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StatLAN workhorse yielding to ClinLAN95

More than a decade ago MUSC implemented StatLAN.

Now, on the eve of the new millennium, the MUSC Medical Center is faced with the challenge of decommissioning this clinical workhorse.

Initially installed to aid the distribution of admission, discharge and transfer data, to report clinical results, and to provide census management tools, StatLAN has been extensively modified by MUSC.

Before the end of October, all the computerized tasks that StatLAN performs will be moved to other systems and all, the present users of the system will be retrained.

Oacis Healthcare, a wholly owned subsidiary of Science Applications International Corporation, owns StatLAN and announced in 1997 that it would stop supporting the product on Jan. 31, 2000. This was a business decision made by Oacis, because of StatLAN's obsolescence in the market.

Late in its lifecycle, StatLAN has remained a key clinical system at MUSC in part because of the protracted roll-out timetable for Oacis Clinical Display. ClinLAN95 has greatly accelerated this timetable by making Oacis available on fast workstations throughout the hospitals.

StatLAN is being phased out at MUSC in 1999, before Oacis' retirement date, because StatLAN hardware is not Y2K compliant. By adopting a different service model centered on Oacis running on a ClinLAN95 workstation, StatLAN will no longer be required.

Timetable

The team working on the retirement of StatLAN began their work by identifying all the computerized tasks that StatLAN performs. Once that phase was completed, the team developed strategies for providing those same tasks using Oacis and other ClinLAN95 programs.

For example, clinical results, such as labs that for more than 10 years have been viewed on StatLAN, will now be found on the Oacis Clinical Display.

The vital step of rolling out the ClinLAN95 workstations to all clinical locations is on track and all old ClinLAN workstations are targeted for removal by Sept. 30.

Staff training is also well under way. Staff members are learning not only how to access results on the Oacis Clinical Display, or CD, but those previously unfamiliar with the ClinLAN95 graphical user interface or GUI (pronounced gooey) are getting some timely tips in mouse navigation.

The final step in the retirement strategy is the physical removal of the StatLAN workstations.

Once the StatLAN programs have been moved, the ClinLAN95 workstations made abundantly available, and the staff trained, StatLAN will become obsolete.

Location by location, unit by unit, the workhorse that as recently as May registered 80,000 separate log-ins will be retired.

Retirement Plan

Look for the StatLAN retirement plan to be completed in five increments:

1. Identify all existing StatLAN functions currently in use.

2. Develop conversion and migration strategies for each one.

3. Deliver the converted and migrated functions to all locations served by StatLAN through the ClinLAN95 workstation.

4. Train the staff.

5. Following a brief transition period, remove StatLAN terminals.

Existing StatLAN Functions

Although it was originally installed for clinical results distribution and for admission, discharge, and transfer data distribution, StatLAN has been enhanced over the past decade. Existing StatLAN functions that are being considered for migration include the following:

1. Drug formulary

2. Cerner lab ADT feed

3. OR schedule

4. Doctor master lookup

5. Census reconciliation

6. Census worksheet

7. Whiteboard worksheet

8. Height / Weight worksheet

9. Clinical Results lookup

  • Laboratory
  • Radiology
  • Pharmacy

10. STAT results printing (lab)

11. Census management

  • Display unit census
  • Post pending admit
  • Accept patient on the unit
  • Transfer patient (request)
  • Discharge patient (request)
  • Discharge patient (complete)

12. Data Collection (e.g. height, weight, allergies, accommodation code)