Adler D A, Edwards C N
Public Health Rep. 1981 Jul-Aug;96(4):369-75.
Human service organization are beset by internal and external requests for information. As the scale and complexity of such delivery systems has increased, the use of computer-based information systems has become a necessity. The evolution of a client information system in a large, decentralized mental health center is reviewed in this paper to illustrate several critical issues that can be encountered in the application of computer-based technology to human services. An analysis of the center's existing information system and the development of the data forms and procedures necessary for a second-generation system to meet information needs revealed the unique data structure and analysis problems of human service delivery systems. These problems were complicated by regulatory agencies' imposition of external reporting requirements that frequently were unpredictable and inconsistent. Finally, planning and negotiations with the participation of all involved parties demonstrated that formal and informal administrative constraints and conflicting interests within human service organizations must be accommodated or a system may fail. All of these factors combine to highlight both the problems and the need for highly flexible multipurpose information systems.
人类服务组织面临着来自内部和外部的信息需求。随着此类服务提供系统的规模和复杂性不断增加，使用基于计算机的信息系统已成为必要。本文回顾了一个大型、分散式心理健康中心客户信息系统的发展历程，以说明在将基于计算机的技术应用于人类服务时可能遇到的几个关键问题。对该中心现有信息系统的分析以及第二代系统满足信息需求所需的数据表单和程序的开发，揭示了人类服务提供系统独特的数据结构和分析问题。监管机构施加的外部报告要求常常不可预测且不一致，这使这些问题变得更加复杂。最后，在所有相关方参与下进行的规划和谈判表明，人类服务组织内部的正式和非正式行政约束以及利益冲突必须得到妥善处理，否则系统可能会失败。所有这些因素共同凸显了问题所在以及对高度灵活的多用途信息系统的需求。
