| dc.description.translatedabstract | Introduction. Problems occurring in the provision of health care are related to
diminished ability in assessment and configuration of the health consumers’ needs,
improper management of medical records, lack of encodings for diagnoses and
medical procedures and inability in identification and correlation between patients and
their insurance providers. The problems are also related to the lack of the necessary
staff for the financial, administrative and managerial engagements arising from the
use of health services and the low level of interconnection between the Health Units
and the administrative services, due to inadequate hardware and software systems.
The introduction of Health Information Systems (HIS) in hospitals, promotes
improvement of health care in clinical, cost-management and administrative areas of
health care. The applications of Information Technology (IT) in health are related to
the management, processing and storing of the patient data through the electronic
medical record. They are also connected to the upgrading of the administrative and
managerial services in the hospitals in an effort to achieve control costs through better
utilization of limited resources.
Purpose. The study looks into the concept and structure of the Integrated Hospital
Information Systems (IHIS), following their applications in a tertiary hospital
(General Air Force Hospital), and analyses the advantages and the difficulties that
hinder their use.
Methodology. The study is based on literature research by using keywords and
publications of official authorities in Greece and the European Union regarding
eHealth. A base architecture of the project in collaboration with the Center of Data in
the General Airforce Hospital is used for describing the IHIS “Philippos”.
Conclusions. The application of IHIS in health care contributes to the improvement
of health professionals’ efficiency, resulting in the provision of more comprehensive
services to health consumers. These systems introduce the creation of electronic
health record and contribute to the upgrading of Telemedicine. It is also feasible for
the information to be diffused to different authorities, inside and outside IHIS. Due to
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the development of electronic transactions, quick and transparent processing of
financial and management transactions and services is achieved. The implementation
of e-prescribing also results in reduction of operating costs of hospitals. At central
level, through interconnectivity between IHIS, it becomes possible to draw
conclusions and take decisions regarding health policy. Although Greece follows the
policy of the European Union for the implementation of eHealth at national level,
there is a lack of IHISs. There must be political will for promoting the e-health idea,
through improvement of hardware and software systems, elimination of the legal
issues of security of data transmission and integration of electronic unification of
hospitals. Health and IT professionals should have continuing education and training
for absorbing new knowledge rapidly and implementing the IHIS applications
responsibly and accurately. | el_GR |
