Maria has received a request to update a patient's insurance number. She accesses the______ and updates the system. What system is she using?

The Admission-Discharge-Transfer (ADT) system is a foundational administrative information system used in healthcare. It is responsible for registering patients and tracking their movement throughout the facility. A core function of the ADT system's registration module is to collect and maintain essential patient demographic and financial data, which explicitly includes insurance information. Therefore, when an update to a patient's insurance number is required, the ADT system is the appropriate application to use. This system serves as the central source of truth for patient identity and administrative details for other systems within the healthcare organization.

A. An executive information system provides high-level, aggregated data for strategic decision-making by leadership, not for updating individual patient administrative records.
B. A clinical decision support system is designed to assist clinicians with patient care decisions by providing alerts and evidence-based guidance, not for managing financial data.
D. A laboratory information system is a specialized departmental system used to manage laboratory orders, specimens, and results; it is not the primary system for patient registration or insurance updates.

1. Oachs, P. K., & Watters, A. J. (2020). Health Information Management: Concepts, Principles, and Practice (6th ed.). AHIMA Press. In Chapter 10, "Healthcare Information Systems," the section on "Administrative Information Systems" describes the Patient Registration (ADT) system as the application where demographic and financial information (including insurance) is collected and updated (pp. 318-319).

2. Sayles, N. B., & Gordon, L. L. (2020). Health Information Management Technology: An Applied Approach (6th ed.). AHIMA Press. Chapter 5, "Healthcare Information Systems," identifies the Registration-Admission-Discharge-Transfer (R-ADT) system as the source for collecting patient demographic and insurance data upon registration (p. 118).

3. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. (n.d.). Introduction to Health Information Systems. [Courseware]. The course materials differentiate between administrative systems like ADT, which manage patient registration and billing information, and clinical systems like CDSS or LIS, which manage patient care and diagnostic data.