24. The Illinois automated long-term care system--three years of experience.

The lack of a comprehensive long-term care information system, common to most state governments, led the State of Illinois to develop and operate a flexible system responsive to a multipilicity of needs. Two hierarchically structured, interfacing data bases on facilities and patients were designed, providing a foundation to which numerous programs related to long-term care can be added as modules or subsystems. Apart from technical and practical difficulties normally encountered in the development of automated systems, the Illinois long-term care data bases have been found to be a viable means of managing large volumes of data, and of providing management information to state agencies that regulate long-term care facilities or utilize their services for state-aided clients. New approaches have been made to match patient needs with available beds, to predict staffing patterns and operating costs, and to test a quality-of-care evaluation system in a regulatory environment.