McDonnell Douglas Information Systems Ltd of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire has recently been accused of marketing Americanstyle billing systems to the National Health Service (CI No 1,239) The company claims that this a misconception, and states categorically that its Hospital Information System was developed in Manchester by software development staff specialising in National Health Service applications. The system is modular in design, runnning on McDonnell Douglas realtime Series 19 computers, and all data is held on a single database. The company recently announced that the National Heart & Chest Hospitals have purchased the system which will be implemented over the next two years. Brompton Hospital, The National Heart Hospital, and the London Chest Hospital have 400 distributed terminals linked to two Series 19 Pick machines, each with 1Gb capacity, to provide central processing power. Inboard communication protocols will link the processors with existing Prime and HewlettPackard computers running specialist inhouse systems. The modular design centres around a Master Patient Index, which relates individual records to treatment, tests, and drug orders. Additional modules include departmental administration, transport, pharmacy, and a multidisciplinary pathology application. The Heart & Chest hospitals will be the first full implementation of the Pathology software range in the UK, and enhancements will be according to specific requirements. The next phase is to install systems for nurse management, order entry/results, and resource management. The combination of modules is intended to form the foundation of a full clinical costing and resource management system, with data covering every aspect of a patient’s stay in hospital. The entrylevel price is around UKP2m, and rises according to the number of modules and facilities.
