Marion J. Ball Books

Changes in health care are at a breakneck pace. Regardless of the many changes we have collectively experienced, delivering health care has been, is, and will continue to be an enormously information-intensive process. Whether caring for a patient or a population, whether managing a clinic or a continuum, we are in a knowledge exchange business. A major task for our industry, and the task for chief information officers (CIOs), is to find and apply improved strategies and technologies for managing healthcare information. In a fiercely competitive healthcare marketplace, the pressures to suc ceed in this undertaking-and the rewards associated with success-are enormous. While the task is still daunting, we can all be encouraged by progress being made in information management. There are documented successes throughout health care, and there is growing recognition by healthcare chief executive officers and boards that information strategies, and their deployment, are essential to organizational efficiency, quite pos sibly organizational survival."

Highlighting performance improvement and business strategies throughout various health care settings, this text focuses on business drivers and management mechanisms, explaining when, how, and why information technology solutions are of value. Structured on three levels: Market Environment, Transformational Processes, and Enabling Technologies, the book describes the current state of the art of health care and the shape of things to come, and provides practical solutions and strategies for implementing applications of technology within the current context. It is thus an invaluable reference to the CEOs, chief information officers, senior executives, and board members who are shaping health care today and into the 21st century. It will equally appeal to healthcare administrators and managers, healthcare systems specialists, and students in advanced healthcare professional and academic programs.

Since publication of the first edition in 1988, this book has established itself as the premier reference text for nurses, nursing administrators, nursing students, and other health care professionals who seek a state-of-the-art review of the role of IT in the nursing profession. The third edition of this seminal work keeps readers at the forefront of the rapidly evolving field of nursing informatics, examining new trends and thoroughly updating and revising all content. New chapters include: Selecting a Nursing Informatics Consultant; Project Management; Consumer Informatics; Data Mining; Education (CME, Patient); Electronic Medical Imaging; Nursing Informatics Competencies; Telehealth and Implications; Business Process Reengineering; Nursing's Role in Telehealth.

Far reaching advances in health informatics have propelled this field from the realm of theory into daily clinical practice over the past several years. This new edition looks beyond traditional information systems to show how healthcare facilities can gain competitive advantages.