Design and implementation of an integrated hospital database

The need for the development of a modern hospital database which will support an integrated hospital information system has been recognized for several years. The exercise, however, has nearly always been more difficult than anticipated, and only a limited number of the relevant projects have been successful. A major common problem in most of the above efforts has been the lack of an appropriate hospital database design methodology: a subject on which the advice provided by the literature is limited. A database design methodology is proposed which should help overcome some of the difficulties and meet the database design requirements of a hospital in an optimal way.