I am on a quest for our I.S. department and our physician I.S. super users.

We have a patient care information system here that does everything but hang
the wash on the line.  You know the kind--lab, pharmacy, x-ray, order entry,
nurse charting, medical records, and much more that I don't understand.
Many hospitals have something like this.

Here's the question:  does your hospital's system have any kind of decision
support built into it?  A basic example is drug incompatibilities--a
physician orders Drug X and the software answers back, "This patient is
already taking Drug Z.  Are you sure you want to prescribe Drug X?"  Our
system does have this feature, but that's all it has.  Our docs would like
more levels of decision support, all kinds of warnings, cautions, and
reminders about drugs, tests, procedures, practice standards, etc.

Does anyone already have such a system, either commercial or 'homemade'.  If
your I.S. folks have designed this in-house, would they be willing to share
some tips with our I.S.?  Our I.S. people have talked to their colleagues
all over the country and haven't been able to find anything.  I told them
that librarians have connections.

A simpler option would be to have links to information sources. This could
be buttons at the bottom of the screen to link to Medline, Cochrane,
in-house practice standards, the librarian's email to ask for a search.  But
buttons at the bottom require another step that physicians probably won't
take.  The information needs to be 'in their face' .  If any of you have
applications like this, where links are provided, we would love to hear
about your experiences with that too.   If we can't accomplish built-in
info, we may try secondary links.

Many, many thanks for any tips, leads, or connections!

Beth Treaster
Health Sciences Library
Saint Francis Hospital
6161 S Yale
Tulsa, OK  74136

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