Summary
Objectives:
The paper aimed to present and analyze the development of Healthcare Information
Systems in Romania during the last decade. The first part was dedicated to the analysis
of a large national project, HMIS – Healthcare Management Information System, and
the second to the current state of the hospital information systems and primary care
systems.
Methods:
The approach of a “case study” was used. The description of the HMIS project comprised
the objectives and its structure, implementation, results and lessons learned. This
is followed by a classical short presentation of the current state at the hospital
and primary care levels.
Results:
The very modest results of the HMIS project were critically analyzed, listing the
‘failure factors’ at various moments, both weak points of the project as well as the
consequences of the structural-organizational changes within the Romanian healthcare
system during the implementation. However, mainly positive results were registered
in the last years at lower levels, hospitals and primary care, which can also partially
be interpreted as ‘lesson learned’.
Conclusions:
There are several things to be learned from the Romanian experience. Healthcare information
system analysis is quite complex. Obtaining better results requires several additional
measures including better education and training, adopting standards and appropriate
quality assessment tools.
Keywords
Healthcare information systems - system analysis - hospital information system - primary
care systems
