A good database that patients can access might also be helpful.

Until you get something fully automated, you have an extra person to understand/review decisions.

Unfortunately hospitals don't have "a database" there are often dozens (maybe more?) of vaguely connected systems with numerous logins required. Getting the one thing you want (e.g. patients phone number) can mire than one computer and several programme logins. Having your accounts randomly blocked and calling IS to unblock them isn't uncommon either, same goes for random outages of periods of painful slowness. Maybe it's just the system I'm in?

Last time i was in a treatment room at a hospital (broken thumb) I was able to open a browser on the PC before the doctor came in a told me off.

He told me his group of physicians had refused to treat anyone until the IT department removed the requirements for login to basic systems because they were sick of not being able to use their tools because a login didn't work for whatever reason - forgotten password, login system not working, it was all the same to them, they just wanted to be able to access their tools.

That was in Adelaide, South Australia, about 4 years ago.