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HSE hospital computer systems

  • 01-06-2014 9:52am
    #1
    euser1984
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,977 ✭✭✭


    Hi,
    I'm just wondering if they are using older redundant hardware now (that is still supported) or even old mainframes seeing as it must be a massive job to transition data to newer database systems.

    I do see that the terminals they use in the hospital to access patient information are on terminal emulation logins with an archaic interface.

    Thanks.


Comments

  • #2
    markpb
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,391 ✭✭✭markpb


    I don't know anything about the HSE computer systems but it would be a folly to equate mainframes with old or in any way inadequate. They have plenty of advantages over and above the cost of migrating away from them. Likewise, the interfaces might look archaic but the cost of retraining thousands of employees to use a new system would be huge.


  • #3
    onedmc
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 456 ✭✭onedmc


    Well that's a very open question the HSE is a big place and Hospitals are not really the HSE. Each hospital is separate, with separate IT department budgets etc. Some effort to share resources has been put in place recently but not sure how far they have got. They do like to look after their own patches.

    I have done some work in the hospitals (Maybe 5) so I can guarantee the servers I installed were all new no expense spared with newish technology. By newish I the software I installed was new but old hybrid technology. Windowsishintranet. An imperfect solution that would be fully integrated in all other countries that I implemented it.

    There is a whole mix of stuff in there that basically dosnt communicate with each other. Any attempt to integrate fails as we have no consistent patient reference numbers and we don't even have consistent addresses in Ireland. Hospital to hospital information is normally sent by paper in the back of a taxi as other forms seen to be unsecure.

    In reality civil liberties and the fact that they have to implement the perfect solution in order to satisfy the press means that its a complete mess. During the boom we had great ideas but never got off the ground.


  • #4
    funk-you
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,743 ✭✭✭funk-you


    A lot of the hospitals have moved now to the NIMIS project for PACS & RIS.

    -Funk


  • #5
    euser1984
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,977 ✭✭✭euser1984


    funk-you wrote: »
    A lot of the hospitals have moved now to the NIMIS project for PACS & RIS.

    -Funk

    Have you any more details of what these are?

    Thanks.


  • #6
    onedmc
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 456 ✭✭onedmc


    funk-you wrote: »
    A lot of the hospitals have moved now to the NIMIS project for PACS & RIS.

    -Funk

    As far as I can remember those are for the sharing of radiography information so if an X-ray is taken in clonmel then someone in Waterford can look at it and then referrer the pic to say Beaumont if they don't like the look of it.

    I could be wrong but I think is a small all be it essential part of a hospital system.

    It is of course the way forward with your local clinic (that's a proper sized GP surgery) able to take the x-ray and get the radiographer in the main hospital to look at it on his PC/iphone and decide if you need to visit the hospital.

    But again we have the problem of local docs not wanting to invest/change and of course the hospital if free so better to jam up the hospital emergency department with a sprained big toe.

    Look what you started me ranting again


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  • #7
    JJJJNR
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,791 ✭✭✭JJJJNR


    Hospitals are all going ipads and tablet based and are moving away from traditional PCs etc so think of the cloud, software as a service, etc .


  • #8
    Ctrl Alt Del
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 357 ✭✭Ctrl Alt Del


    JJJJNR wrote: »
    Hospitals are all going ipads and tablet based and are moving away from traditional PCs etc so think of the cloud, software as a service, etc .

    ipads !!?
    why not tablets or slates !?


  • #9
    Sparks
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 40,038 ✭✭✭✭Sparks


    JJJJNR wrote: »
    think of the cloud, software as a service, etc .
    Don't; they usually can't use those for legal reasons (EU data protection law is incompatible with using services like S3 or EC2 - see McGarr Solicitor's blog for a good basic summary of the issue).

    And no, you can't use AWS Regions or the like to get round it because the US just issues a warrant to US companies for data regardless of where the server is or what jurisdiction is in force there. Which is why Sean Sherlock's latest daftness is daft - Irish law can't touch either side of that particular dispute because it's the US on one side and the EU on the other and we have no jurisdiction over either, in fact one side has jurisdiction over us.


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