Kingston General Hospital. Department of Information Management

The information management function at Kingston General Hospital had its origin in the 1970 Management Services Department whose focus was industrial engineering with a mandate to make recommendations on systems design and establish productivity standards. Clinical applications at this time centred on automating various processes within Medical Records and on centralizing dictation services. Business applications included outpatient billing and a centralized nursing schedule system. Payroll converted to a computer-based operation in 1972. Management Systems appeared on the hospital organizational chart for the first time in 1973; milestones of the decade were the implementation of the patient classification system, the Medicus Corporation's nursing management system, internal production of T-4s, the introduction of a microfilm system for medical records and preliminary discussions about a regional hospital computing system. John Baker served as the first Director of Information Services between 1981-1998. In the 1980 KGH Annual report he announced the hospital's entry to the "computer age" with the implementation of an in-house financial information system - the HFMS developed by Systemhouse. He continued to explore the feasibility of a hospital information system at a time when there were very few Canadian examples. During the 1980s, the Department was responsible for systems development, computer operations and the security of the central computing facility. It provided a consultative and coordinating service for other computer-related applications such as word processing, communications, microprocessors and personal computers. The Management Engineering function separated from the department in 1982. It continued its focus on industrial engineering, work studies, management methods, and user training under the direction of George Biro and Hugh Wilkens. In its third decade, the department was known as Information Technology Services reporting to the Vice President, Finance and Administration. The hospital made significant progress in establishing its business and clinical systems infrastructure. In 1995, the Patient Care System (PCS) went live at KGH. This information system integrated multiple functions including patient registration, appointment scheduling, on-line reporting of diagnostic imaging and laboratory results. In 1996, the resource management system, SAP was launched. In 2001, Information Management Steering Committee, chaired by Chief of Staff, Dr. John Marshall, encouraged a strategy development initiative. The Hospital contracted HealthLink to facilitate the development of an information management strategy. The consultants led the department until 2003, when Paul McAuley accepted the position of Director. The Information Management Department provides reliable, integrated, systems infrastructure to support clinical and managerial decision-making at the Kingston General Hospital.