Increasingly the term EDIS or Emergency Department Information System, is appearing in publications and journals covering technology support for emergency departments. Simply put, EDIS are computer-based tools designed to facilitate the management of patients and patient medical encounter information within an ED. These can be single-focus information systems such as discharge instructions, and patient tracking modules to fully integrated systems that manage all patient data from point of entry to the emergency department to final patient disposition. Some of these systems can link to ancillary departments such as laboratory and radiology, as well as the hospital information system for registrations, ADTs, clinical data repositories etc.

The EDIS category has grown considerably in the past decade as technology advances have enabled a greater breadth of information support for emergency departments. During this time, rising patient volumes and a concurrent reduction in the number of EDs within the country, have increased the pressure on EDs to manage patients more efficiently and to seek new solutions.

The benefits that can be generated from implementing an EDIS will vary significantly based upon the type and brand of system chosen. The breadth of benefits; however, can cover the following aspects of your emergency department:

• Workflow Enhancement: faster clinician documentation, reduction of verbal orders, legible documentation, enhanced communication between care-givers, elimination of redundant documentation.
• Increased Capacity: as a result of more efficient documentation and communication between care-givers
• Clinical Support: automated intelligence embedded within the EDIS to support caregivers in diagnostic reasoning, formulation of treatment plans and medication dosing determinations.
• Reduction of Paper: An effective EDIS can virtually replace paper within your ED through total information management shared electronically with ancillary departments and the hospital information system.
• Reduction of Expenses: Elimination of transcription expenses and reduction of coding costs as a result of automated ICD-9 and CPT coding.
• TQM/QA Information: Ability to analyze patient data across different care-givers for compliance with QA standards, service interval standards, resource utilization rates, and patient encounter mix.
• Improved Regulatory Compliance: legible documentation, elimination of public grease-boards, patient safety alerts, secured access to protected health information and ease of supplying required documentation.
• Work Environment: Improved job satisfaction for clinicians as a result of the elimination of tedious and repetitive tasks and the presence of clear and complete communication about patient status and orders.

While there is no single way to compartmentalize the EDIS category, some basic segmentations exist.

EDIS systems can be either single-purpose or multi-functional.

Of course, there can be significant differences in features, performance and support for each of the system components when comparing vendors. Demonstrations of competitive products will assist emergency departments in determining the right choice for their needs.

Vendor systems will either have been built sequentially with new modularized solutions added to their system as they are developed or they have been designed originally as a multi-functional system available for implementation either in modules or as a complete system package.

The technology specifications for the systems can vary widely with a core distinction being whether the technology platform works as an internal client-server configuration or as an intranet/browser-based application.

Within the EDIS category there are two primary vendor profiles: dedicated EDIS solution providers and enterprise system vendors. In the case of the former, these companies’ sole or primary focus is to develop information management solutions to support emergency departments. Customers can benefit from this dedicated focus to the unique needs of EDs but need to understand how the products can integrate with other hospital systems for the exchange and storage of patient data. Enterprise vendors offer integration support for the ED as their ED modules are part of their enterprise-wide information solution. Product development; however, is not likely to be focused exclusively on meeting the needs of the emergency department.

The EDIS category offers many solution options for emergency departments. The category is no longer defined by just patient tracking and discharge modules. The technology now exists to combine all the elements of a patient encounter within a single integrated system that can interface with ancillary departments and the overall hospital information infrastructure.

Commenting on the National Report Card on the State of Emergency Medicine