An intelligent decision support system for a health authority: Solving information overload

This paper highlights a frequently unidentified problem in information management, namely information overload characterised by the inability to process information within defined decision making timescales rather than by the volume of data in the system. This may occur after computerisation, when failure to define the scope and boundaries of a system sufficiently broadly may improve an administration function but worsen management decision making. Potential solutions include incorporating facilitites for the automatic intelligent scanning of a volatile database and the automatic graphical presentation of the results into systems architectures. The main argument of the paper is illustrated with an information research project in the private nursing home inspectorate of an area health authority. The objective of the project was to investigate the feasibility of integrating a quality control system with a regulatory system, in order to provide a problem forecasting capability.