New Uses of the Large Clinical Data Base at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston: On-line Searching by Clinicians

摘要

The Beth Israel Hospital in Boston is served by a heavily used clinical computing system that provides rapid access to the clinical data on patients under care. Entry of a patient's name, location, or hospital ID immediately displays data on that patient. On-line information on over 600,000 patients can be accessed throughout the hospital on more than 500 display terminals. In addition to providing information on each patient, the clinical computing system also provides access to several programs that support clinical decision making in the hospital. The DRUGMAN and BUGMAN programs provide hospital formulary updates and up-to-date information on the infectious disease experience of the hospital; there is an expert acid-base and electrolyte consultation program; a user-friendly, self-service MEDLINE bibliographic retrieval program (PaperChase), and a program that allows users to rapidly search the hospital's clinical data base for patient care and clinical research.