Friday, July 16, 2010

Hospital Administrator Informatics Tools

So it's been almost a week now, and I'm still trying to find good definitions for :

1. Clinical Protocols (to help automate a clinical process, e.g. Heparin or Insulin drips)
2. Clinical Policy
3. Clinical Documentation
4. Clinical Order Set
5. Clinical Templates
6. Staff Education Module
7. Patient Education Module
8. Clinical Staff Schedule

Each of these tools requires a delicate process to build, develop, approve, and publish them.

And the interesting thing? We don't seem to have a standard policy definition! The SKTM Glossary (http://www.skmtglossary.org) seems to offer mostly technical definitions, and various other web sites seem to have different definitions/labels for this very common tool in healthcare. (Most of the other definitions are related to clinical trials.)

I'm honestly surprised The Joint Commission and CMS haven't stepped in to offer a definition that could be very useful in healthcare policy development and educating healthcare administrators internationally. (Is anyone from CMS or TJC a reader? Email me!)

There are also a bunch of automated software packages and companies that provide automated policy management - Just Googling the options will give you lots and lots of choices. (This must be a big business!)

In the meantime, I keep trying to keep the Wikipedia entry alive :


(Perhaps I should write the first "Healthcare Administrator's Toolbook", so I can use myself as a citation?) :P :)

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