To better understand the factors that support or inhibit process improvement in a hospital setting, we conducted a study of one hospital’s attempt to implement a health information system (HIS) to reduce errors in medical treatment and manage material flows. We propose a dynamic model capturing the evolution of the interactions among the “physics” underling hospital operations, information technology (IT), and staff behavior.  We show that early success in one phase of process improvement can create unintended feedback in a later phase. We use a system dynamics model to examine losses in performance in these later phases. We then recommend management improvements in both materials and staff utilization and estimate the resultant cost-saving. As part of this analysis we explore opportunities to merge real-time operational data with feedback modeling to provide dynamic tools for hospital administration, risk management, and education and training. We believe that the major gains in HIS use will accompany new information gathering capabilities, as these capabilities result in collections of data that can be used to greatly improve patient safety, hospital operations, and medical decision support.