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In the hospital where I work, PC's were introduced 7 years ago, to store medical data. Within the last one year, nurses and technicians were required to record all their measurements in portable PC's on wheeled carts. I wondered how many PC's were in my hospital....

There are 350 beds, an ICU, a CCU, an ER, and a business and accounting office. The software used for medical records is from Juniper Networks, and also Meditech software and Citrix. There are 4 stories, and the top three stories each contain 2 nursing stations. There are 4 corridors, radiating like spokes, from each nursing station. in each corridor, at any time, one can observe employees such as RN's and respiratory technicians logging data onto the portable PC's. There are about 8 PC's in any given corridor, or about 32 per nursing station, and about 16 within the nursing stations on each wing. On the top 3 hospital floors, there are about 96 computers per floor (2x48), roughly 300 total.

In the ER, there are computers for the doctors, the nurses, and the intake clerks. I estimate 10 computers for the intake clerks, 6 for the ER doctors, and about 12 at the nursing station, and about 20 in the corridors, or 48 total. Also 48 in the CCU. Also, In the ICU. The total computers for the nursing and physician area is about 550, summing these totals.

In the x-ray department, and in the laboratory, there are at least 50 computers each place. In the billing department, and in the accounting office, there are an unknown quantity of computers (top secret area)!

I would estimate there are 1000 PC's in my 350-bed hospital, and they all use Windows XP, because that's the program that's compatible with the Juniper Networks and Meditech software we use. In each physician's office, there is at least one XP computer which can talk to the hospital. There are 300 physicians on staff.
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