[The use of computers in general hospitals]

The article raises important problems associated with the identification of reserves to increase the productivity and culture of health workers' labour on the basis of introduction of automated systems (AS) and computing facilities (CF) into public health institutions. A retrospective analysis is given of CF application in curative institutions, it is indicated that during a long period of time there has been no system approach to the elaboration and use of AS management in medicine. The role of automated working place (AWP) of physician in modern information technologies has been shown. Examples are given of the AS and AWP application in multidisciplinary hospitals. In case of positive solution of problems raised in the article, such AWP of a physician in the code of local computing networks can be introduced into any health institution which would not only decrease the labour consumed by health personnel for routine data processing, increase the culture of labour, but also make the computer an adviser to a physician, include it into the whole technological process of medical diagnosis and treatment which in the long run would permit to shift to a paperless technology of patient records keeping.