Medical informatics - the state of the art in the Hospital Authority

Since its inception in 1990, the Hospital Authority (HA) has strongly suppo rted the development and implementation of information systems both to impr ove the delivery of care and to make better information available to manage rs. This paper summarizes the progress to date and discusses current and fu ture developments. Following the first two phases of the HA information tec hnology strategy the basic infrastructural elements were laid in place. The se included the foundation administrative and financial systems and databas es; establishment of a wide area network linking all hospitals and clinics together; laboratory, radiology and pharmacy systems with access to results in the ward. A major push into clinical systems began in 1994 with the cli nical management system (CMS), which established a clinical workstation for use in both ward and ambulatory settings. The CMS is now running at all ma jor hospitals, and provides single logon access to almost all the electroni cally collected clinical data in the HA. The next phase of development is f ocussed on further support for clinical activities in the CMS. Key elements include the longitudinal electronic patient record (ePR), clinical order e ntry, generic support for clinical reports, broadening the scope to include allied health and the rehabilitative phase, clinical decision support, an improved clinical documentation framework, sharing of clinical information with other health care providers and a comprehensive data repository for an alysis and reporting purposes. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All r ights reserved.