HOSPITAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS

A hospital information systems (HIS) is a computer system that is designed to manage all the hospital’s medical and administrative information in order to enable health professional perform their jobs effectively and efficiently.
Hospital information systems were first developed in the 1960s and have been an essential part in hospital information management and administration. Early systems consisted of large central computers connected to by dumb terminals, which are now being replaced by networked microcomputers. The systems were used to manage patient finance and hospital inventory.

Hospital information systems now focus on the integration of all clinical, financial and administrative applications and thus could also be called an integrated hospital information processing systems (IHIPS).
Components of a hospital information system consist of two or more of the following:
Clinical Information System (CIS)
Financial Information System (FIS)
Laboratory Information System (LIS)
Nursing Information Systems (NIS)
Pharmacy Information System (PIS)
Picture Archiving Communication System (PACS)
Radiology Information System (RIS)
A look at the list above shows how complex a hospital information system can be. Advancement in computer technology and the development of information exchange standards such HL7 and DICOM, make the task administering and integrating such systems a little more easier.
No hospital information system can be regarded as a success unless it has the full participation of its users. Thus human and social factors would have to be considered in its design, more often than not, they can be easily addressed by providing adequate training and education about the system.



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