Evolution of Health Care Information Systems
San Juana (Janie) Barbosa
University of Phoenix
Health Information Systems
HCS/533
Ahmed Jamal
August 07, 2011

Evolution of Health Care Information Systems Health care technology continues to change every day. In the past 20 years, how an individual’s health care information is seen, used, or stored in ones primary care physician private office has a dramatic change. The expansions of the worldwide web, the evolution of electronic medical records and electronic health records have dramatically changed how physician-client information is exchanged. On any given day a patient would walk into the physicians’ office to see a massive bookcase holding the vast amount of patient health information records in different stages of disarray. The office clerk or receptionist would try to answer the phone, hand write and book appointments, pull medical records, and attempt to check the patient into see the physician. Fast forward to the same physicians’ office today, and the scene is very different. The receptionist is still answering the phone and signing in the patient to see the physician, but where is the vast array of patient health information records. The large bookcase in chaotic disarray is a thing of the past. Today the office has multiple high-tech computers, and the receptionist can log the individual into the computer system, rather than handwriting a note or placing a check mark. The patient and physician benefit from the advancement of technology, the ease of availability of laboratory results, and the electronic ability to refill medications during an office visit. The patient and physician have the capacity to share pertinent health information by Internet access and e-mail. In the 1990s obtaining individual patient health information was frustrating for both the patient and the primary