The management of information is particularly important to the practice of inpatient medicine. There are three main reasons for this. First, the efficiency in information management improves the quality of care. Second, the inpatient physician must locate, process, and summarize a large volume of information generated during an inpatient stay. Third, the inpatient practice must be able to demonstrate its clinical performance in quantitative terms, which requires the analysis of performance data.
Patient information comes in many forms and in high volume.
First, there is the textual information used to convey information from one clinician to another. This information accompanies the patient in the form of transfer notes, progress notes, discharge summaries, and dictations on test results. Second, there are the various numeric or other fielded data, ranging from patient demographic data to lab test results. The use of networked computers has increased the volume and the distribution of this information, but has not necessarily improved its assimilation by the clinicians using it. Some might argue that such systems have weighed down the clinician with too much information and too little knowledge.