Specifications and needs assessment [2]
4 - THE STUDY GUIDE ON COMPUTERIZATION OF UNITS CARE [1]
This study has three parts:
• care unit and its environment,
• the structure of information and exchanges,
• objectives and strategy of informatization.
The first part explains the organization of the nursing unit, describes the main stages of its activities and shows how, despite the existence of characteristics common to all nursing units, there is a diversity in their modes of organization.
The second part exposes, for the information and exchange at stake in the operation of units care, important characteristics likely to stimulate and guide the collective thinking and general actors. She recalls the centrality of patient records in healthcare activity and exhibits an attempt rationalization of this file.
The third section first recalls the goals that can be assigned to computers. After clearing the comments from past experiences, it makes explicit the constraints and barriers to computerization. We thought it would be interesting to some points in our presentation of the characteristics study, including objectives and strategy for the computerization of patient care units.
4.1 Overview of the situation of the computerization of the hospital
Computer Management administrative and logistical services was the first to develop (management patient administration, billing, payroll, economic management ...) and is now present in the most institutions. Recent years have seen a significant increase in the number of laboratories and pharmacies computerized.
This development has rarely been made taking into account the need for communication with the nursing units, whose management methods have remained largely manual.
The current review of the landscape shows that the French hospital operating units experiencing a level of care computerization quite low and therefore holds great potential for optimization. Indeed, the achievements Information in this area are relatively recent and involve a limited number of functions.
4.2 The components of the development
Improving the performance of nursing units and hospital becomes a social issue. Innovation there developed in various forms:
• comprehensive analysis of the information system within the nursing units,
• development of computer applications design and implementation often local
• use of electronic messaging systems,
• growing concern for streamlining at various scales of the patient record,
• use of formalizations of the nursing process.
4.3 The objectives
The objectives that we had assigned to the computerization of health units are multiple, for example:
• easier, faster, more reliable production and communication of Medical information,
• improve the productivity of health units that will generate operating savings,
• improve the quality of care and increase the availability of teams through the use of methods operating effective and suitable,
• facilitate the collection of information medico-administrative and economic
• assist in research and teaching.
4.4 Some general guidelines for the computerization of health units
The study of a number of recent experiments computerization allows us to draw some
general guidelines facilitating the implementation of organizational changes induced by the introduction Computer:
• use of tailored solutions,
• interest in formal and need a pragmatic attitude,
• need for user adoption solutions adopted involving:
• prior information of users,
• their participation in the project definition and adaptation of workstations,
• training to implement the chosen solutions.
