Metaphorical General Hospital (MGH)

Posting this as general discussion, though it’s most relevant to the documentation itself.


As I’ve mentioned before, I’m trying to generate an example configuration to backstop the MAAS documentation. This example doesn’t have to be complete or perfectly realistic. It just needs to be sufficiently coherent to (1) tie the doc together, and (2) provide a better reference point for describing MAAS features. Since I’m sort of familiar with hospital data centres, I’m creating the “Metaphorical General Hospital” (MGH). It’s nothing too fancy, and it might not represent any actual hospital – meaning I probably won’t animate this example with “day in the life” scenarios – but it should work for these purposes.

That said, here is a general description of the MGH model. This model describes the types of computing and network constructs needed to help illustrate the features of MAAS.

  • Patient management
    • Caregiver services
      – Provider services
      — Charts
      — Provider orders
      — Provider documentation
      – Nursing services
      — Nursing orders
      — Continuing education
    • Medication management
      – Nursing meds
      — Medication administration
      — Narcotics control
      – Prescriber controls
      — Pharmacy
      — Narcotics control
      — Medication reconciliation
  • Accounting
    • Accounts payable
      – Staff compensation
      — Timeclock
      — Payroll
      – Supplies & services
      — Medical and surgical supplies
      — Office and general supplies
    • Accounts receivable
      – Business office
      — Patient registration
      — Insurance reconciliation
      – Collections
      — Patient collections
      — Insurance collections
  • Facilities
    • Patient support
      – Housekeeping
      – Food service
    • Staff support
      – Instrumentation
      – Information technology

This isn’t intended to show all functions, or, really, to convey the actual functioning of a real hospital. Those functions are certainly much more complex, with a much deeper structure and a lot more controls. But it does help me model something that can be used to describe the features of MAAS.