SCIENCE / TECHNOLOGY : Information Systems Wins 1st Conract Since McDonnell Announced Spinoff

McDonnell Douglas Information Systems Co. has landed its first major contract since its parent company announced plans to spin off the Santa Ana firm into a publicly held British concern.

The Information Systems unit said Monday that it has been chosen by a government health agency in Queensland, Australia, to install a computer network at government hospitals. The sale is valued at approximately $63 million over seven years, McDonnell Douglas said.

Ivan Gibbs, Australian state health minister, said the computer network will be installed at 14 Queensland hospitals. Health officials expect the system to save the government more than $75 million by streamlining patient administration and personnel and financial management.

McDonnell Douglas said it won the contract over rival bids from International Business Machines Corp., Digital Equipment Corp. and Unisys Corp.

The contract is for an initial two-year period with an option for an additional five years, McDonnell Douglas said.

In July, St. Louis-based McDonnell Douglas Corp. said it was spinning off its Information Systems division, which includes McDonnell Douglas Computer Systems Co. in Santa Ana and McDonnell Douglas Information Systems International of the United Kingdom, into a publicly held British firm. The move was part of a series of efforts by McDonnell Douglas to reorganize its money-losing computer business.

The Information Systems unit is expected to go public in Britain in the second quarter of 1990.