Wearable sensor systems which allow for remote or self-monitoring of health-related parameters are regarded as one means to alleviate the consequences of demographic change. This paper aims to summarize current research in wearable sensors as well as in sensor-enhanced health information systems. Wearable sensor technologies are already advanced in terms of their technical capabilities and are frequently used for cardio-vascular monitoring. Epidemiologic predictions suggest that neuropsychiatric diseases will have a growing impact on our health systems and thus should be addressed more intensively. Two current project examples demonstrate the benefit of wearable sensor technologies: long-term, objective measurement under daily-life, unsupervised conditions. Finally, up-to-date approaches for the implementation of sensor-enhanced health information systems are outlined. Wearable sensors are an integral part of future pervasive, ubiquitous and person-centered health care delivery. Future challenges include their integration into sensor-enhanced health information systems and sound evaluation studies involving measures of workload reduction and costs.
Delivery of Health Care ; Health Information Systems ; Medical Informatics ; Monitoring, Ambulatory

Wearable sensor systems which allow for remote or self-monitoring of health-related parameters are regarded as one means to alleviate the consequences of demographic change. This paper aims to summarize current research in wearable sensors as well as in sensor-enhanced health information systems. Wearable sensor technologies are already advanced in terms of their technical capabilities and are frequently used for cardio-vascular monitoring. Epidemiologic predictions suggest that neuropsychiatric diseases will have a growing impact on our health systems and thus should be addressed more intensively. Two current project examples demonstrate the benefit of wearable sensor technologies: long-term, objective measurement under daily-life, unsupervised conditions. Finally, up-to-date approaches for the implementation of sensor-enhanced health information systems are outlined. Wearable sensors are an integral part of future pervasive, ubiquitous and person-centered health care delivery. Future challenges include their integration into sensor-enhanced health information systems and sound evaluation studies involving measures of workload reduction and costs.
Delivery of Health Care ; Health Information Systems ; Medical Informatics ; Monitoring, Ambulatory

This paper introduces the application of a calling and queuing system for blood sample collection in a large hospital in China. Besides the basic function, it has following functions. (a) A real name system: get the number according to the laboratory application form to prevent the phenomena of buying a number and an empty number. (b) Two times waiting: the patient should wait at the main hall, then at the blood sampling window so as to improve the work efficiency. (c) The flowchart for an outpatient blood testing is as following: getting the number --> waiting --> blood sampling --> getting the test information report. This system is capable of not only optimizing the work flow, but also improving the clinical environment. It shortens the patient's waiting time and raises the laboratory quality as well.
Ambulatory Care ; methods ; Ambulatory Care Information Systems ; Blood Specimen Collection ; Laboratories, Hospital ; organization & administration

This paper tells you how to build a faster and more reliable interface system between the Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) in the hospital and the Medical Insurance Information System (MIIS) in the Medical Insurance Affairs Management Center (MIAMC). The data standards of the hospital and MIAMC should be integrated in order to reduce the unnecessary real-time transmission, so as to establish and perfect the operation mode in offline status,and to improve the performance of the communication servers. Thus, it would be a more efficient software interface system with a higher bandwidth between HMIS and MIIS. The working efficiency of the interface system and the accuracy of the balance data in the MIAMC are increased while the dependence on the inter-network communication is decreased with an improvement of the reliability and suitability of the interface system.
Ambulatory Care Information Systems ; organization & administration ; Computer Communication Networks ; Hospital Information Systems ; organization & administration ; Insurance, Health ; Management Information Systems ; Microcomputers ; Software Design ; Systems Integration ; User-Computer Interface

OBJECTIVES: There is a need for effective processes in healthcare clinics, especially in tertiary hospitals, that consist of a set of complex steps for outpatient care, in order to provide high quality care and reduce the time cost. This study aimed to discover the potential of a process mining technique to determine an outpatient care process that can be utilized for further improvements. METHODS: The outpatient event log was defined, and the log data for a month was extracted from the hospital information system of a tertiary university hospital. That data was used in process mining to discover an outpatient care process model, and then the machine-driven model was compared with a domain expert-driven process model in terms of the accuracy of the matching rate. RESULTS: From a total of 698,158 event logs, the most frequent pattern was found to be "Consultation registration > Consultation > Consultation scheduling > Payment > Outside-hospital prescription printing" (11.05% from a total cases). The matching rate between the expert-driven process model and the machine-driven model was found to be approximately 89.01%, and most of the processes occurred with relative accuracy in accordance with the expert-driven process model. CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge regarding the process that occurs most frequently in the pattern is expected to be useful for hospital resource assignments. Through this research, we confirmed that process mining techniques can be applied in the healthcare area, and through detailed and customized analysis in the future, it can be expected to be used to improve actual outpatient care processes.
Ambulatory Care ; Delivery of Health Care ; Hospital Information Systems ; Humans ; Mining ; Outpatients ; Prescriptions ; Tertiary Care Centers

After-hours care (AHC) provides medical care after the regular weekday work hours of clinics. In Korea, data from the National Emergency Department Information System showed that approximately 40% of the pediatric patients need AHC. To meet this need, many countries have different models of AHC. In this article, the authors tried to summarize and emphasize the advantages and disadvantages of AHC models in several leading countries. This article can be useful in designing AHC models in Korea because the proportions of potential patients requiring AHC are substantial, and the adoption of AHC models should be seriously considered.
After-Hours Care* ; Ambulatory Care Facilities ; Child ; Delivery of Health Care ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Humans ; Information Systems ; Korea ; Night Care

This study was conducted to explore the status of nursing information systems implementation in Korean hospitals. Structured questionnaires were mailed to the 411 hospitals with more than 80 beds. Data were tabulated using descriptive procedure. Out of 411 hospitals, 116 hospitals replied. Out of 116 replied hospitals 114 hospitals indicated that they have some kind of hospital information system implemented. 86 hospitals have computerized their outpatient care management system and 84 hospitals have computerized their inpatient care management system. And 70 hospitals replied that they have some form of nursing information systems. Most components in the nursing information system are the ones related to other department with only a few nursing specific tasks being computerized. Order communication system was ranked the first as a task to be computerized with nursing history. nursing record. nursing care plan, daily report following. Nursing department of the sixty hospitals reflect their input in nursing information system development by participating a hospital wide adhoc committee. And 32 hospitals have their own committee to discuss issues related to nursing information system development. Eleven hospitals reported that they have nurse information and 17 hospitals have dispatched nurses to the information department. And 25 hospitals said that they are not involved at all in nursing information system development. Sixty-two hospitals indicated that the N have some form of computer education programs for nurses: 28 have regular in-service education programs 34 have irregular in-service education programs: and 29 have education programs for the newly employed.
Ambulatory Care ; Education ; History of Nursing ; Hospital Information Systems ; Humans ; Information Systems* ; Inpatients ; Nursing Informatics ; Nursing Records ; Nursing* ; Patient Care Planning ; Postal Service ; Surveys and Questionnaires

OBJECTIVES: To develop a tool which can easily access the hospital information system (HIS) to facilitate outpatient care and maximize patient satisfaction on his or her hospital visit. METHODS: Our Center for Informatics developed an outpatient guidance system (OGS) after careful analysis of the list of daily tasks undergone by patients and related work processes. Bluetooth beacons were installed to assist patients, to inform them of points of interest, and to guide them along the proper routes to and within the hospital. RESULTS: The OGS conveniently provided patients' clinic schedules, routes to the hospital, and direct costs; all of this information was embedded in the HIS accessed from patients' personal mobile devices or kiosks. Patients were also able to identify their locations within the hospital, receiving proper directions to subsequent task. Since its launch in October 2014, the number of mobile accesses increased from 4,011 to 8,242 per month within a year. CONCLUSIONS: The substantial growth of interest in and use of our OGS in such a short period indicate that this system has been successfully incorporated into patients' daily activities. We believe that this system will continue to help improve health services and the well-being of those visiting the hospital.
Ambulatory Care ; Appointments and Schedules ; Health Services ; Hospital Information Systems ; Humans ; Informatics ; Outpatients* ; Patient Care ; Patient Satisfaction ; Smartphone