Health Information Management: Integrating Information Technology ...

STRATEGY, IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION 203
Figure 11.1 Steps to take for conducting an evaluation.
Source: Modified from Heathfield et al. (2001)
Several stakeholder groups, at both national and local levels, were
interested in the results of this evaluation. A multidisciplinary team was
assigned to evaluate the project, including health economists, social
scientists, computer scientists and health services management specialists
(Heathfield et al. 1999).
The second case refers to the late 1990s, when the Intensive Care
Departments of a large Medical Centre in The Netherlands agreed to invest
in information technology. The purchase of a Patient Data Management
System (PDMS) was seen as an important first step towards an electronic
patient record for Intensive Care, as it was a system to be used by both
doctors and nurses. Like an EPR, a PDMS is an IT application that makes
it possible to enter patient data. More importantly, the PDMS is explicitly
focused on automatically storing and retrieving data from the heart
monitor, the respirator and other electronic devices used in the Intensive
Care Units. Moreover, the PDMS can also collect data from other data
sources in the hospital, for example the laboratory results from the HIS.
The system also makes it easier for the medical staff to order medication,
because the system can calculate the right doses based on patient