BEYOND A BASIC HIS: WORK STATIONS FOR DEPARTMENT MANAGEMENT.
During its first decade of experience with a hospital information system, Duke University Medical Center focused on the development and use of a system which centers on the nursing station and provides a communication network linking ancillary departments. Now, Duke University Medical Center is trying to maximize the benefit of the use of microcomputers as departmental work stations. To this end, an information center is being set up which is equipped with a variety of configurations of microcomputers capable of performing as stand-alone processors or as ports for data transfer to the central system. The center is staffed by members of the hospital information system team who are trained in programming at the personal computer level. The information center has the dual responsibility of maintaining a central library of software which meets the common needs of departments for processing local databases and providing expertise to help guide the development of systems to meet unique needs. The goal of the information center is to maintain similarity between distributed systems without restricting functional independence.