Chapter 2. Introducing Data Flow in HIT

In this chapter you learn about:

As always, remember that getting patient data to healthcare providers in a timely manner makes for better patient care. For example, data about patients needs to move from the bedside to the lab, and then to the pharmacy and back to the bedside. The data can be moved using paper and phone calls, and that is how healthcare data moved for years; however, to save healthcare providers’ time and energy, computerized information systems have been installed. In the past, someone had to call the lab to get results from blood work, call the pharmacy to request medication, and walk to the pharmacy to pick up the medication. Now, lab results are viewed on the computer near the patient, an order for medication can be entered on that same computer, and medication can be picked up from an automated dispensing medicine cabinet located near the patient. To learn how all this works, you learn about the information systems used to compute and communicate this data, the interfaces that connect them, and what is in the data that is sent.