Information Systems and Quality Management in Healthcare Organization: An Empirical Study

The paper explores current status of information systems, identifies gaps in the current information systems and assessment in healthcare organization. This paper is based on Critical Analysis of literature and a questionnaire is administered on administrative level employees of South Indian healthcare organizations. It has been identified that healthcare organization should have specific strategy and must implement measures derived from strategy. Data and information systems should be seen as business resources. The knowledge base of medical field is large and it is growing rapidly. Hence information system must be integrated across the enterprise. The results of the study determined the relationship between measurement, analysis and knowledge Management on performance. The Information system is the newest dimension among the MBNQA (Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award) criteria. The Information system performance was assessed in terms of management relevant data and information. The outcomes suggest that there is a growing recognition of the administrators about the importance and use of information systems as a critical resource in healthcare organizations. From the study it is inferred that information system analysis continues to be a challenge. The higher utilization of technology, computerization and the Internet has resulted in dramatic change in the quality performance of the Healthcare Organizations. The paper provides an empirical evidence that information system has an impact on performance in the context of healthcare organizations. The information system is a key performance area of Quality management and it has received limited attention in improving quality performance including MBNQA. Finally, the study concludes that there is an immense scope for altering current information systems and it should be aligned with the quality management environment.