During the intervention period, all 545 patients admitted were cared for with the aid of the antiinfectives-management program. Measures of processes and outcomes were compared with those for the 1136 patients admitted to the same unit during the two years before the intervention period. The use of the program led to significant reductions in orders for drugs to which the patients had reported allergies (35, vs. 146 during the preintervention period; P<0.01), excess drug dosages (87 vs. 405, P<0.01), and antibiotic-susceptibility mismatches (12 vs. 206, P<0.01). There were also marked reductions in the mean number of days of excessive drug dosage (2.7 vs. 5.9, P<0.002) and in adverse events caused by antiinfective agents (4 vs. 28, P<0.02). In analyses of patients who received antiinfective agents, those treated during the intervention period who always received the regimens recommended by the computer program (n=203) had significant reductions, as compared with those who did not always receive the recommended regimens (n= 195) and those in the preintervention cohort (n = 766), in the cost of antiinfective agents (adjusted mean, $102 vs. $427 and $340, respectively; P<0.001), in total hospital costs (adjusted mean, $26,315 vs. $44,865 and $35,283; P<0.001), and in the length of the hospital stay days (adjusted mean, 10.0 vs. 16.7 and 12.9; P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS; A computerized antiinfectives-management program can improve the quality of patient care and reduce costs.

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Time judgments of various kinds are often disturbed in schizophrenia, but a review of the literature (Orme, 1962) suggests the disturbance is not characteristic in type. The present writer has studied (Orme, 1964) the verbal estimation of an elapsed “filled” interval with various clinical groups. Subjects were asked, after 30 minutes of interviewing, “How long have we been together, how long does it seem to you?” A summary of the distribution of time estimates is given in Table I. The most statistically significant feature (see Orme, 1964 for details) is the contrast between the hysteric, psychopathic and manic groups on the one hand, and the melancholic, anxious and depressed neurotic on the other. Individual variations in estimates appear unrelated to age, sex and intelligence.

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