| Description |
The past quarter century has seen increasing demands on the healthcare industry to manage and improve access to care, manage and improve processes and outcomes of care, and manage and decrease the costs of care. Forces driving the changes in healthcare also are driving changes in the information requirements of healthcare organizations and the way in which they must manage and use that information. One of the keys to more effectively managing information is measuring, improving, and maintaining the quality of information. The broad objective of this thesis research was to evaluate the quality of imaging services data in the HELP System and the Imaging Services Data Warehouse at LDS Hospital. The dimensions of quality evaluated were accuracy, consistency, and completeness. The study design was a retrospective correlational evaluation study. Correlational evaluation studies explore the relationship between a set of variables that is measured but not manipulated in any way and is designed to facilitate the development and refinement of information resources. The independent variables of the research performed for this thesis were the processes for the production, capture, storage, and utilization of imaging services data. The dependent variable was the quality of those data. Multiple data element pairs, for each case in the inpatient and outpatient study population, were evaluated for quality problems. Quantitative analyses were used to determine the magnitude of the information quality problems. Qualitative analyses were used to identify the sources and potential impacts of the information quality problems. For the range of data element pairs evaluated, in the inpatient population, inaccurate information was present in 22.5%) to 63.0%o of cases, inconsistent information was present in 16.0% to 40.7% of cases, and incomplete information was present in 1.2% to 40.7% of cases. In the outpatient population, inaccurate information was present in 36.5% to 46.2%), inconsistent information was present in 3.8%o to 40.4%o, and incomplete information was present in 0.0% to 23.1%). The quantitative results confirm the presence of information quality problems, and the qualitative results demonstrate the potential impacts of poor information quality on the delivery of healthcare services. |
