The future of decision support systems in hospital management.

This article discusses the evolution of decision support systems (DSS) within the hospital management environment. It begins with an outline of the historical factors leading to the need for this technology, then goes on to review the unique data-processing attributes a DSS offers and the requisite changes hospital management must make to maximize the benefits of these systems. The purpose is to provide hospital managers and other interested individuals with an overview of DSS functionality. Increasingly restrictive hospital reimbursement systems have created an economic incentive to install DSS technology and refine management structures to take advantage of the enhanced data-processing capabilities. A DSS enables a hospital to organize data captured by its information system on a product-line basis. This capability affords management with an entirely new way of analyzing a hospital's financial performance. Hospitals, traditionally organized on a departmental basis, must change their management structures in order to effectively use the data provided by a DSS.