Design and Implementation of Health Information Systems [Paperback]

This book provides a practical guide to the design and implementation of health information systems in developing countries. Noting that most existing systems fail to deliver timely reliable and relevant information the book responds to the urgent need to restructure systems and make them work as both a resource for routine decisions and a powerful tool for improving health services. With this need in mind the authors draw on their extensive personal experiences to map out strategies pinpoint common pitfalls and guide readers through a host of conceptual and technical options. Information needs at all levels - from patient care to management of the national health system - are considered in this comprehensive guide. Recommended lines of action are specific to conditions seen in government-managed health systems in the developing world. In view of common constraints on time and resources the book concentrates on strategies that do not require large resources highly trained staff or complex equipment. Throughout the book case studies and numerous practical examples are used to explore problems and illustrate solutions. Details range from a list of weaknesses that plague most existing systems through advice on when to introduce computers and how to choose appropriate software and hardware to the hotly debated question of whether patient records should be kept by the patient or filed at the health unit. The book has fourteen chapters presented in four parts. Chapters in the first part on information for decision-making explain the potential role of health information as a managerial tool consider the reasons why this potential is rarely realized and propose general approaches for reform which have proved successful in several developing countries. Presentation of a six-step procedure for restructuring information systems closely linked to an organizational model of health services is followed by a practical discussion of the decision-making process. Reasons for the ló