Information system for labor and delivery surveillance

An on-line information system has been developed and implemented at St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, California, to support a ten-bed labor and delivery suite. A Digital Equipment Corporation VAX 750 was programmed to provide on-line multi-terminal clinical surveillance. The reports implemented include an obstetrical summary report, labor record, obstetrical clinical record, and the birth certificate. Computer terminals and monitors are placed at the nursing station and other work areas, such as the anesthesia on-call room, obstetrical supervisor's office, on-call room, neonatal ICU, O.R., admission room, and M.D. conference room. The system includes computer databases used to store information for medical quality assurance, management reports, obligatory statutory reports, and research, and to provide comparison of patient data with data from other hospitals.