I have no idea why someone thought it would be a good idea to connect the computer that runs the engine and brakes directly to the computer that runs the entertainment system. It must've seemed reasonable at the time.
I think health care facilities get sold a package of integrated software and hardware, especially if it was 'state of the art' as joemikeb describes. The people buying it are impressed by the efficiency, don't understand programming, but see a lot of expensive hardware and feel they got value for their money. It seems to me the money was put in the wrong place because of a marketing decision. The programming was just to tie all the hardware together. Bean counters don't want to pay extra for things they can't see, but I bet they were angry when they spent all that money on all this expensive 'hardware' and then had a catastrophic failure.
