The impact of health information management professionals on patient safety: A systematic review

Abstract

Background The importance of high‐quality health information for patient safety has been established in the literature, yet the impact of the professionals who are the custodians of health information is absent. Objectives This article presents the results of a systematic literature review examining the impact of the Health Information Management (HIM) profession on patient safety. Methods A PRISMA approach was adopted for the review of selected databases and specific journals. Titles identified as relating to HIM and patient quality were screened using Covidence ® by title and abstract, followed by full text. The quality of selected articles was assessed and thematically analysed. Results Analysis of the 8 included articles found that the key themes from the non‐empirical research were data quality, information governance, corporate governance, skills and knowledge required for HIM professionals. Discussion Most publications focussed on HIM professional involvement in maintaining standards for data quality and health records, but not the professional qualifications themselves. Conclusions There are links between patient safety and health records, and between health records and HIM professional work. More empirical research is needed to demonstrate how qualified HIM professionals contribute to patient safety.

Business Intelligence no apoio à gestão estratégica em saúde: um relato de experiência

“…Such information, converted into practical knowledge, promote major disruptions in public or private companies and, thus, are considered a valuable resource. 1 However, considering the costs of collection and storage, the data obtained must have relevant information to be extracted. Thus, after obtaining the data, it is necessary to classify them so hypotheses can be propose and tested.…”

“…Thus, after obtaining the data, it is necessary to classify them so hypotheses can be propose and tested. 1 Moreover, a given information may have an expiration date and loses its value if certain actions are not implemented at that specific time, which may result in losses of many kinds. 2 Since 1991, the Brazilian Ministry of Health has an Informatics Department of the Brazilian Unified Health System (DATASUS) and has developed more than 200 systems.…”