Health information technology for the perinatal setting.

摘要

The Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) recognizes the vital role of health information technology (HIT) in the health care delivery system of the United States. Because AWHONN members primarily provide care to women and infants, AWHONN is especially interested in HITand data collection in the perinatal setting. AWHONN supports standard data collection across the perinatal setting, regardless of the format of the patient's record (electronic or paper). Additionally, AWHONN recognizes the critical need for interoperability and archiving in data collection systems. Hospital and institution-wide HITsystems should incorporate specialty specific data (e.g., neonatal intensive care unit [NICU] and obstetric outpatient records) into patient records. To accomplish the efficient use of HIT in the perinatal setting, nurses must be involved in the product selection, development, implementation, evaluation and improvement of information systems.