Design and implementation of a rule based system for ambulatory nursing data management.

In order to effectively organize the use of nursing time during clinic check-in, we designed a forward chaining rule based program for nursing history taking, problem tracking, and documentation. The program consists of a medical logic module trigger engine which identifies relevant rules for nursing history, an interactive question manager for nursing history taking, and a rule generation shell implemented within a specially designed Medical Query Language (MQL) shcema. At clinic check-in, the engine refreshes the rule set for the patient from interaction with the computerized medical record. The interaction driver assists the nurse with tracking of elapsed time, and allows him/her to pursue questions, record data, and create or complete nursing interventions. Nursing question sets and interventions are maintained longitudinally to assure continuity of care. Nursing problems are created on the problem list within the computerized record as the rule system identifies their existence.