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Information Architecture for Quality Management Support in Hospitals

  • Systems-Level Quality Improvement
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Abstract

Quality Management occupies a strategic role in organizations, and the adoption of computer tools within an aligned information architecture facilitates the challenge of making more with less, promoting the development of a competitive edge and sustainability. A formal Information Architecture (IA) lends organizations an enhanced knowledge but, above all, favours management. This simplifies the reinvention of processes, the reformulation of procedures, bridging and the cooperation amongst the multiple actors of an organization. In the present investigation work we planned the IA for the Quality Management System (QMS) of a Hospital, which allowed us to develop and implement the QUALITUS (QUALITUS, name of the computer application developed to support Quality Management in a Hospital Unit) computer application. This solution translated itself in significant gains for the Hospital Unit under study, accelerating the quality management process and reducing the tasks, the number of documents, the information to be filled in and information errors, amongst others.

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Notes

  1. Based on the Agile Manifesto from the Agile Alliance, a non-profit organization that promotes a software development paradigm through “lightweight” or agile methodologies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Engenharia Informática, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Álvaro Rocha

  2. Unidade Local de Saúde do Alto Minho, Viana do Castelo, Portugal

    Jorge Freixo

Authors
  1. Álvaro Rocha
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  2. Jorge Freixo
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Correspondence to Jorge Freixo.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Systems-Level Quality Improvement.

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Rocha, Á., Freixo, J. Information Architecture for Quality Management Support in Hospitals. J Med Syst 39, 125 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-015-0326-z

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