Abstract:
Information processing in hospitals, especially in university hospitals, is currently
faced with two major issues: low-cost hardware and progress in networking technology
leads to a further decentralization of computing capacity, due to the increasing need
for information processing in hospitals and due to economic restrictions, it is necessary
to use, commercial software products. This leads to heterogeneous hospital information
systems using a variety of software and hardware products, and to a stronger demand
for integrating these products and, in general, for a dedicated methodology for the
management of hospital information systems to support patient care and medical research.
We present a three-level graph-based model (3LGM) to support the systematic management
of hospital information systems. 3LGM can serve as a basis for assessing the quality
of information processing in hospitals. 3LGM distinguishes between a procedural level
for describing the information procedures (and their information interchange) of a
hospital information system and thus its functionality, a logical tool level, focusing
on application systems and communication links, and a physical tool level with physical
subsystems (e.g., computer systems) and data transmission. The examples that are presented
have been taken from the Heidelberg University Hospital Information System.
Keywords:
Hospital Information Systems - Management of Hospital Information Systems - Quality
Assessment - Heterogeneous Information Systems - Cooperative Information Systems
