Researching hospital patient data to enhance operational management.

For the purposes of funding and policy development, the Victorian Department of Human Services expects Victorian health care institutions to capture patient data at all levels. These data can be extracted from hospital information systems and potentially offer a business role within a health service organisation. However, there are many issues to be addressed at the organisational level in order that operational directors can be enabled to use hospital data to solve health service operational problems. In this paper, we discuss some of those considerations and give practical examples of how patient data can be used for research and management purposes.