* *

Evolution of Health Care Information Systems
HCS/531

Organizations are always looking to become more successful and use resources more efficiently to meet the organizational goals. Information technology has helped develop many different industries by providing them with increased and new capabilities; the health care industry is the same. Health care has made vast improvements in the use of technology in the clinics to provide better more efficient patient care. The improvements have been seen both on the clinical medical systems and the administration of health care delivery. Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center has seen many changes of the past 20 years and has integrated technology to all areas of the information technology. Two major technological events in this facility over the past 20 years that have led to advancements of the organization were the implementation of the Composite Health Care System (CHCS) and the implementation of the EHR with the evolution of AHLTA.
History of Health Care Information Systems Wilford Hall in the late 1980’s and the early 1990’s was the largest hospital in the United States Air Force and the one of only two trauma centers in the San Antonio regional area. With 9 floors of clinical space and providing all medical services from family practice to specialized services along with long term care, the mission was very fast paced. At this point technology had entered the organization but was in the very early stages and paper documentation was very much in use. The use of technology was used for clinical systems but was segregated by clinics. Each clinic and or specialty had its own specific system and application that did not talk to the other clinics. This was not an effective way to share information across the organization and still led to the requirement of having paper records and documentation.