Realising the benefits of resource management.

In 1988 Inverclyde Royal Hospital became the pilot site for the resource management initiative in Scotland. Real benefits have been achieved through the implementation of an information system which allows doctors to closely monitor every aspect of health care in the hospital, enabling them to continually reassess and evaluate their own work. The ability of doctors to use the clinical information system to fulfil operational requirements, such as the production of automated discharge summaries, whilst supporting the medical audit process through the same dataset has been a major achievement. Within the hospital the creation of an 'information flow' has been helpful to all clinical and medical records staff and at the same time has produced patient based information to support the management process. The availability of over four years of fully costed activity data is a considerable advantage for the Unit as Trust status approaches.