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Objective.—To assess the effects on health care resource utilization of a network of microcomputer workstations for writing all inpatient orders. Design.—Randomized controlled clinical trial. Setting.—Inpatient internal medicine service of an urban public hospital. Subjects.—A total of 5219 internal medicine patients and the 68 teams of house officers, medical students, and faculty internists who cared for them. Intervention.—Microcomputer workstations, linked to a comprehensive electronic medical record system, for writing all inpatient orders. Main Outcome Measures.—Total inpatient charges for each admission and charges for specific categories of orders. A time-motion study of selected interns assessed the ordering system's time consumption. Results.—Intervention teams generated charges that were $887 (12.7%) lower per admission than did control teams (P=. 02). Significant reductions (P<. 05) were demonstrated separately for bed charges, diagnostic test charges, and drug …