Information Governance Program: A Review of Applications in Healthcare

Context: The healthcare in different countries faces challenges in enhancing the quality of services and reducing the costs. Information governance provides a tool for effective and efficient management of information, the use of which contributes to improved productivity, and effectiveness of services and reduced costs. Identifying the applications and benefits of using this tool paves the way for its accurate and effective deployment in a variety of healthcare organizations. This study was conducted to identify and classify the applications of information governance program within healthcare systems. Evidence Acquisition: The study reviewed English studies related to the information governance applications in healthcare published during 2000 and 2017. The publications were identified by searching the Pub Med, Google Scholar, ProQuest, Scopus and Science Direct databases. The key words included, but not restricted to, information governance, health information governance, information governance program and impacts of information governance in health care. Having completed the search, 128 studies were retrieved, of which 23 were reviewed. Results: The Information Governance program applications were categorized into five general groups, including improving healthcare and patient safety, reducing the costs, enhancing the quality of data and information healthcare, enhancing the security and confidentiality of patient information, improving the management of information and healthcare organizations. Conclusion: Through developing and implementing of Health Information Governance programs, updating information and upgrading information technologies, healthcare organizations could improve the quality of healthcare services and reduce the subsequent costs to achieve competitive advantages.