Data Incompleteness Preventing Information Communication from Hospital Information Systems to the Iranian National Electronic Health Record (SEPAS)

Abstract

Introduction: One of the well-known problems related to the information quality is the information incompleteness in health information systems. The purpose of this study was to investigate the completeness rate of patients’ information recorded in the hospital information system, sending information from which to Iranian electronic health record system (SEPAS) seemed to be unsuccessful.Methods: This study was conducted in six hospitals associated with Kerman University of Medical Sciences (KUMS) in Iran. In this study, 882 records which had failed to be sent from three hospital information systems to SEPAS were reviewed and the data were collected using a checklist. Data were analyzed using the descriptive and inferential statistics with SPSS.18.Results: A total of 18758 demographic and clinical information elements were examined. The rate of completeness was 55%. The highest completeness rate of demographic information was related to name, surname, gender, nationality, date of birth, father's name, marital status, place of residence, telephone number (79-100%), and in clinical information it was related to the final diagnosis (74%). The completeness rate of some information elements was significantly different among the hospitals (p <0.05). The completeness rate of information communicated to the Iranian national electronic health record was at a moderate level.Conclusion: This study showed that completeness rate is different among hospitals using the same hospital information system. The results of this study can help the health policymakers and developers of the national electronic health record in developing countries to improve completeness rate and also information quality in health information systems.