COMPUTER PROGRAMS IN BIOMEDICINE 1 (1971) 199-208. NORTH-HOLLAND PUBLISHING COMPANY COMPUTERIZATION IN THE CLINICAL PATHOLOGY LABORATORY Marion J. BALL, Joan LUKINS, Nancy HILL, Robert O'DESKY* and Wellington B. STEWART University of Kentucky Medical Center, Lexington, Kentucky, USA t This paper is designed to explain and illustrate the use of an IBM 1800 computer in the clinical laboratory of the University of Kentucky Medical Center. We shall point out the need for the computer, explain the data input system devised and the task undertaken, and then outline the solution developed. The clinical laboratory of the University of Ken- tucky Medical Center handles hundreds of specimens daily from patients throughout the hospital. Each specimen must be transported to the laboratory and analyzed, with results returned to the patient's chart. Tile sequence in this daily operation of the clinical laboratory is now described (follow flow chart, fig. 1). Upon entering the hospital, a patient is given a seven-digit hospital number, representing the total number of hospital admissions to date: if, for exam- ple, he were the 368th admission, his number would be 0003684, the seventh digit being merely a check digit to assure the validity of the six-digit number. A non-removable wrist-band with his hospital num- ber is placed around his wrist. The attending physi- cian, after examining the patient, writes a request in the physicians' order book for the necessary lab- oratory tests. A laboratory liaison technician then completes a request slip in triplicate for the tests (fig. 2), draws the required sample(s) from the pa- tient in his room, labels the specimen(s) with the same accession number as the request slip, and carries both the request and the sample(s) to the clinical laboratory. A technologist in the clinical laboratory receives the sample and, matching the accession number of the request slip with the accession number of the * IBM representative. ]- For full present addresses, see p. 208. ~?-- l ΒΈ A ----2 Fig. 2. Original request slip. sample, gives both a laboratory number. The first specimen and request are labeled "1", the second "2", etc. This request slip is then given to a keypunct operator who punches a card containing the patient data and tests requested (fig. 3).