The computerized documentation of septicaemia

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
At St Thomas' Hospital for the past 20 years, medical microbiologists have documented all cases of septicaemia, as part of the routine service offered by the department. These records are used in the day-to-day management of patients and have provided much research and teaching material. When the number of paper records became so large that manual extraction of data was impossible we computerized the records. In 1986 information from the paper charts was transferred to a microcomputer, and since the beginning of 1988 the details of each new case have been added to this computer file at the end of the septicaemic episode. At present, collection of data during the course of a patient's illness continues on paper, but it is hoped that in future this process will also be computerized. Apart from our own data, little computerized information is to be found on patients or the treatment they receive, both within our hospital and nationally. The present system can be viewed as a prototype for other groups of patients.