Designing and visualising health information systems

The effective delivery of information within health care is essential in a clinical setting but the healthcare domain is littered with poorly designed, developed, and implemented systems that do not meet the expectations of the clinicians, administrators or patients. To address design, development and implementation of health information systems issues safety and quality must be 'engineered in' a holistic, integrated and quality approach using the guiding principles of Total Quality Management, TQM. Technology can improve health care delivery but must be understood by all stakeholders and a consistent view of the role it plays must be achieved. This paper describes a novel approach to viewing the operations of a healthcare provider where electronic means could be used to distribute information. Specifically, an approach called the 'triple pair flow' model is used to provide a view of healthcare delivery that considers the issues of safety and quality that is integrated, yet detailed, and that combines the strategic enterprise view with a business process view.