How can I do this with access/vb ?

[MehulLakhani]

Hey guys

Just wanted to pick your brains on this . I work in a hospital, and every morning, we have to produce a patient list before the ward round.

The list has all the basic details of the patients, say name, age, diagnosis, hospital number etc etc.

At the moment we just use an excel spreadsheet. This works okay, but I would like a system that can do the following.

1 . Has a point and click interface, with a view of the ward - so for example, someone can click on a button representing say a bed, and then find out all the patient details. Each button has to say the patient name.

2 . At the click of a button produce a snapshot of all the patients on the ward and save them to an archive file.

3 . Every time anything is printed, we need it to have the current date and time on it.

4. Needs to be able to run on several computers, and to be updated from any of them.

5 . Needs to be super-stable.

6 . Needs to be able to export the current patient list in a table form, and print it out in table form.

Any ideas. I was thinking an access front end, and having a database, and then some front-end to enter data etc etc.

I have no clue on how to do this - any ideas would be gratefully appreciated. We have access on all machines, but if needed we can use VB, and make an exe file etc, or perhaps could be web-based ?

Thanks

Mehul

 

[growse]

If you're looking at multiple users, you're looking at a shared database, so mysql or something like this would be fine.

People don't tend to hold access in very high regard for "super-stable" systems, and it seems an odd choice just as a front end for a database. The amount of time you spend getting it to do what you want could be spent doing a custom web-based version. That would take all the technology into one central backend (webserver + database) and anyone with a web-browser can use it so no need to install access (licensing costs) on each client. Your archiving can be triggered from anywhere and stored on the servers.

Sounds like a fairly simple web application to me. Could be done in .net or php/perl/python/brain**** (yes there's an apache module for this one) - whatever takes your fancy. Also depends on what you want your servers running. I'd say linux for cost and stability, although you may have prior licensing arrangments with microsoft.

 

[MehulLakhani]

Thanks for the speedy reply.

Basically it will run on the hospital computers which are already networked. We already have ms-access licences . Dont know what else they have installed though - its a large network though - say 2000 pc's.

I am sure I could approach the IT dept asking what we have installed and what needs to be added . What should I specifically ask them ?

So should I start trying to learn .NET ? Unless ( cheeky mode on ), there is someone out there who wouldnt mind knocking this up quickly - its for the paediatric ward at a very busy hospital in NW london . . . . . . so would really appreciate any free help . Thanks.

R

Mehul

 

[growse]

Problem with getting anyone to do anything for free is one of liability. You either get someone to knock something up on the cheap which for whatever reason doesn't integrate well and eventually flops over because of lack of push from your IT dept because they don't know the dev well enough. Or... You get a person involved and have proper requirements gathering, environmental factors (what servers you have, where they are etc), security concerns, and have some sort of SLA drawn up.

This is the problem with doing anything with a large organisation, you either jump through all the hoops and make the organisation happy (takes a while, not many people would do this for free) or you do something on the cheap, which the organisation wouldn't ever accept.

Obviously, I don't know anything about your particular setup, but I'm just warning about how it is likely to be for a medium-large corporation.

Personally, as a dev, I'd be happy to do it, but the bit that'd really bug me is writing a bunch of code and then being told that half of it doesn't fit with the security standards of the IT dept, or some other similar problem. For me, it's more fun and rewarding doing small-scale, small-scope projects for free because there's less crap to get in the way of actually doing something.

On the other hand, if you've got a bit of a dev bent to you and are keen to learn things, then doing it yourself might not be a bad idea. (I'm assuming) You're already familiar with the IT dept, their practises and the "way things work", so you get the benefit of learning stuff and looking good (if it works), and the organisation gets the benefit of the finished product.

If I were you, I'd do more research. I'd find out exactly what it'd take to get such a system put in place - what it's going to cost from a software/hardware/infrastructure point of view, who the main people are and who's likely to get in the way of you doing it. Once you know all that, you should be in a better position to make a decision about what to do next

 

[robc123]

I'd be careful getting involved with a system like that. If you set up handling of data like that and something goes wrong then basically you'd probably be liable under the Data Protection Act