Evaluation of Hospital Information Systems in Iran: A Case Study in the Kerman Province

The Hospital Information system (HIS) is a comprehensive solution that offers complete data integration for different administrative levels in hospitals. To the extent that this system is close to its aim, the efficiency and quality of health care would increase in hospitals. The performance of HIS systems in 13 hospitals in Kerman province that they were evaluated based on four major criteria of ownership, location, education and software design. Seven hospitals were located in the capital city of Kerman province. According to teaching status of hospitals, four were teaching and based on their ownership three were public. The checklist of Iranian ministry of health and medical education, containing 20 indexes were used to evaluate each hospital’s HIS system in three main supportive, diagnosis and clinical sectors. Spearman correlation coefficient was used to assess the association between major sectors. The highest score (mean±SD) was observed in laboratory information systems (88.19±13.69), resource management (84.47±8.94), and registration information systems (84.47±18.06); the lowest scores were for telemedicine (45.58±3.86), staff information and timing systems (40±16.64), and decision support systems (23.6±4.97). The total score of HIS software was positively correlated with all its three components. There were strong positive correlations between all three components. The three factors of decision support systems, staff information systems and telemedicine have an important role in providing solutions for non-structured management problems and for leading decision-makers to insights, improving human resource management and solving the problem of access to services. Thus, based on the survey findings, those three factors need to be improved in the Iranian hospital information system.