Developing pharmacy applications using a microcomputer relational database in a long-term care psychiatric hospital

The database applications developed with a microcomputer for a 1000 bed long-term care forensic psychiatric care hospital are described. The implementation of a microcomputer system was instituted as an interim measure prior to the development of a hospital wide minicomputer system. Primary emphasis was placed on increasing the efficiency of professional staff while enhancing clinical therapeutic monitoring. The system operates on an IBM-AT with 30 megabyte hard disk drive and an Epson FX-100 dot matrix printer. A relational database manager, Team-Up, was utilized in the development of applications that included census maintenance, scheduled drug inventory, drug regimen review, drug utilization protocols and a skilled nursing unit dose patient profile. Other ancillary functions included generation of stock labels, a literature abstract database and an on-line policy and procedure manual. Advantages of the system include an increase in staff productivity through the use of information that is readily attainable from the patient database. Possible disadvantages are the programming and hardware limitations imposed by a microcomputer system. Long term care psychiatric facilities may be able to enhance staff efficiency by computerizing existing manual systems. Because of the diverse and specialized requirements of long term care facilities, a microcomputer used in conjunction with a programmable relational database can be easily customized to fulfill this need.