Clinical information systems--a review.

TWO HYPOTHESES ARE OFFERED IN THIS REVIEW OF CLINICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS: that the technology is mature, and that benefits to patient care can be shown. More than ten years of operational experience exist with each general class of clinical information systems, and these systems favorably affect staff, reduce errors, improve accessibility to medical information and provide alerts and reminders. To reinforce the maturity hypothesis, most cited studies are also a decade old. Clinically oriented systems are practical and can improve the health care process-a key goal in this era of prepaid or prospective payment for services.