The strategic role of health informatics in integrated delivery systems

Having accurate measures and high-quality health information is critically important for all providers today. Integrated delivery systems are faced with increasing demands for numerous redundant, sometimes conflicting, performance measurement and reporting data from managed care customers, regulators, and accreditors. When implemented independently within each organizational subunit, these measurement systems are costly and difficult to manage. Centralization of all measurement services can maximize the productivity of the costly resources required to deliver them and can achieve efficiencies, cost savings, and a better balance between internal and external resources while collecting information that is of a higher quality for managerial and clinical decision making.