Introduction

The vision for the HSE is to move dramatically from the current way of delivering care to integrated care pathways underpinned by an information enabled model. Some key characteristics of the future vision - “the direction of travel” - are highlighted below in Figure 1.

Key to establishing the HSE Knowledge & Information Strategy was the identification of required target capabilities, aligned with the needs of delivering high quality integrated patient care. This means providing a seamless and information-rich experience to patients, care providers and the system as a whole through all stages of care:

Prevention of illness
Access and entry to care
Diagnosis, treatment and evaluation of treatment effectiveness
Timely transfer to most appropriate setting, and maintenance of care plans and persons’ health

The Direction of Travel

2015
	*Siloed data and siloed approach to patient care*
	*Patient choice inhibited due to lack of information on quality and options*
	*Resource utilisation not optimised*
	*Social Care, Mental Health & Community care not enabled with technology*
	*Patient/clinician interactions must be face to face*
	*Patient records dependent on paper*
	*Accounts are consolidated manually from disparate systems*
	*Limited availability of system performance metrics*
	*Finance systems are focused on the past rather than forward planning*
	*Limited access to real time data for reporting and decision making*

2020
	*Patient records available across all settings when needed*
	*Primary care teams can refer, prescribe, order tests and view results electronically*
	*Patients can access and update their medical records remotely*
	*Social care users empowered with information to make choices*
	*Data is combined from disparate sources and related using unique identifiers*
	*Care is conducted remotely using tele-health technologies*
	*Procurement is fast with order flowing automatically to receipt confirmation,* *payment and accounting*
	*Patients transition through the system quickly and seamlessly*
	*Patient outcomes across providers are compared and drive improvement*
	*Financial reporting is dynamic and timely and planning and forecasting are enabled*
	*Social care services provided based on a systemised assessment*
	*Productivity enhanced across mental health and community care through end user technology enablement*
	*Hospital services supported by the latest in technical tooling*

Knowledge & Information Plan