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revi e w ® IE MOSES H. CONE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA MCH Pioneers Local Area Network Approach To Computerization The Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital is gaining national recognition as one of the first hospitals in the United States to have its hospital information system based on local area networking technology. Our hospital was recently recognized in Computers in Healthcare, a national magazine, as one of two hospitals to use an "open" network computer system. In addition, an article titled "Distributed Processing in a Large Hospital," authored by Vice President James W. Albright and James M. Gabler, Director of Management Systems, was published in the December/January 1986 issue of the national publication Software in Healthcare. 'Tart of the elegance of the STAT LAN computer system comes from its simplicity." Typically, large hospitals install a large computer with all hospital functions addressed by a single vendor. This not only requires a multi-million dollar investment initially, computer upgrades to increase capacity are also expensive. More critically, when this single system is down, it affects the entire hospital since all areas are tied into this single central system. This model does not integrate well with special purpose systems, such as our own Sunquest Lab Computer. Nursing involement is limited to the vendor's approach, which is generally order entry/charge capture, thus inter-unit activities (orders, results, for instance) are better addressed than intra-unit patient care activities. The new system being installed at Moses Cone Hospital, called STAT LAN, from Simborg Systems, will consist of cables and micro-processor boxes. Departmental systems and IBM PCs/ATs will be attached to this cable network, permitting individual department systems to interact with the entire hospital. A network manager will be installed in the Management Systems area. The network manager insures that messages which must be delivered to several systems (for example, admits, discharges, transfers) are delivered even if parts of the network are not functioning at that moment. It stores review ® January, 1986 What's new in '86? Bone Bank 2 New Department 2 Very Unordinary Dolls 2 Home Visits to New 2 Mothers & Babies Employee Wellness Program .... 3 Retirement Planning 3 Service Awards 4 RADIOLOGY Neatar LAN FINANCE LI G PATIENT IDENTIFICATION /CPDS Data General n n REGISTRATION A.O.T. Data General f (MHS) 1 u NURSING UNIT MANAGER IBM ATs/PCs IBM ATs STAT LAW U c STAT MESSAGE/ MAIL MANAGER IBM ATs NETWORK INTEGRATION PROTOCOL L LABORATORY DEC VAX (VMS MUMPS) Lf n ■ MATERIALS MANAGEMENT IBM ATs ^L= MEDICAL RECORDS D If R M.D. OFFICES TT messages, monitors to determine if any module (department system) is down, and when the inoperative system is back in operation, all missed messages will be forwarded. The network manager has several other functions designed to keep the flow of informtion consistent and to get this information to its destination. One especially useful function will be providing a consistent time and date to all computers on the network. The STAT LAN System will also feature a nursing information manager, which can be utilized from any clinical area. With the installation of this system, all nursing units will have the ability to enter orders for most ancillaries, display results from computerized ancillaries and reflect actual patient locations. Lab results will be the first to be made available, followed before the year's end by Radiology and Pharmacy. Displays from one to three ancillaries can be viewed simultaneously. Future developments will address intra-unit requirements once this foundation is established. A STAT message mail manager will provide two valuable capabilities for Moses Cone. First, an electronic mail capability, similar to that within the Lab system, will be available throughout the hospital, providing an alternative to telephoning. Second, any STAT results can be treated as high priority mail messages which notify the nursing unit rather than blindly printing. When the STAT waiting message starts blinking at the unit, someone must call it up for display and printing — thus insuring that someone specifically handles this critical information. Additionally, a new automated registration-admission/discharge/transfer (bed control) system is also being installed to insure timely patient bed assignments. REVIEW Moses Cone Hospital 1200 North Elm Street Greensboro, North Carolina 27401-1020 Address Correction Requested Non Profit Org. Bulk Rate U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 195 Greensboro, N.C. Carolyn Ford, Editor The system has been planned to grow with the needs of the hospital. "Additional departmental management systems may be installed in the future to meet the needs of our progressive health care institution," said Jim Gabler. "Capabilities of this system will also enable physicians' offices to access our network — inputting patient admission information and requests for ancillary orders and receiving information such as patient room assignments and transfers, ancillary results and other information concerning their patients. Patient privacy will be ensured by the assignment of access codes." he continued. A timetable has been established for the installation and hook-up of the new STAT LAN system. Cable installation began in January, 1986. A patient identification system will be installed in Medical Records, replacing the manual "tub" file during February. The registration and admitting system is expected to be functional in March. Following the installation of the network manager later in March, testing of the Laboratory system connection will begin. Sometime in April, the Admitting computer will begin automatically providing inpatient admission, discharge and transfer activities as well as outpatient registrations to the Laboratory computer via the network manager. Pharmacy's computer system is expected to join the network in the latter part of next summer. Radiology's computer will be connected into the network later in 1986. The nursing unit manager will be delivered in late May. Following check-out and training, it will be phased on to the nursing units starting in July. Once Lab activities are fully handled on the nursing unit system, the direct Lab terminals will be removed. The new system will then provide expanding nursing functions such as Pharmacy, Radiology and mail through a single methodology. "Eventually, many more department computers will be joined n the network," Gabler said. "The timing and order of these connections will depend on the users' needs to be part of the network and on hospital priorities." Albright and Gabler cite a number of reasons why the traditional approach to hospital computerization is less that ideal. "Individual hospital departments are more complex that their counterparts in other industries," Albright stated. "Few of the hospital's clients pay their own bills — the resulting mix of insurance company payments, partial payments and reporting requirements makes for a uniquely complex environment. "There are many unpredictable factors (when a bed will be vacated, for example) that other schedulers, such as those for airline reservations, do not have to deal with. Additionally, each hospital department has significantly different computer processing requirements. Yet, these departments are interdependent, because a given patient will involve many or perhaps all hospital (see p.2)
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Transcript | revi e w ® IE MOSES H. CONE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA MCH Pioneers Local Area Network Approach To Computerization The Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital is gaining national recognition as one of the first hospitals in the United States to have its hospital information system based on local area networking technology. Our hospital was recently recognized in Computers in Healthcare, a national magazine, as one of two hospitals to use an "open" network computer system. In addition, an article titled "Distributed Processing in a Large Hospital," authored by Vice President James W. Albright and James M. Gabler, Director of Management Systems, was published in the December/January 1986 issue of the national publication Software in Healthcare. 'Tart of the elegance of the STAT LAN computer system comes from its simplicity." Typically, large hospitals install a large computer with all hospital functions addressed by a single vendor. This not only requires a multi-million dollar investment initially, computer upgrades to increase capacity are also expensive. More critically, when this single system is down, it affects the entire hospital since all areas are tied into this single central system. This model does not integrate well with special purpose systems, such as our own Sunquest Lab Computer. Nursing involement is limited to the vendor's approach, which is generally order entry/charge capture, thus inter-unit activities (orders, results, for instance) are better addressed than intra-unit patient care activities. The new system being installed at Moses Cone Hospital, called STAT LAN, from Simborg Systems, will consist of cables and micro-processor boxes. Departmental systems and IBM PCs/ATs will be attached to this cable network, permitting individual department systems to interact with the entire hospital. A network manager will be installed in the Management Systems area. The network manager insures that messages which must be delivered to several systems (for example, admits, discharges, transfers) are delivered even if parts of the network are not functioning at that moment. It stores review ® January, 1986 What's new in '86? Bone Bank 2 New Department 2 Very Unordinary Dolls 2 Home Visits to New 2 Mothers & Babies Employee Wellness Program .... 3 Retirement Planning 3 Service Awards 4 RADIOLOGY Neatar LAN FINANCE LI G PATIENT IDENTIFICATION /CPDS Data General n n REGISTRATION A.O.T. Data General f (MHS) 1 u NURSING UNIT MANAGER IBM ATs/PCs IBM ATs STAT LAW U c STAT MESSAGE/ MAIL MANAGER IBM ATs NETWORK INTEGRATION PROTOCOL L LABORATORY DEC VAX (VMS MUMPS) Lf n ■ MATERIALS MANAGEMENT IBM ATs ^L= MEDICAL RECORDS D If R M.D. OFFICES TT messages, monitors to determine if any module (department system) is down, and when the inoperative system is back in operation, all missed messages will be forwarded. The network manager has several other functions designed to keep the flow of informtion consistent and to get this information to its destination. One especially useful function will be providing a consistent time and date to all computers on the network. The STAT LAN System will also feature a nursing information manager, which can be utilized from any clinical area. With the installation of this system, all nursing units will have the ability to enter orders for most ancillaries, display results from computerized ancillaries and reflect actual patient locations. Lab results will be the first to be made available, followed before the year's end by Radiology and Pharmacy. Displays from one to three ancillaries can be viewed simultaneously. Future developments will address intra-unit requirements once this foundation is established. A STAT message mail manager will provide two valuable capabilities for Moses Cone. First, an electronic mail capability, similar to that within the Lab system, will be available throughout the hospital, providing an alternative to telephoning. Second, any STAT results can be treated as high priority mail messages which notify the nursing unit rather than blindly printing. When the STAT waiting message starts blinking at the unit, someone must call it up for display and printing — thus insuring that someone specifically handles this critical information. Additionally, a new automated registration-admission/discharge/transfer (bed control) system is also being installed to insure timely patient bed assignments. REVIEW Moses Cone Hospital 1200 North Elm Street Greensboro, North Carolina 27401-1020 Address Correction Requested Non Profit Org. Bulk Rate U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 195 Greensboro, N.C. Carolyn Ford, Editor The system has been planned to grow with the needs of the hospital. "Additional departmental management systems may be installed in the future to meet the needs of our progressive health care institution," said Jim Gabler. "Capabilities of this system will also enable physicians' offices to access our network — inputting patient admission information and requests for ancillary orders and receiving information such as patient room assignments and transfers, ancillary results and other information concerning their patients. Patient privacy will be ensured by the assignment of access codes." he continued. A timetable has been established for the installation and hook-up of the new STAT LAN system. Cable installation began in January, 1986. A patient identification system will be installed in Medical Records, replacing the manual "tub" file during February. The registration and admitting system is expected to be functional in March. Following the installation of the network manager later in March, testing of the Laboratory system connection will begin. Sometime in April, the Admitting computer will begin automatically providing inpatient admission, discharge and transfer activities as well as outpatient registrations to the Laboratory computer via the network manager. Pharmacy's computer system is expected to join the network in the latter part of next summer. Radiology's computer will be connected into the network later in 1986. The nursing unit manager will be delivered in late May. Following check-out and training, it will be phased on to the nursing units starting in July. Once Lab activities are fully handled on the nursing unit system, the direct Lab terminals will be removed. The new system will then provide expanding nursing functions such as Pharmacy, Radiology and mail through a single methodology. "Eventually, many more department computers will be joined n the network," Gabler said. "The timing and order of these connections will depend on the users' needs to be part of the network and on hospital priorities." Albright and Gabler cite a number of reasons why the traditional approach to hospital computerization is less that ideal. "Individual hospital departments are more complex that their counterparts in other industries," Albright stated. "Few of the hospital's clients pay their own bills — the resulting mix of insurance company payments, partial payments and reporting requirements makes for a uniquely complex environment. "There are many unpredictable factors (when a bed will be vacated, for example) that other schedulers, such as those for airline reservations, do not have to deal with. Additionally, each hospital department has significantly different computer processing requirements. Yet, these departments are interdependent, because a given patient will involve many or perhaps all hospital (see p.2) |