They’re Pick-poppers almost to a man Down Under, and McDonnell Douglas Information Systems has signed a UKP38m contract with the State of Queensland, Australia to install a statewide health information network. The first stage of the contract is the two-year installation of a system in the 1,200-bed Royal Brisbane Hospital, and that will be followed by a major provincial hospital. The Queensland Health Authority says that 14 major hospitals will implement the Series 19-based system over the next seven years, and the authority expects the new system to save the hospitals around UKP9.5m. Series 19 machines will run under Reality, the McDonnell Douglas proprietary variant of the Pick operating system, and over 40 software modules will be installed. These include patient registration, admissions transfers and discharges, medical records, general ledger, personnel management, ambulatory services, and pathology.
