Integration strategies in hospitals

This paper aims at responding to how two different strategies for integration (CORBA and Enterprise Application Integration) might influence comprehension of the quality of the information in the electronic patient record taken into account the problem dimensions on information systems integration (distribution, heterogeneity and autonomy. These issues are pursued through a study of electronic patient record systems (EPRs) in a large university hospital in Norway and the use of ICD-codes in different health related contexts. This essay also draws on the ongoing, large-scale Medakis project where the aim is to implement EPRs in the 5 largest hospitals in the country. Exactly as with Enterprise Resource Planning systems, EPRs in large hospitals are expected to integrate information and information based processes across departments, among different types of users and over time