[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on Information Systems Upgrade
Introduction
Information technology is important in a hospital environment especially if a large number of patients have to be handled and cared for. The central hospital management system may be used in a variety of ways to assist in the management of the hospital including storing patient records, collecting statistics, storage and enhancement of patient X-ray records, correspondence, drug inventory, purchasing etc. The provision of information technology or IT can reduce the administrative burden on medical staff and facilitate the smooth operations of the hospital. Another important dimension associated with hospital IT is the connectivity that it can provide to the World Wide Web which enables expert medical assistance to be made available and advice sought from experts when required. Hospital IT can also integrate the hospital management system with the IT systems of health insurers or government medical aid agencies to facilitate billing and other matters related to patient care. The medical staff does find the World Wide Web connectivity helpful in accessing latest diagnosis and treatment techniques that are periodically made available on various websites. Hence, a functional and well designed IT system is necessary for hospitals (Kemfor, 2003).
Many hospitals and health related organizations have recognized the importance of IT and efforts have been made to deploy systems in stages to deal with hospital and patient requirements within the available budgets. However, the application of IT systems in health care units is a relatively new phenomenon, finding prominence in the last decade and hence there are many hospitals where there are opportunities for upgrading the inadequate legacy systems that were haphazardly installed in order to cater for the needs in the hospital. Technology has advanced and along with better technology becoming available, there is also a better understanding of how IT can assist in the management of a hospital....
