Patient Care Systems

Abstract

Patient care is the focus of many clinical disciplines—medicine, nursing, pharmacy, nutrition, therapies such as respiratory, physical, and occupational, and others. Although the work of the various disciplines sometimes overlaps, each has its own primary focus, emphasis, and methods of care delivery. Each discipline’s work is complex in itself, and collaboration among disciplines adds another level of complexity. In all disciplines, the quality of clinical decisions depends in part on the quality of information available to the decision-maker. The systems that manage information for patient care are therefore a critical tool. Their fitness for the job varies, and the systems enhance or detract from patient care accordingly. This chapter describes information-management issues in patient care, the evolution of patient care systems in relation to these issues, and current research. It will also show how patient care systems provide the infrastructure that determines the quality and functions of the computer-based patient record.