Information systems in critical care: a measure of their effectiveness

Information systems in critical care settings are intended to assist critical care nurses in handling large volumes of multi-source, multi-variant patient data. These systems are known by many names, including patient data management systems (PDMS). The focus of this research was the development and testing of a generic, non-vendor-specific effectiveness measure for PDMS. Eight PDMS goals were identified and developed into the 79 item PDMS Effectiveness Measure. Testing included internal consistency reliability (.9098), test-retest reliability (r = .8941) and content validity (CVI = 0.66). Construct validity was estimated via contrasted groups analysis with significantly higher scores for nursing units with PDMS. The PDMS Effectiveness Measure is reliable, valid and useful for measuring the effectiveness of PDMS in critical care settings. Furthermore, PDMS do assist nurses in information handling.