Towards a Distributed SMA-based Solution for the Interoperability of Hospital Information Systems for Better Routing of Emergency Ambulances

Multi-agent systems MASs have been widely used to interoperate hospital information systems (HISs). The use of MASs for HISs interoperability has become a central solution, especially in the field of emergency medicine. In emergencies, the notion of delay is relative, because responders only have a few minutes to react. This emergency response time has an important role in the event that an accident occurs on the road. Existing procedures for the emergency ambulance (EA) dispatch strategy are based on manual dispatch. In this work, we are introducing a distributed emergency ambulance (DEA) routing system to control emergency latency time, which includes driving route planning to guide emergency vehicles and the allocation of distributed emergency resources (emergency ambulances and hospitals) to reduce the EA response time caused by traffic or the wrong human decision to transport ambulance to the accident site. The allocation of resources (hospitals) is ensured through a recommendation system based on the interoperability of several interconnected HISs using a multi-agent system. The proposed solution takes into consideration dynamic traffic flow information during the day to build dynamic paths for EA. The improved method is based on a distributed architecture to calculate and find the optimal pathway for a set of emergency vehicles based on ACO ant colony optimization techniques. The results of the simulation show that the proposed method can decrease the total travel time of the ambulance to reach the accident position compared to conventional methods that use lights and sirens to warn other vehicles to free up the road for the ambulance or use a traditional approach based on the vision/reflection of the driver to choose in a random way the paths to take. Based on such a solution, ambulance staff will be able to save lives by optimizing the total journey with the minimum travel.

Data Incompleteness Preventing Information Communication from Hospital Information Systems to the Iranian National Electronic Health Record (SEPAS)

Introduction: One of the well-known problems related to the information quality is the information incompleteness in health information systems. The purpose of this study was to investigate the completeness rate of patients’ information recorded in the hospital information system, sending information from which to Iranian electronic health record system (SEPAS) seemed to be unsuccessful.Methods: This study was conducted in six hospitals associated with Kerman University of Medical Sciences (KUMS) in Iran. In this study, 882 records which had failed to be sent from three hospital information systems to SEPAS were reviewed and the data were collected using a checklist. Data were analyzed using the descriptive and inferential statistics with SPSS.18.Results: A total of 18758 demographic and clinical information elements were examined. The rate of completeness was 55%. The highest completeness rate of demographic information was related to name, surname, gender, nationality, date of birth, father's name, marital status, place of residence, telephone number (79-100%), and in clinical information it was related to the final diagnosis (74%). The completeness rate of some information elements was significantly different among the hospitals (p <0.05). The completeness rate of information communicated to the Iranian national electronic health record was at a moderate level.Conclusion: This study showed that completeness rate is different among hospitals using the same hospital information system. The results of this study can help the health policymakers and developers of the national electronic health record in developing countries to improve completeness rate and also information quality in health information systems.

Assessing the use of Hospital Information Systems (HIS) to support decision-making: A cross-sectional study in public hospitals in ​​Huila, sanitary region of southern Angola.

Background Some previous studies have reported that hospital medical assistance in Angola lacks efficiency. There is no production of information on health financing or even health spending that could help monitor equity. Hospital information systems (HIS) could be relevant tools to inform hospital managers, supporting better management decisions in healthcare and, consequently, increasing efficiency. Nonetheless, the effective use of these systems by hospital managers to support decision-making in Angola is unknown. This study aimed to analyze the use of HIS as a tool to support decision-making by hospital managers in Huila, Angola. Methods This is a descriptive–cross-sectional study that was inducted between July and September 2017 in seven hospitals in Huila Province, Angola, specifically in Lubango and Matala cities. Each hospital board included four to six managers (e.g., general, clinical, administrative, nursing, diagnostic and therapeutic, and teaching and training managers). Thirty-six members of the hospital boards filled on a self-questionnaire that consisted of twenty questions based on the following issues: characterization of the interviewee's profile; availability of information in the institution; quality and usefulness of the available operational information and satisfaction with the existing HIS. Perform data analysis with IBM SPSS Statistics, version 21.0 Results At least ⅔ of the participants reported being unsatisfied or relatively satisfied with each of the HIS-specific features that were assessed. More than 50%have rarely or never used the health information system to support decision-making, and 47.2% have never noted audits performed in their institution. Only 25% of the participants considered that the HIS stored information was satisfactory to calculate the rate of service indicators. Conclusion Our study showed that most hospital managers don’t use hospital information systems as tools to support management-related decision-making in Angola. Improving the Hospital information systems, ability to compute adequate indicators, and providing training on HIS usage to hospital managers could be targets of future interventions to support better management-related decision-making in Angolan healthcare.

Current Status of e-Health in Burkina Faso

The term e-health refers to all areas where information and communication technologies (ICT) are used for health. E-health appears more and more as a relevant solution to meet the challenges health systems are facing. However, despite its interest, e-health has long remained underexploited in Burkina Faso even if many softwares have been the subject of investments in hospitals as part of a modernization of administrative operations, which does not directly contribute to the quality of care. Hospital information systems (HIS) are the foundation on which e-health is based. They organize, at the IT level, the exchange of information between departments within the same hospital. It is on those systems that the shared medical record (SMR) is based. In this paper, we present an inventory of the implementation of e-health in Burkina Faso. We collected data on hospital information systems deployed in major hospitals in Burkina Faso. Then we analyzed the level of interoperability of those hospital information systems and we finally proposed an interoperability approach adapted to Burkina Faso.

Study of Factors Affecting the Efficiency of Hospital Information Systems in Khorramabad Hospitals to Improve Community Health as a Stimulator of Economic Growth

Background: The countries should be economically developed in today’s world. By reviewing the literature, a healthy and efficient workforce is a key factor in economic development, which indicates the effectiveness of the health sector in countries. Efficient information systems should be used to achieve efficiency, effectiveness, productivity, service quality, and customer satisfaction. The present study aimed to identify and prioritize the factors affecting the efficiency of hospital information systems. Materials and Methods: Interviews and questionnaires are collaboratively used in this study to identify the factors affecting the productivity of hospital information systems. A total of 22 hospital information systems specialists (IT and system support experts) were selected based on the purposive sampling method. In the present study, experts' views on the factors affecting the productivity of hospital information systems were first identified using a survey research method. The factors are prioritized from the questionnaires and the Fuzzy Delphi method. Results: After analyzing the findings, it was found that physicians' satisfaction, information quality, usability, appropriate support, high reporting ability, being on the web, and proper user training are the factors affecting the efficiency of hospital information systems. Conclusion: As a result, considering the findings of this study during the implementation of information systems projects, hospital officials can play a significant role in economically improving public health.

Evaluating the Usability of Hospital Information Systems based on ISO 9241-10 Standard: A cross-sectional study

Results: Based on the results, 56% of HISs users in the surveyed hospitals were somewhat satisfied, with the total average of all scores being equal to 2.8 from 5. The results suggested that the highest scores were found for the criterion of "controllability," while the lowest scores were associated with "suitability for individualizations" and "self-descriptiveness," respectively. Conclusion: The HISs users' satisfaction was considered relatively desirable in terms of functionalities factors. Therefore, user-friendliness, flexibility, and web-based capabilities are suggested as the most important requirements that must be taken into account for enhancing usability and adoption of HISs.

Evaluating the Usability of Hospital Information Systems based on ISO 9241-10 Standard: A cross-sectional study

Results: Based on the results, 56% of HISs users in the surveyed hospitals were somewhat satisfied, with the total average of all scores being equal to 2.8 from 5. The results suggested that the highest scores were found for the criterion of "controllability," while the lowest scores were associated with "suitability for individualizations" and "self-descriptiveness," respectively. Conclusion: The HISs users' satisfaction was considered relatively desirable in terms of functionalities factors. Therefore, user-friendliness, flexibility, and web-based capabilities are suggested as the most important requirements that must be taken into account for enhancing usability and adoption of HISs.

Improving the Performance of Hospital Information Systems Using Six Sigma for Kermanshah Province Hospitals

Background: Performance improvement in hospitals requires an appropriate model for performance evaluation. Because organizational goals cannot be achieved without a comprehensive model for evaluating and reviewing programs, organizations cannot apply effective management of programs without regard to the results of their activities. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to introduce a new model for improving the performance of hospital information systems using Six Sigma method in Kermanshah province hospitals. Methods: This is a qualitative research based on content analysis and Delphi method. The data are collected through semi-structured interviews and the participants are 19 experts in hospital performance systems which were selected by snowball sampling. After transcribing the interviews, three steps were done using content analysis: firstly, using line-by-line coding (or open coding) words and segments of interviews were coded, secondly, each code was conceptualized and categorized into some axial codes based on focused coding, and finally, selective coding was done in which categories were identified based on axial codes’ similarity, conceptual relationship and common characteristics. Results: The results of the coding of the interviews showed that variables such as reduction of medical errors, improvement of hospital quality of services, promotion of hospital efficiency and productivity, quick and easy access to information, increased patient satisfaction and safety, management and cost reduction, and time management and control influences the performance of hospital information systems. Conclusions: For improving hospital information systems, hospital managers and system developers should not only pay attention to variables which are controlled by the software and are least affected by the human resources of the organization; such as: cost control, quality control, information control and time control but also human based variables such as specialization of the staffs, their motivation, reduce errors and etc., which are sometimes neglected.