CHAPTER 3 What Can an HCM System Do that Other Systems Can’t? 33
be of the brave type. A mixture of HIS and HCM tasks could lead to one of
them falling short. If the HCM falls short, you don’t need to change anything
at all. If the HIS gets the short end, you will run into problems sooner or later.
After all, the functions of the HIS are crucial for the quality of care and the
economic result of a health facility. So you cannot afford any neglect here.
And don’t forget: the more significant and potent a system is, the
higher
are the requirements regarding reliability. With this in mind,
we recommend
hands off mixing HIS and HCM systems. Separating
the two systems also has the advantage that the HCM system can even
partially compensate for a failing HIS. Not a bad option, is it?
2. The completion of the HIS functionality by systems with HCM
functionality
The second option is to take all existing components for an HCM strategy
from the HIS and extend them with systems that have the missing components.
By doing this, a new system will be formed from existing solutions,
which frees you from any risks of the first approach. But this option also has a
disadvantage. The »piecing together« of functionalities makes it more difficult
to achieve coherence in terms of content. For example, if the document
viewer comes from the HIS, but the image viewer comes from another system,
it is challenging to implement the joint presentation of documents and images
elegantly and sensibly. Conclusion: this approach is also rather suboptimal.
3. HIS and HCM system as complementary systems
I’m sure you’ve already guessed it: this approach is the most appealing. The
complementary positioning of both systems offers the cleanest structure
within
the IT landscape and will make your life easier. But there is also a
catch here: if you radically transform the basic structure of an existing and
grown IT landscape in one step, the effort is enormous and frustration is
virtually inevitable. But please don’t be discouraged, because there is also
good news: there are numerous intermediate steps that make the transition
from option two to option three easier for you. So you don’t have to go the
whole way at once.
Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA)
VNAs have one major strength: they are generic. This means that they can archive
data not only, as the name suggests, independently of the manufacturer
of the data source, but also independently of the format and use of the data.
/news:there