zSeries checks into hospital

A New Orleans hospital en route to paperless medical records is one of the first customers for IBM's new eServer zSeries 890 mainframe, designed for medium-size organizations. Touro Infirmary, a 350-bed hospital, on Tuesday will finalize an agreement to purchase the zSeries 890, which IBM began shipping in late May. The deal also includes the ESS800 storage solution from IBM and Invision software from Siemens Medical Solutions, which handles admitting patients, ordering lab tests, receiving results, posting nursing documents and patient billing.

With the combination, "I feel we will be 100 percent paperless in 18 months," said Peter Dougherty, Touro's CIO. He said the value of the deal is $1.5 million over five years for hardware and software. Colette Martin, director of product marketing for IBM zSeries, said health care, government entities, universities and midsize banks are among the sectors targeted by the product line.