Information systems for supporting operational management of hospital beds in the NHS

摘要

This paper provides an analysis of information systems (IS) currently used in UK hospitals to support the effective management and utilisation of beds.It focuses particularly on IS working at the level of individual patients (particularly in real-time),rather than aggregate planning tools.It locates these systems within the broader context of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) and concludes that such systems will continue to have an important place in improving bed utilisation while the NPfIT is being rolled out,and in some cases could contribute useful implementation experience and algorithms.