Storing summary patient data as a microcomputer file.

The time taken to summarize 1000 patient records and store this data as a hard disc file on a microcomputer was evaluated in a health centre with about 7300 patients. On average it took 25 minutes to prepare or update summary sheets for each patient and between three to five minutes to input the data to the computer. About one in 10 of the records were long and complicated and took considerably more time to summarize. An error rate of 9% over six months was determined for the age-sex register, mostly owing to patients who had left the practice. In about 5% of cases important information was missing from the A4 folders and was only obtainable from the health visitor records.