Chapter3-BINF4515.pptx

Chapter 3

Electronic Health Information Systems

EIM Team Questions

How do we investigate St. Rita’s applications?

Does St. Rita’s have an application inventory?

Where do we start?

St. Rita’s has hundreds of applications

Narrow scope to most commonly used

Clinical applications

Administrative applications

Clinical information systems

Clinical Information Systems (CIS)

Definition

Information systems dedicated to collecting, storing, manipulating, and making available clinical information important to the delivery of patient care

There is no one specified inventory of a CIS that fits all organizations

Clinical Information Systems (CIS)

CIS benefits

Providing access to organized, complete, and legible patient information in a timely way

Improves patient safety and outcomes

Can reduce costs

Improves operations and efficiency

Anesthesia Information Management System (AIMS)

Purpose and functions

Automate the capture, storage, and presentation of data during the intraoperative period

Functions may include

Electronic history taking

Intraoperative charting including manual input and output from monitoring devices

Decision support capabilities

Automated Patient Identification and Bar Coding

Purpose and functions

Also referred to as bar code point of care (BPOC)

Enables use of bar code technology for identifying any individual or object

Used for medication administration, transfusions, specimen collection and diagnostics, point-of-care testing, and patient charges

Clinical Data Repository (CDR)

Purpose and functions

Consolidates data from different clinical source systems (for example, laboratory, pharmacy, and radiology) within an organization to present a unified view of a single patient’s data

Real-time database that updates data immediately when it is entered by a person, directly from a device, or in another manner

Backbone of the electronic medical record (EMR)

Computerized Physician/Provider Order Entry (CPOE)

Purpose and functions

Allows those with ordering privileges to directly enter medical orders such as medications, tests, and treatment

Routes orders to the appropriate departments and individuals for completion

Includes decision support capabilities such as alerts for drug-drug contraindications, drug overdoses, or patient allergies

Critical Care Information System (CCIS)

Purpose and functions

Provides intensive care units (ICU) with automated documentation for collection, management, and display of patient information

Integrates with monitoring

Decision support capabilities

Dietary Department and Management System

Purpose and functions

Supports patient nutritional assessment and management, processing diet meal orders, cancellations and reorders, menu development, patient menu choice, and meal tracking and delivery

Integrates with other systems such as Registration-Admission, Discharge, Transfer (R-ADT) System

Supports departmental administrative functions

Electronic Document Management Systems (EDM)

Purpose and functions

Often called an EHR bridge technology

Electronically scans paper documents, creating a digital image which  can be indexed and stored by the system for retrieval and viewing by end users

May include workflow technology that automatically identifies tasks to be performed  for  preparing and scanning documents

Emergency Department Information System (EDIS)

Purpose and functions

Provides management and operational tools to improve emergency department (ED) performance

May include patient registration, central visualization screen for patient management, management of patient flow, monitoring patient movement throughout the ED, reporting ED room status, managing requests, and notifications for patient beds and resources

Laboratory Information System (LIS)

Purpose and functions

Support administrative and operational functions of anatomical pathology and clinical laboratory

Provides workflow automation, financial and management reporting, and quality assurance

Supports patient and specimen identification, specimen tracking, results reporting, quality control, and inventory control

Includes instrument interfaces

Medication Administration System (MAS)

Purpose and functions

Supports administration of medication to patients

Uses bar code technology

Provides decision support features checking for patient allergies, drug-drug, and drug-lab interactions

Automatically documents medication administration

Interfaces with CPOE, MPI, and other subsystems

Medication Reconciliation Systems

Purpose and functions

Helps manage the coordination of drugs for a patient across the continuum of care to avoid medication discrepancies

May incorporate e-prescribing systems so post-discharge medications orders are electronically transferred to a pharmacy of the patient’s choice

Monitoring Systems

Purpose and functions

Provide periodic or continuous observation of the patient or physiological functions in guiding decisions of therapeutic interventions

Store patient data, provide data electronically to life-support equipment, perform complex data analysis, and provide noise and text alerts to potentially life-threatening conditions to caregivers

Usually associated with critical care units

Nursing Information System

Purpose and functions

Supports nursing documentation for patient assessment, development of patient care plans, and documenting patient care delivery

May include decision support such as prompts and reminders, guides to disease linkages between signs or symptoms, and access to online medical resources

Usually interface with CPOE and other subsystems

Operating Room Management System

Purpose and functions

Provide coordination of human and material resources during pre-operative, intra-operative, and post-operative phases of care

Support clinical documentation, tracking patient status, staffing management, equipment allocation and tracking, scheduling operating room suites, and coordinating patient flow during perioperative period

Usually interface with other subsystems

Patient Care Pathways

Purpose and functions

Multidisciplinary structured care plans that healthcare professionals use to implement clinical guidelines and protocols for a specific patient group, usually based on diagnosis or surgical procedure

Pharmacy Information System

Purpose and functions

Provide verification work lists allowing pharmacists to review, verify, and fill incoming drug orders

Decision support capabilities for contraindication information

May integrate with automated dispensing stations

Perform administrative functions such as inventory management and stock requisition

Real Time Locator System

Purpose and functions

Identifies, determines, and tracks the location of equipment, materials, and personnel, and in the case of healthcare patients, throughout a building or healthcare complex using wireless technology

Radiology Information System (RIS)

Purpose and functions

Support workflow of departmental functions and communication within and outside the radiology department

Includes patient scheduling, patient tracking, and results reporting, digital transcription

May include materials management, charge capture, and management reporting

Interfaces with other subsystems such as CPOE, MPI

Radiology Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS)

Purpose and functions

Provides storage and access to images from various modalities such as x-ray computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), mammograms, and digital radiography

Usually integrates with other subsystems such as MPI

Results Reporting, Retrieval, and Management

Purpose and functions

Provides the functionality to retrieve patient data such as  laboratory reports and diagnostic studies such as radiology reports

May allow results management which is manipulation of data for graphing or comparison purposes of data from multiple source systems

Administrative information systems

Administrative Information Systems

A suite of applications that support organizational strategic and operational management

Many of these systems could be referred  to as dual purpose because they provide support for both administrative and clinical functions  

Registration-Admission, Discharge, Transfer (R-ADT) Systems

Purpose and functions

One of the backbone applications of a health information system

Captures patient demographic, insurance, and other administrative data at registration or admission

Tracks a patient when  there is an intra-facility transfer from one care area to another and identifies the date and time the physician discharges the patient  

Automated Diagnostic Coding

Purpose and functions

Automated tools to help assign diagnostic and procedures codes such as ICD codes

May included a series of edit checks based on classification rules to help ensure that code assignment is correct

Use heuristic logic to assign a diagnostic-related-group (DRG)

May include national language processing to interpret digital reports

Bed Management System

Purpose and functions

Automates the process of assigning a patient to a specific hospital care unit

Includes tracking bed inventory, categorizing bed requests, managing patient queues, and managing environmental services for room preparation

Business Intelligence (BI) Management

Purpose and functions

Collects data from various subsystems, both clinical and administrative, and uses sophisticated analysis programs to analyze performance against key indicators or measures

Used for clinical performance management, financial analysis, cost accounting and budgeting, and process performance management

Data warehouse used for data storage and retrieval

Financial Information Systems

Purpose and functions

An umbrella of financial systems that rely on data from both clinical and administrative information systems

Includes patient and payer billing, claims management, accounts payable and receivable, collection monitoring, staff scheduling, budgeting, accounting, revenue cycle management, and facility maintenance

Inpatient Scheduling Systems

Purpose and functions

Support care coordination and manage inpatient scheduling for diagnostic exams, tests, and treatments

Sometimes referred to as inpatient flow management systems

Master Patient Index

Purpose and functions

Automatically assigns a unique patient identifier (medical  or health record number) to a patient and is a permanent identifier for each patient who receives services at a healthcare facility

Contains a subset of information that identifies the patient such as name, date of birth, gender, and address, and is considered the “ system of record” for patient identification  

Master Patient Index (MPI)

Purpose and functions

The unique identifier maps to other source systems and is a key to identifying data about a patient’s multiple hospitalizations or encounters

When an MPI is developed for an entire enterprise that has multiple facilities or groups, it is usually referred to an enterprise master patient index (EMPI)

Example of MPI Screen

Record Completion Management System

Purpose and functions

Automates managing workflow for documentation deficiency analysis, routing deficiency notices to the correct clinician for completion, and tracking record deficiencies and their completion

Data from the system supports administrative analysis of record deficiencies and workflow

Request for and Release of Health Information Management System

Purpose and functions

Supports the capture of data that tracks disclosure of health information and monitors and tracks requests from patients for their own information

May integrate with a document management system so scanned copies of requests and other correspondence can be captured and stored within the system  

Workforce Management System

Purpose and functions

Support staffing needs assessments and workforce balance, capacity planning, and clinical staff scheduling

Generates various administrative reports to determine future appropriate staffing levels

System interoperability

Interoperability

Definition

The ability of different information technology systems to exchange data with each other and to use that data

Difference between data exchange and interoperability

Essential for EHRs and HIEs

Levels of Interoperability

Foundational interoperability

Lowest level of interoperability

Allows one system to exchange data with another

The target system cannot interpret the data

Levels of Interoperability

Structural interoperability

Intermediate level of interoperability

Allows one system to exchange data with another system in a common data format and structure

Retains the identification of the data

Levels of Interoperability

Semantic interoperability

Highest level of interoperability

Exchanges data in standard format and preserves its meaning by adding metadata and linking each data element to a controlled vocabulary

Allows target system to interpret and use the exchanged data

Computer Interfaces

Specialized software that allows computer systems to communicate with each other

Required to achieve interoperability

Point-to-point interface development

Interface engine

Computer Networks

A communication network consisting of

A transmitter that sends data,

A receiver that receives data, and

A medium that connects the transmitter and receiver and provides the pathway for the transmission of the data

Essential for interoperability

Computer Networks

Network computers

Client computer accesses shared resources

Server computer provides a variety of shared resources

Computer Networks

Network types

Bus topology

Star topology

Ring topology

Mesh topology

St. rita’s EIM team Conclusions and Next Steps

EIM Team Conclusions

The variety of clinical and administrative applications required for organization operations makes management of these complex

There is interdependency among clinical and administrative applications

Lack of standards makes interoperability among systems difficult

An inventory of applications should be a top priority for St. Rita’s

EIM Team Next Steps

Armed with knowledge about the history of information systems development in healthcare and an understanding of the clinical and administrative applications that make these systems, the team is ready to explore the components and what constitutes an EIM program.