ABSTRACT
As databases are used by a greater variety of people, highly technical methods of designing them are giving way to more human, user-centered approaches. The article describes a human approach to designing a complex, multiuse database with limited resources. The article introduces a simple data modeling tool, the entity-relationship (E-R) diagram, that crosses professional boundaries and enables providers, researchers, and programmers to communicate more easily. Constructing an E-R diagram provides a human description of the social health maintenance organization (S/HMO) multisite demonstration project. This project, now in its tenth year, provides integrated acute and community-based in-home services to allow frail elderly HMO members to stay in their homes. After briefly reviewing the three types of databases and three rules of thumb for designing a relational database, the article shows how a simple E-R diagram can clarify the management and research issues of the S/HMO health care model. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the benefits and limits of housing research-related health data in a relational database.
Subject(s)
Communication , Comprehensive Health Care/organization & administration , Database Management Systems , Health Maintenance Organizations/organization & administration , Computer Simulation , Continuity of Patient Care/organization & administration , Forms and Records Control , Research Design , Software , United StatesABSTRACT
Educators are concerned that the cost consciousness arena of prospective payment systems will cause cutbacks in hospital consumer education programs. This paper examines how DRGs, the New Jersey prospective pricing system, has affected patient education at New Jersey hospitals.
