HMSS - A MANAGEMENT SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR CONCURRENT HOSPITAL DECISION-MAKING

Mounting health care costs have escalated the pressure on hospitals an d other health care providers to control expenses. Conventional hospit al information systems help meet the challenge by providing data neces sary for policy formation and outcome measurement. Additional decision support systems deliver models that can be used to systematically eva luate the policies. When deployed successfully, each stand-alone syste m can effectively support a segment of the hospital decision making pr ocess. Integrating the stand-alone functions can enhance the quality a nd efficiency of the segmented support, create synergistic effects, an d augment decision making performance and value. A high-level integrat ion framework, known as the management support system (MSS), can be ad apted to provide the desired synthesis. This paper demonstrates how ma nagement support systems can improve hospital decision making. It over views the hospital decision making process, presents an MSS for suppor ting this process, and measures the impact of the MSS on the process a nd outcomes of decision making. The paper also examines the implicatio ns of the analyses for information systems research and health care pr actice.