Integration of a stand-alone expert system with a hospital information system

A stand-alone PC expert system for evaluating the appropriateness of inpatient admissions has been integrated with an existing hospital information system. The expert system supports preadmission screening for appropriateness of inpatient admissions. The HIS provides extensive clinical data in a coded electronic form, permitting high-level decision support. The integrated system was developed for a 20 week randomized clinical trial to evaluate the effects of preadmission screening on inappropriate inpatient admissions. Three factors of the integration are considered: programmatic integration of the expert system, seamless presentation of mixed platform applications, and integration of coded data from the stand-alone application into the HIS data structure.