IBM and Spectrum Healthcare Solutions have launched the PS/2 Model 30-based IBM 7690 Clinical Workstation, saying that it is designed to increase the amount of time a nurse can spend with the patient. The thing has a back-lit LCD and LED-based touch facility and nurses can enter or retrieve patient data by touching appropriate choices displayed on the workstation’s screen, which also has a keyboard for those instances when the standard comments don’t fit. There is also an optional bar code reader. Additional Point Of Care Clinical Series software will be available from Spectrum in 1991. It will be licensed to a nursing station file server. The companies say that together the clinical workstation and the point of care clinical series software provide a nursing process-based system. Information that can be recorded and retrieved include medication records, patient assessment information, diagnoses and patient care plans. Spectrum Healthcare Solutions is the partnership formed earlier this year by subsidiaries of IBM and Baxter Healthcare Corp. The 7690 costs $4,400 in the US.
