In this approach used by Winter et al. (2001, 2003) and Haux et al.

(2004) a hospital information system is defined as a subsystem of a hospital, which comprises all information processing actions as well as the associated human or technical actors in their respective information processing role. A socio technical system therefore is a system where humans and machines carry out specific actions following established rules. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) among in Health Care To provide optimal care, healthcare institutions need timely patient information from various sources at the point-of-care, and need a comprehensive, complete and fully functional system to fulfil all these needs. And one way to achieve this is through the use of ICT in health care (WHO 2003). The use of ICT into existing health systems according to Chetley et al. (2006) has helped to improve the delivery of health care in a number of ways. These include the use of telemedicine to improve diagnosis and enhance patient care, improvements in the continuing professional development of health workers and better sharing of research findings through e-health, and the use of health systems as an effort to extend the reach and coverage of health care to make an impact on specific conditions. Used wisely, however, telemedicine can be a cost-effective method that richer countries can employ to aid capacity building in the health care systems of poorer countries (Chetley et al 2006). E-health is the organization and delivery of health services and information using the Internet and related technologies. This can be used to improve health care locally, regionally, and worldwide by using information and communication technology (Chetley et al 2006). Health systems consist of all activities whose purpose is to promote, restore or maintain health. This includes, but is not limited to, the preventive, curative and palliative health services provided by a health care system (Chetley et al 2006). ICT is the basis for the development and operation of information systems and enables the creation and application of knowledge. This consists of different levels of sophistication and complexity of information systems, within the health care system for: patient records, tracking of disease prevalence, monitoring drug supplies, maintaining ordering systems for supplies, and billing procedures therefore all benefit from the use of ICT. (Chetley et al 2006). Problems Associated after Introducing HMIS A hospital consists of various organizational units with differing tasks for various types of healthcare professionals. These units often tend to be in very different locations in a hospital. There is a visible gap between the information needed and the information exchanged. One way to make this gap disappear is by moving from healthcare to integrated care, meaning, the merging of hospitals and individual practices into larger integrated healthcare networks.