The development of a management information system for a local public health department

The Oakland County Health Division was desirous of having a single management information system that could serve all its varied programs and in doing so all types of disciplines that were employed. The primary objective was to provide a system that assisted in case management and quality assurance. Greater accountability would result as a by-product of this system through standardized and ad hoc reports. One of the constraints going into this project was the centralized policy for computer services held by the county. Current operational systems not compatible with the county's IBM mainframe could not be adopted. After a considerable search whereby a prototype meeting the specifications of the Health Division could not be found, the decision to develop a system was made. CHAMPS (Comprehensive Health Analysis, Management, Planning System) is a research and development project addressing the need.