Certified Healthcare Technology Specialist (CHTS) Process Workflow & Information Management Redesign Practice Exam

An Admission-Discharge-Transfer system is categorized as which type of information system?

1. Decision Support System

2. Transaction Processing System

3. Management Information System

4. Expert System

The correct answer is: Transaction Processing System

An Admission-Discharge-Transfer (ADT) system is categorized as a Transaction Processing System because it primarily handles the day-to-day operational details of patient admissions, discharges, and transfers within a healthcare facility. In this context, a transaction involves data that is generated every time a patient is admitted to, discharged from, or transferred within the institution. Such systems are designed to capture detailed data quickly and efficiently, providing real-time information that is crucial for hospital operations. These processes are foundational in ensuring that patient records are accurately maintained, thereby supporting the administrative functions of the healthcare establishment. The transactional nature of the ADT system involves the ongoing logging of events that govern patient flow and bed management, which aligns it closely with the characteristics of a Transaction Processing System. In contrast, other types of systems like Decision Support Systems or Management Information Systems focus on providing analysis, reports, and data interpretation, rather than the routine processing of transactions. Expert Systems rely more on knowledge bases and inference rules to simulate the judgment of a human expert, which is quite different from the transactional nature of an ADT system.