HELMIS (Health Management Information Service) — The development of a computerized database for health management information

摘要

Within 18 months an online system has been installed, work routines established and a database of over 8 000 records created. This alone represents an enormous improvement over the 1 000 or so card catalogue entries that could have been created in the same period. Points of access and the range of physical formats which can be retrieved also represents substantially increased effectiveness and efficiency in information recall. It must be noted, however, that the short-term funding for the project and hence, the need to become selffunding has resulted in the concentration of staff time on current record input, which in turn supports those services available to external subscribers. Identification of further staff time will, therefore, have to be made if retrospective conversion is to be achieved within a reasonable timescale.During the same 18-month period, information services have been enhanced in-house and extended to a growing external user group. The resultant demand has necessitated appointment of an additional professional librarian - funded primarily from generated income.With the introduction of direct online access to the NHS and the potential mounting of HELMIS as a commercial database, we would expect to see increasing demand during 1986.