also allows physicians to view the patient’s medical history, allowing them to offer a complete diagnosis (AT&T, 2010).
The monolithic approach uses a single vendor to provide connectivity, complete harmonization and uniform workflow among all participants in the network. The main advantage of the single vendor approach is the ability of participants to share workflow and methodology within the coordinated system. Monolithic systems help to minimize the number of integrations required, while ensuring that the system will work efficiently (dbMotion, 2008).
Patients are increasingly dynamic since they seek medical care in different locations and healthcare organizations, which results in scattered medical records, making it difficult for emergency room physicians to provide the best diagnosis based on available information. Consequently, the best of breed systems is preferable to the monolithic approach. For emergency physicians, the enhanced functionality and integration provided in the multi-vendor approach is superior to the specialized applications used in the monolithic system. Unlike the monolithic system, the multi-vendor approach is designed to support the demanding and unique workflow in the emergency department so as to respond to the patients quickly and deliver the much needed care (AT&T, 2010).
Administrative and clinical information systems are used to define various groups of components that work together to provide the end user with information in a timely manner. These systems can be either manually operated or automated. Two examples of administrative systems are the case management information systems and the core business systems.
The case management information systems (CMIS) provide case managers with the required information in situations where the patient requirements are expensive and complex. Such patient populations include the elderly and patients of chronic disease conditions. CMIS are used to assimilate large amounts of data that are gathered over a long period of time, combining medical patterns from one medical visit to the next over the patient’s lifetime. Information is gathered and processed to minimize health risks and reduce treatment costs by ensuring quality care.
Core business systems, on the other hand, improve the administrative duties in health care organizations by providing a framework for settlement, quality control and resource allocation. There are four core business systems namely the financial, acuity, scheduling and admission, discharge and transfer systems. Financial systems are used to control the income and expenditure of healthcare organizations. Acuity systems are used to assess the variety of patient types seeking treatments in a healthcare organization based on defined indicators. Scheduling systems are used to coordinate bed and equipment allocation, as well as staff and service management. Lastly, ADT systems are used to provide a support framework for other healthcare systems including business and clinical systems.
There are several types of clinical systems that are used to provide quality patient care by providing real-time patient data. An example is the pharmacy information system, which streamlines the various operations within a pharmacy including ordering, managing and dispensing medications. Another example is the laboratory information system, which was a pioneer information system in health care. These systems are used to provide information regarding blood, tissue and body fluid samples. Laboratory information systems are also used to report biological specimens’ data from a central laboratory (Zytkowski & Paschke, 2009).
References
AT&T. (2010). eHealth Initiatives Improve Patient Care, Cut Costs. Market Brief.
dbMotion. (2008). The critical role of integrated patient information in the delivery of high quality healthcare. dbMotion White Paper.
Zytkowski, M., & Paschke, S. M. (2009). Administrative and Clinical Health Information Systems. Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge.