Keywords:
Health Information System, Emergency care, Perception, Healthcare Professionals,

ABSTRACT

Background: A well designed Health Information System (HIS) can provide Healthcare professionals with the required information and tools for proper diagnosis, treatment and care of emergency patient. As the doctors and nurses are the first lines of contact with the patient during emergency and contribute maximum in accessing and documenting patient information, this study was intended to understand their perception towards HIS in Emergency Care.

Objective: To understand the perception of Healthcare professionals about Health Information System in Emergency Care.

Method: A prospective study was conducted among 300 healthcare professionals including 80 doctors and 220 nurses. The participants were selected using convenience sampling method, excluding those not willing to participate. A validated questionnaire consisting of 20 questions based on 5- point Likert scale ranging from strongly Agree to strongly disagree were administered to the participants after their due consent.

Results: The study reveals that more than 90% of doctors and nurses agreed that HIS helps in improving quality of care, prompt reporting of clinical events in patient care, accurate admission, discharge & transfer process, informed decision making, immediate emergency care, allows immediate access to patient’s information, helps in easy retrieval of patient’s Information, ensures safety of patient’s medical information, and also assists in easy communication among health care professionals.

Conclusion: Though both doctors and nurses positively perceived the benefits that HIS has to offer in Emergency care, need was felt for creation of more awareness related to the importance of HIS in patient care, education, training, reporting and communication, and emergency care, so that all the doctors and nurses understand the benefits of HIS and use it in their day to day dealings. It is only then the HIS implementations will become sustainable in Indian hospitals and maximum benefits can be reaped by its optimum usage.