Information management in healthcare organizations

The health care industry is currently experiencing numerous fundamental changes. Healthcare organizations (HCOs) are increasingly challenged to look at their operations and find new opportunities to reorganize their processes, in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their services, reduce costs, be more competitive, and also provide high quality and more personalized patient care. This new business strategy requires HCOs to implement new Information and Communication Technologies, such as Internet applications, enterprise information systems, and mobile technologies, in order to achieve their desired business changes and results, mainly through better information management methods and techniques. Based on these perspectives, this article aims to initially define and discuss the key challenges and opportunities for promoting high quality and cost effective care in HCOs. It describes the fundamental and important aspects of information management, as well as the technology drivers that aim to improve the generation and flow of health information within HCOs.