Cancer screening and immunization quality assurance using a personal computer

Using a personal computer and custom-designed software as part of a quality assurance (QA) program dramatically improved the performance of health maintenance in a community hospital outpatient clinic. Previously health maintenance interventions were prompted by a simple review of the records. The computer program tracks each patient encounter with the clinic, recording the dates of immunizations, cancer screenings, and other health maintenance interventions performed by the physician responsible for the patient's care. When indicated, the computer prompts the physician to perform a health maintenance intervention. This system is an inexpensive and acceptable means of promoting and teaching health maintenance in an outpatient hospital clinic.