A large-scale professionally oriented medical information system--five years later

Success is the word used most often to describe El Camino Hospital's computerized medical information system. Operational since 1972, the system has gained total support from virtually all hospital personnel. Physicians, nurses, and administrative people use the system routinely as part of their day-to-day activities. HEW-sponsored studies have heralded the system for its impact on improving patient care and containing costs. The following paper is an overview of the system from installation to the present. It tells of the vast information available to hospital professionals through simple lightpen selections on a CRT screen, how it handles most manual activities, how it reduces errors, and how it replaces the nurses' Kardex files. Automated systems technology is vital to the future of health care, and it is a valuable tool for enhancing the quality of patient care and improving the use of labor resources. This paper further gives an important insight into other benefits offered to all hospitals by the advent of systems such as the one at El Camino.