This research aims to evaluate the present conditions of using electronic medical record system based on the changes revealed by comparing the ward nursing tasks under the ordering system with those under the electronic medical record system. In practice, we demonstrated our proposed field-work technique containing interviews, close-eye observation, post facto Q & A and follow-up Q & A in one ward before and after the system renewal and grasped the actual conditions of the ward nursing tasks. As a results, changes have been perceived in 30% of all tasks due to the reduction of works in preparing and arranging paper medical records, new arising of electronically patient identifying work in infusion or injection, the alteration of media used in entering and transmitting the information etc. Through the analysis of these contents, there appeared the points for improvement as to the functions of electronic medical record system. Our approach in this research is conceived as an efficient means to grasp the “context of use”, which is important in the “human centered design processes” by ISO13407, for the ward nursing tasks under electronic medical record system.

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 Sapporo Medical Association developed “The Patient Matching System” to support patient referral and uses the system. In this paper, we propose a new method for assigning patients to hospital beds that fit the patients' conditions and evaluate the effectiveness of this proposed system compared with that of the present system. We use an optimal graph matching with, by using a complete bipartite graph whose vertices correspond to patients and beds. Our method is used to determine optimal weights of edges in the complete bipartite graph using fitness and importance rates; the former denotes patient conditions and bed functions for each criterion and the latter denotes the relative importance of each criterion. The proposed method is used to determine quantitatively the values of these weights. From the illustrative results, it is clear that the new system is better at assigning patients with hospital beds. In addition, it can be adapted to not only Sapporo Medical Association but also to other medical associations.

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 The purpose of this study is to overview of current situation in the role of co-medicals and clerks for saving physicians volume of work. Questionnaires were sent to a total of 1052 pharmacy directors at acute care hospitals on one of the two payment systems in Japan, the Diagnosis Procedures Combination.
 A total of 457 hospitals (43.4%) responded. Of the respondents, 404 hospitals had prescription order entry systems. Of hospitals having such systems, 260 hospitals (64.6%) responded mentioning that hospital staff, excepting physicians, did not enter prescription orders on behalf of physicians. In contrast, staff in 144 hospitals (35.4%) made such entries, and these were made not only by clerks but also co-medicals like pharmacists and nurses. We found two types of such entries: one is to copy the prescription orders accurately as the physician's written or oral order while the other is to modify them based on clinical decisions made by co-medicals.
 In conclusion, unclear borders between co-medicals and clerks role were appeared on prescription order entries. We suggest that such entries be reorganized in accordance with governmental advice for sharing roles between physicians and co-medicals.

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