Development And Application Of Decision Support System For Health Administration

In 1998, some hopitals started to use the new hospital information system (HIS), which is also known as "Project 1". All sub-information system have improved and developed quickly, except the decision-support system. After the application of HIS and RIS, the health information data have increased exponentially and a large number of historical data are stored on the server. Partly due to the poor qualification of health statisticians and lack of effective system, the utilization of information can only satisfy the demand of daily management. The data of joint logistics and health system reform were collected by hand, which took a long time and could not meet the demand of information support. This study was performed to satisfy the need of health management and decision making, especially in the context of the joint logistics and health system reform.Historical literature review, analysis of users'demand, database design and programe design were employed to develop the Decision Support System. We established the database of front page information of medical record through collecting and checking the reported data from HIS and RIS. According to the demand of health decision and administration, a set of health statistical indexes were retrieved automatically, then data analysis, data query and statistical reports were generated. Then, health information utilization and announcement system, data monthly report system and data quality feedback system can also be developed to improve the macro and micro decision making by using the Decision Support System comprehensively.The Decision Support System can conduct statistical analysis of hospital information, meet the demand of statistical information of decision making for health administration and automatically generate health statistical report. After using the new Decision Support System, the time of making health statistical report in Military has been reduced from two months to three days. We compiled four yearly and semi-yearly statistical reports, more than fifty important reports and five analysis reports. According to the detail information of inpatient, the Ministry of Health reformed the allocation mechanism of health bed fee. The Decision Support System also changed the mode of health administration from the traditional time-consuming and costly way in which the experts group was organized to collect the information to a more efficient and costless one.The Decision Support System is developed by Visual FoxPro. The software has a friendly interface. It is practical and low-cost maintenance. More than 20 billion yuan has been saved by using this system in military hospitals and resthomes. The system, which improves the decision process and management mode, has significant military, economic and social benefit.