Information management systems

Information is care. Every clinical decision is predicated on information about the patient and about the patient’s treatment choices. We saw in Part 1 that whenever a decision is important enough, or is made often enough, an information system can be built to support it. In this chapter we examine both how and when healthcare processes and decisions need to be structured from an informational viewpoint. Two key concepts are examined. Firstly, the central notion of an information management cycle is introduced. Second, we explore why it is not always necessary or indeed appropriate to formalize this cycle completely. To do so can be counterproductive, by introducing excessive bureaucracy, especially when flexibility in decision-making is needed. Consequently, we see that many information processes are left in an unstructured or informal state and are more likely to be supported by communication processes.