If IT has found a critical foothold any field, it is especially important in healthcare. Tablet computers and other mobile devices are used to access electronic medical records (EMR) systems, medical imaging systems, and many other components of today’s medical facilities and doctors’ offices. Everything from a patient’s vital signs to his or her family medical history lives within information systems, which often interact with a wide array of devices used in operating rooms and other diagnostic, treatment, and critical care areas.

Keeping healthcare information systems running at optimal levels is of the utmost importance in providing high quality care. ITIL, also known as the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, is the de facto global standard for IT best practices. Adopting these best practices—as well as running software that supports them—is extremely important in the world of healthcare.

Incident Management and Problem Management

Incidents—unplanned interruptions of IT services—can and will occur. Good Incident Management practices help return services to normal operation as quickly as possible. This fast recovery is vital in healthcare IT, where outages can prevent staff from working efficiently and patients from receiving needed care.

SOURCE: cherwell.com