Computerized information systems for social workers in health care.

Social workers' contributions to preventive medicine; discharge planning; and effective integration of hospital, family, and community resources are becoming increasingly important within the changing context of health care delivery. Information technology can be a powerful tool for developing efficient, accurate, and comprehensive patient records. In spite of the potential that information technology offers health care social workers, the actual use of computerized patient data has been limited and slow to develop. This article describes the development of a prototype information system that supports the diverse tasks of health care social workers in ambulatory care, shows how a shared computerized database can improve coordination of patient care among multiple health care disciplines, and addresses emerging issues as a growing number of social workers in health care use computerized information systems.