Hospital Information System
Why Your HIS Belongs on the Leadership Agenda
Is Your HIS Costing Clinicians More Than It Gives? What 2026 Evidence Shows.
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Costs and return
Your HIS is paid for in clinical time. What does the hospital get back?
A hospital information system is often bought as an IT project. Its cost and its return are counted in clinical time.
Ask the nurses on any ward what the hospital information system (HIS) does to their shift. KLAS has surveyed more than 80,000 nurses, and 79% report losing time to unproductive charting. Of more than 25,000 physicians surveyed, 59% do not feel their system enables efficiency. [1]
The benefits are documented too. In a 2026 review of 71 studies, those reported most often were safer care with fewer errors, and better quality of care. [2]
A system that costs clinical time and shapes patient safety belongs at the leadership table, not only in the IT department. The HIS now carries:
- Clinical time: hours of every nursing and medical shift.
- Patient safety: orders, results and handovers.
- Revenue: the documentation and coding behind each claim.
- Trust: the data the hospital reports and shares.
What a HIS actually is
A HIS is the set of connected systems a hospital runs on. At its centre is the electronic patient record. Around it sit registration and scheduling, orders and results for the laboratory, radiology and pharmacy, nursing documentation, billing and claims, and reporting.
Its job is simple to state: the right information in front of the right person at the right moment, captured once, and reliable enough for care, payment and planning.
What the 2026 evidence says
Switching the system on does not deliver that by itself.
For its 2026 report, KLAS measured more than 121,000 clinicians across 92 organisations over the past year. Among organisations that surveyed physicians, 22% reached the top experience level. Among those that surveyed nurses, 12% did, and nurses were more likely than physicians to report a basic or struggling experience. [1]
A study published in September 2026 followed a German university hospital as it moved from paper records to an electronic system. Nurses learned it in small face-to-face groups, with IT staff on the wards in the first days. Physicians were pointed to an online portal and taught themselves. Five months later, nurses reported less information overload and physicians reported more detachment from their work. Overall, workflow and burnout measures did not change significantly. [3]
One hospital cannot prove cause. The pattern is still instructive: one system, two ways of introducing it, two different results.
What separates a HIS that delivers from one that disappoints
The review of 71 studies found that the challenges reported most often were human: resistance to change, attitudes and insufficient training. Weak infrastructure came well behind. [2]
The experience can be improved. Organisations that measured again with KLAS raised their experience score by 6.2 points on average, and Gulf health systems are among the report’s award winners. The report points to where the effort pays off: [1]
- Staged training: the basics at the start, then further sessions through the first three months. Even one hour of ongoing education a year can lift satisfaction noticeably.
- A voice for clinicians: a clear route to request changes, and an answer every time.
- Usable outside data: information from other providers that is quick to find and free of duplicates.
One more belongs on the list: a tested plan for downtime. In January 2026, England’s Health Services Safety Investigations Body opened an investigation into the risk to patients when a system loses functionality. [4]
Why this matters now in the GCC
Much of the Gulf is past the adoption question. A 2026 systematic review of UAE health reforms reports electronic records in all of Dubai’s public hospitals and 75% of its private clinics by 2023. It also names limited interoperability as a persistent challenge, and notes that having a system is not the same as using it well. [5]
Meanwhile, hospital data no longer stays inside the hospital. Abu Dhabi’s exchange, Malaffi, connects more than 2,700 facilities and is integrated with the federal platform Riayati and Dubai’s Nabidh. [6] Saudi Arabia’s Health Sector Transformation Program targets a unified digital medical record for 100% of the population. [7]
What clinicians record in the HIS, and how well, is now visible far beyond the ward.
Three questions for your next leadership meeting
1) Do we know how much of each shift our nurses and physicians spend in the HIS, and how much of it they consider unproductive?
2) Who decides what changes in the system after go-live, and do clinicians have a seat at that table?
3) Would we stand behind the quality of the data our HIS sends beyond the hospital today?
If the answers are unclear, the first step is to measure. The next is to give someone the authority to act on what the numbers show.
A HIS earns its place when it gives clinicians more than it takes from them.
Sources:
[1] KLAS Arch Collaborative, June 2026: Clinician EHR Experience 2026
[2] Askari et al., BMC Health Services Research, 2026: Electronic health records in patient care, a scoping review
[3] Weigl et al., JAMIA Open, 2026: Effects of electronic health records implementation on workflow and health care provider outcomes
[4] Health Services Safety Investigations Body, England, January 2026: Electronic patient record systems, risk from loss of functionality
[5] Gu, Koornneef and Alnaqbi, Health Policy, 2026: Healthcare reforms in the United Arab Emirates from 2017 to 2024, a systematic review
[6] Department of Health Abu Dhabi, 2026: Malaffi
[7] Saudi Vision 2030: Health Sector Transformation Program
How can we help?
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