Front-line health informatics tools (sometimes informally called the "
clinical informatics toolbelt") generally include one of the following: •
Policies and procedures – Tools used to define organizational standards and how to achieve them. •
Procedures – Documents to help learn how to achieve a goal •
Clinical protocols – Tools used to standardize and automate care in a common clinical scenario. •
Orders – Tools used to record and transmit detailed instructions to perform a procedure or deliver care •
Order sets – Tools used to standardize and expedite the ordering process for a common clinical scenario •
Clinical pathways – Groupings of order sets, used to standardize the rounding process for a common clinical diagnosis •
Guidelines – Documents used to educate general care objectives for a common clinical scenario •
Clinical documentation (includes
Notes, Forms, and Flowsheets) – Documents used to record and transmit a patients' history, condition, responses, therapies, activities, and/or plans •
Clinical user profiles – Tools used to personalize and/or gather information about clinical users •
Clinical templates – Documents used to standardize and expedite the development of a clinical document •
Clinical staff education modules – Documents used to educate a staff member about a common clinical subject •
Clinical patient education modules – Documents used to educate a patient about a common clinical subject •
Clinical staff schedules – documents used to determine who is responsible for care at a particular date and time •
Clinical committee charters – Documents used to assign responsibility to a clinical committee to perform a particular task •
Clinical committee minutes – documents used to record the decisions and activities of a clinical committee •
Telephone number lists – Documents used to help contact a clinical staffmember •
Wikis – Electronic documents used to collect information and web links for a common clinical group •
Clinic Management Solutions – Tools used to record full clinical history of patients. •
Emails,
posters, and
staff meetings – Tools used to make announcements and deliver short messages
Clinical informaticists create clinical changes by properly constructing and implementing these tools. ==References==