Case study
If you’ve ever filled out a patient profile or medical history form for a family physician you’ve
had a good introduction to the complexities of medical record keeping. Such forms typically
consist of several pages including dozens of questions about not only your own medical
history but also your parents’, siblings, and entire family tree’s. As your life progresses and
you experience the typical medical complications, your medical history becomes larger and
more complex. Some of this information is added to your medical records by physicians;
other information depends on your own recollections. If you switch doctors, you face the
danger of having to start over form scratch.
Keeping up with patient records, along with continuously changing medical knowledge, is a
considerable challenge for hospitals and the healthcare industry. This information
management challenge has sparked the creation of a new area of specialized research
known as medical informatics. The Department of Medical Informatics at Columbia
University defines medical informatics as the scientific field that deals with the storage,
retrieval, sharing, and optimal use of biomedical information, data, and knowledge for problem solving and decision making. In short, medical informatics deals with information
systems for the medical community.
GE Medical Systems is an $8 billion global leader in medical imaging, healthcare services,
and information technology, and it is a pioneer in the medical informatics industry. It is
working on several fronts to provide solutions to the complexities of medical record keeping.
The Indiana Heart Hospital in Indianapolis has partnered with GE Medical Systems to build
the nation’s first all digital cardiac hospital. At this new paperless facility, doctors and nurses
are able to access patient records and other medical information inside or outside the
hospital from a Pocket PC or similar wireless, handheld computer. The new sCase study
If you’ve ever filled out a patient profile or medical history form for a family physician you’ve
had a good introduction to the complexities of medical record keeping. Such forms typically
consist of several pages including dozens of questions about not only your own medical
history but also your parents’, siblings, and entire family tree’s. As your life progresses and
you experience the typical medical complications, your medical history becomes larger and
more complex. Some of this information is added to your medical records by physicians;
other information depends on your own recollections. If you switch doctors, you face the
danger of having to start over form scratch.
Keeping up with patient records, along with continuously changing medical knowledge, is a
considerable challenge for hospitals and the healthcare industry. This information
management challenge has sparked the creation of a new area of specialized research
known as medical informatics. The Department of Medical Informatics at Columbia
University defines medical informatics as the scientific field that deals with the storage,
retrieval, sharing, and optimal use of biomedical information, data, and knowledge for problem solving and decision making. In short, medical informatics deals with information
systems for the medical community.
GE Medical Systems is an $8 billion global leader in medical imaging, healthcare services,
and information technology, and it is a pioneer in the medical informatics industry. It is
working on several fronts to provide solutions to the complexities of medical record keeping.
The Indiana Heart Hospital in Indianapolis has partnered with GE Medical Systems to build
the nation’s first all digital cardiac hospital. At this new paperless facility, doctors and nurses
are able to access patient records and other medical information inside or outside the
hospital from a Pocket PC or similar wireless, handheld computer. The new system does
away with the need for nursing stations and medical records file rooms. This all-digital
hospital has the highest degree of technology infusion and diffusion – all for efficiency and
accuracy.
The system that GE has installed, the Centricity Information System, is an enterprisewide
clinical information system that integrates patient information–including images, diagnostic
readings, and medical history—from every area of the hospital into a single electronic record
that can span a patient’s entire lifetime. Bringing this variety of information into one easily
accessible, centralized system will save healthcare professionals valuable time. Current
healthcare trends, including nursing shortages, make the all-digital concept crucial,’’ David
Veillette, – boomers means we have to find more efficient ways to take care of three times
as many Patients, with staffing levels that will be decreasing”, he said. “The only way to do
that is with information technology.” With electronic records, hospital personnel won't have to
struggle to read someone else’s handwriting because data will be entered with a keyboard.
Also, doctors and nurses won’t have to search for paper files—reducing the possibility of
errors, according to hospital officials. GE Medical Systems has an operations staff at the
hospital to maintain the system and provide support to the medical staff.
GE Medical Systems has a vision of a massive healthcare network that can be accessed by
any subscribing healthcare provider, where a patient’s medical experience can be merged
into a single electronic record that spans care given throughout the healthcare network. This
practice echoes a common information management strategy used in all industries: digitize
centralize, and deliver. Digitize all data and information so that it can be stored electronically,
store it centrally so that all information is accessed through one system, and then create
easy access to that system. In most industries, creating effective and efficient information
systems saves the company money and helps it gain a competitive advantage. In the
healthcare industry, an effective and efficient information system saves lives.
Questions:
(a) How will the staffing of the Indiana Heart Hospital differ from that of a traditional
hospital?
(b) What type of privacy issues arise when developing a central healthcare network? What
types of medical information might some patients want to keep private? What policies
and procedures might be developed to safeguard private patient information?
If you’ve ever filled out a patient profile or medical history form for a family physician you’ve
had a good introduction to the complexities of medical record keeping. Such forms typically
consist of several pages including dozens of questions about not only your own medical
history but also your parents’, siblings, and entire family tree’s. As your life progresses and
you experience the typical medical complications, your medical history becomes larger and
more complex. Some of this information is added to your medical records by physicians;
other information depends on your own recollections. If you switch doctors, you face the
danger of having to start over form scratch.
Keeping up with patient records, along with continuously changing medical knowledge, is a
considerable challenge for hospitals and the healthcare industry. This information
management challenge has sparked the creation of a new area of specialized research
known as medical informatics. The Department of Medical Informatics at Columbia
University defines medical informatics as the scientific field that deals with the storage,
retrieval, sharing, and optimal use of biomedical information, data, and knowledge for problem solving and decision making. In short, medical informatics deals with information
systems for the medical community.
GE Medical Systems is an $8 billion global leader in medical imaging, healthcare services,
and information technology, and it is a pioneer in the medical informatics industry. It is
working on several fronts to provide solutions to the complexities of medical record keeping.
The Indiana Heart Hospital in Indianapolis has partnered with GE Medical Systems to build
the nation’s first all digital cardiac hospital. At this new paperless facility, doctors and nurses
are able to access patient records and other medical information inside or outside the
hospital from a Pocket PC or similar wireless, handheld computer. The new sCase study
If you’ve ever filled out a patient profile or medical history form for a family physician you’ve
had a good introduction to the complexities of medical record keeping. Such forms typically
consist of several pages including dozens of questions about not only your own medical
history but also your parents’, siblings, and entire family tree’s. As your life progresses and
you experience the typical medical complications, your medical history becomes larger and
more complex. Some of this information is added to your medical records by physicians;
other information depends on your own recollections. If you switch doctors, you face the
danger of having to start over form scratch.
Keeping up with patient records, along with continuously changing medical knowledge, is a
considerable challenge for hospitals and the healthcare industry. This information
management challenge has sparked the creation of a new area of specialized research
known as medical informatics. The Department of Medical Informatics at Columbia
University defines medical informatics as the scientific field that deals with the storage,
retrieval, sharing, and optimal use of biomedical information, data, and knowledge for problem solving and decision making. In short, medical informatics deals with information
systems for the medical community.
GE Medical Systems is an $8 billion global leader in medical imaging, healthcare services,
and information technology, and it is a pioneer in the medical informatics industry. It is
working on several fronts to provide solutions to the complexities of medical record keeping.
The Indiana Heart Hospital in Indianapolis has partnered with GE Medical Systems to build
the nation’s first all digital cardiac hospital. At this new paperless facility, doctors and nurses
are able to access patient records and other medical information inside or outside the
hospital from a Pocket PC or similar wireless, handheld computer. The new system does
away with the need for nursing stations and medical records file rooms. This all-digital
hospital has the highest degree of technology infusion and diffusion – all for efficiency and
accuracy.
The system that GE has installed, the Centricity Information System, is an enterprisewide
clinical information system that integrates patient information–including images, diagnostic
readings, and medical history—from every area of the hospital into a single electronic record
that can span a patient’s entire lifetime. Bringing this variety of information into one easily
accessible, centralized system will save healthcare professionals valuable time. Current
healthcare trends, including nursing shortages, make the all-digital concept crucial,’’ David
Veillette, – boomers means we have to find more efficient ways to take care of three times
as many Patients, with staffing levels that will be decreasing”, he said. “The only way to do
that is with information technology.” With electronic records, hospital personnel won't have to
struggle to read someone else’s handwriting because data will be entered with a keyboard.
Also, doctors and nurses won’t have to search for paper files—reducing the possibility of
errors, according to hospital officials. GE Medical Systems has an operations staff at the
hospital to maintain the system and provide support to the medical staff.
GE Medical Systems has a vision of a massive healthcare network that can be accessed by
any subscribing healthcare provider, where a patient’s medical experience can be merged
into a single electronic record that spans care given throughout the healthcare network. This
practice echoes a common information management strategy used in all industries: digitize
centralize, and deliver. Digitize all data and information so that it can be stored electronically,
store it centrally so that all information is accessed through one system, and then create
easy access to that system. In most industries, creating effective and efficient information
systems saves the company money and helps it gain a competitive advantage. In the
healthcare industry, an effective and efficient information system saves lives.
Questions:
(a) How will the staffing of the Indiana Heart Hospital differ from that of a traditional
hospital?
(b) What type of privacy issues arise when developing a central healthcare network? What
types of medical information might some patients want to keep private? What policies
and procedures might be developed to safeguard private patient information?