Help with Hospitals Database

[Jodi-Atlas Medical]

I work with a company that sells medical equipment to approximately 50 area
hospitals. The goal is to create a database that includes all the hospitals
and then the doctors by specialty, the nurses by department and then other
departments like receiving docks, etc as needed. How do I set this up??

I've already created a list in Excel and exported it into Access.... now I
need help with forms, tables and relationships.

I know it's not that difficult, just having a hard time "grasping the
concept" and my boss is getting impatient. (don't blame him)

Thank you very much!!!

 

[Philip Herlihy]

I work with a company that sells medical equipment to approximately 50 area
hospitals. The goal is to create a database that includes all the hospitals
and then the doctors by specialty, the nurses by department and then other
departments like receiving docks, etc as needed. How do I set this up??

I've already created a list in Excel and exported it into Access.... now I
need help with forms, tables and relationships.

I know it's not that difficult, just having a hard time "grasping the
concept" and my boss is getting impatient. (don't blame him)

Thank you very much!!!

Do blame him. He needs to understand that although Access is a power
tool, people need time and space to learn how to use it. Tell him the
database can be quick, good, cheap (pick any two).

Very briefly, you need to take this in stages if you're going to make a
success of it. First, it's vital (!) that you understand the principles
of table design, formally called "normalisation", and how you represent
one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many relationships in combinations
of tables and fields. These may help:
http://www.lynda.com/home/Player.aspx?lpk4=31001 (free sample)
http://tinyurl.com/ms-table-design-tutorial (free)

If you spend 50% of your total time on getting your table design right
it'll be 50% of a much smaller total time!

Once you have your tables right, fool around with the various wizards to
create queries, forms and eventually reports. You'll find that Access
Wizards will "recognise" certain patterns of table design and offer
options which will do a great deal of the work for you. Get your table
design wrong and you'll be swimming against the tide.

Forget everything except tables, relationships and queries at first. Is
your customer a person or an institution, for example? Are you tracking
orders and invoices or simply sales contacts? Pick a pivotal corner of
the world you're modelling and come back with specifics.

You might also play around with the "Northwind" database that comes as a
sample with Access to get a flavour of what's possible. Access is
powerful and rewarding, but it does take the best of us time to master it.

Phil, London

 

[Jeff Boyce]

Jodi

If I hear something from one person, it might be them.

If I hear the same thing from two people, I may need to pay attention...

What Philip said ... times 2!

Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Office/Access MVP

 

[Steve Sanford]

You might also play around with the "Northwind" database that comes as a
sample with Access to get a flavour of what's possible. Access is
powerful and rewarding, but it does take the best of us time to master it.

Also, there are (free) templates at:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT101527321033.aspx?av=ZAC

Pick the version of Access you have. If you have A2007, you can open all
template versions. A2K3 will also open A2K templates.

 

[John W. Vinson]

I work with a company that sells medical equipment to approximately 50 area
hospitals. The goal is to create a database that includes all the hospitals
and then the doctors by specialty, the nurses by department and then other
departments like receiving docks, etc as needed. How do I set this up??

I've already created a list in Excel and exported it into Access.... now I
need help with forms, tables and relationships.

I know it's not that difficult, just having a hard time "grasping the
concept" and my boss is getting impatient. (don't blame him)

Thank you very much!!!

Well... Access isn't "Excel on Steroids". It's very different, and requires a
different mindset. You'll need quite a few tables: Hospitals; Doctors;
Specialties; Departments; Nurses; etc. It's vital that you get a properly
normalized set of tables FIRST before you start messing with forms and
reports!

Here's some resources to get started; or post back with specific questions,
we'll be glad to help.

Jeff Conrad's resources page:
http://www.accessmvp.com/JConrad/accessjunkie/resources.html

The Access Web resources page:
http://www.mvps.org/access/resources/index.html

Roger Carlson's tutorials, samples and tips:
http://www.rogersaccesslibrary.com/

A free tutorial written by Crystal:
http://allenbrowne.com/casu-22.html

A video how-to series by Crystal:
http://www.YouTube.com/user/LearnAccessByCrystal

MVP Allen Browne's tutorials:
http://allenbrowne.com/links.html#Tutorials

 

[Jodi-Atlas Medical]

Thank you very much! I'll let you know how it works out!

 

[Jodi-Atlas Medical]

Good point - I will take that to heart, I will learn this program and get
this database working so that my boss will be happy! Thank you for your
words of wisdom!

 

[Jodi-Atlas Medical]

I'll check them out, thank you very much!

 

[Arvin Meyer [MVP]]

You need some database background. Fortunately MVP Crystal Long has both
downloadable and video tutorials which will help:

http://www.accessmvp.com/Strive4Peace/Index.htm