title: A community hospital laboratory computer system: an eight-year longitudinal study of economic impact.
abstract: An analysis of the intralaboratory economic effects of installation of a dedicated laboratory computer system in a 450-bed acute care general hospital laboratory is presented using data accumulated during an eight-year period. Data collection and analytic conventions used included: (1) an inflation factor derived from the CPI to adjust costs; (2) semilogarithmic plotting; (3) patient procedure counts tallied as the raw count for patient specimens according to the CAP Workload Recording Method; and (4) total workload (including patient standard and control items) recorded according to the CAP WRM. The authors conclude that computerization has produced: (1) a decrease in inflation adjusted labor costs per unit of work; (2) a decrease in inflation adjusted direct cost per unit of work; (3) A decline in the ratio of clerical to technical labor force; and (4) An increase in overall productivity of approximately 7%.
mesh_terms: D003201:Computers / Q000191:economics*; D004526:Efficiency; D005249:Fees and Charges; D006764:Hospitals, Community / Q000191:economics*; D006769:Hospitals, General / Q000191:economics*; D007250:Inflation, Economic; D007753:Laboratories / Q000191:economics*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling