Clinical Decision Support

Abstract

The purpose of healthcare information systems should tend toward helping clinicians make best decisions for the clinical benefits of their patients, as well as for the cost-related benefits of organisations, communities and societies. Too many healthcare organisations are opting toward technology-based systems that ensure cost-effectiveness as a priority over clinical quality, limiting clinician decisions toward compliance to established decisions and processes rather than toward innovative and impactful approaches to patient care. Compliance-based solutions assume that all hospitals are identical in populations served, clinician expertise or physical layout, all assumption fallacies. Best healthcare enhancing technology enables local adaptation with analytics for ongoing innovation to best optimise successes in care quality, cost-effectiveness and efficiency. Such systems are available, and best providers will encourage clinicians and operational leaders to ever-improve delivery of innovative, evolving health care. This chapter will discuss the right approaches towards improved clinical, costs, and efficiency gains.