Situation Analysis of Outpatient Information Management Systems in Hospitals Affiliated with Universities of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Introduction: Ambulatory care is an inseparable part of health care system. It is commonly considered as the entrance of the patient to the health care system. High qualify ambulatory care has an important role in reducing mortality and morbidity rates. On the other hand, quality of information has an important role in the quality and safety of ambulatory health care. It is hence necessary to properly manage information. Therefore, this research was carried out to evaluate the outpatient information management systems in hospitals affiliated with universities of medical sciences in Tehran, Iran.Methods: This descriptive study was performed in 2011 to assess outpatient information management systems (clinics and emergency departments). Data was collected using a self-made questionnaire whose content validity was approved. The reliability of the questionnaire was also examined by test-retest. Sample size was equal to society size (42 hospitals). The analysis of data was conducted based on descriptive analysis in SPSS10.Results: None of the evaluated outpatient information management systems employed qualitative review in order to improve the quality of collected data. In addition, about 62% of emergency departments and 78% of clinics did not perform any procedure to organize data within the records.Conclusion: The existence of a high quality and dynamic outpatient information management system is critical. Therefore, the processes and rules on data collection, storage, processing, and distribution in outpatient information management systems require more attention.Keywords: Information Management; Ambulatory Care; Medical Records; Information.