Healthcare in America continues to be of paramount importance, and one of the most highly debated public policy issues of our time. With annual expenditures already exceeding $2.4 trillion, and yielding less than optimal results, it stands to reason that we must turn to promising tools and solutions, such as information technology (IT), to improve service efficiency and quality of care. Presidential addresses in 2004 and 2008 laid out an agenda, framework, and timeline for national health information technology investment and development. A national initiative was long overdue. This report we show that advancements in both medical technologies and information systems can be capitalized upon, hence extending information systems usage beyond data collection to include administrative and decision support, care plan development, quality improvement, etc. In this paper we focus on healthcare services for palliative patients. We present the development and preliminary accounts of a successful initiative in the Medical Center of Central Georgia where footprints information technology was modified and integrated into the hospital's palliative care service and existing EMR systems. The project provides evidence that there are a plethora of areas in healthcare in which innovative application of information systems could significantly enhance the care delivered to loved ones, and improve operations at the same time. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010.
