Datebase needed for tracking of drugs for a fire department!

[FIRESUPPORT]

I work for a fire department and one of my job duties is keeping track of
drugs that we keep on Rescue's and Engines. Details of it is Date received,
lot #, expiration date, and qty. We are using a excel program that i
developed but since then it has grown. What i am looking for other than
keeping track of them is that i have to make sure it is all seperated by drug
so that way we can find out what's expiring, and how many, and when it came
in. So we can order more.

Is there a database out there already? Or do i just keep it simple in excel?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thankyou

Fire Support

 

[Daniel Pineault]

I don't know of a pre-made db for this, but it truly would not be very
difficult to create!

It depends on your needs. If you are asking the question, I'm assuming you
are not completly satisfied with your Excel solution. Keep it simple in
Excel...It really depends on your needs. As they say don't fix it if it ain't
broke.... But if you require better visibility (reporting tools), easier
entry (forms).... then Access is definetly the answer!!!!

If you want to develop a database to do as you mentioned, everyone here will
help you to achieve your desired goal.
--
Hope this helps,

Daniel Pineault
http://www.cardaconsultants.com/
For Access Tips and Examples: http://www.devhut.net
Please rate this post using the vote buttons if it was helpful.

 

[John... Visio MVP]

Stevie, you do not appear to be very bright. You have been told thousands of
times over the past years that these newsgroups are provided by Microsoft
for FREE peer to peer support, not as a vehicle for you to pry on
unsuspecting posters.

So now you are hiding behind your wife's skirts and using her email account.
Should we be contacting her to see if she can make you behave?

John...

 

[Pete D.]

Steve is what is called in newsgroups as a troll trying to get money for
what others believe should be provided free. Yes, if you could develop it
in Excel then Access is a good expansion of your skills. Hardest part is to
change how you view the data. Excel makes you think in math calculations.
In access you can save yourself a lot of time with table relationships. For
instance you no longer would create a new line for each drug of the same
type. Instead you create a table of all your drugs and then adjust the
quantities. Shelf life of the drug could be loaded once and then access
would calculate expieration dates from your inventory update dates using the
standard shelf life. This is simplified but many stock inventory programs
deal with shelf life, usage and automatic usage of product restocking
requirements. You could also easily add which unit has what and qty on the
unit. Add in a personnel file and you can track who used it and who
restocked. Now this could easily become part of a investigation so testing
and proving it is critical but as a backup you can print reports on stock,
restock and who did it weekly and have the station Chief master EMT sign the
report and file in a secure location. Access will save you much of the
repetitive work and help provide a good audit trail. Start by reading about
relationships and post back as you play, many will jump in with free help
with much more knowledge than myself or Steve. As you'll note, they don't
troll newsgroups for business as they can get enough on reputations. Start
with learning about relational databases. Check out
http://allenbrowne.com/casu-06.html

Pete D.

 

[John W. Vinson]

I work for a fire department and one of my job duties is keeping track of
drugs that we keep on Rescue's and Engines. Details of it is Date received,
lot #, expiration date, and qty. We are using a excel program that i
developed but since then it has grown. What i am looking for other than
keeping track of them is that i have to make sure it is all seperated by drug
so that way we can find out what's expiring, and how many, and when it came
in. So we can order more.

Is there a database out there already? Or do i just keep it simple in excel?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thankyou

Fire Support

I would suggest migrating this to Access. You'll need at least two tables,
perhaps three: a table of drugs, related one to many to a table of Lots,
related one to many to a table of Dispensing (if you want to track when and
for what reason a given dose of drug was actually used, which I would think
likely). These tables might resemble:

Drugs
NDCCode <text, primary key>
<unique identifier, see

http://www.healthcaredistribution.org/issues_in_dist/pdf_barcoding/barcode_toc.pdf
for description>
DrugName
<other information about the drug as an entity>

Lots
NDCCode <link to Drugs>
LotNo <probably text, using the manufacturer's lot identifier>
< two field joint Primary Key>
PurchaseDate
Quantity
ExpirationDate
<other info about this particular lot, e.g. dose units, dose size, etc.>

Dispensing
NDCCode <link to Lots>
LotNo <link to Lots>
DispensedDate <date/time>
<perhaps fields for the identity of the person who received the drug, the
reason, amount given, etc. etc.>

You may also want tables for Indications (i.e. morphine can be used for pain
relief, to acutely reduce blood pressure, etc. etc.) and perhaps several more,
depending on how elaborate you want to get.

Do read up on HIPAA - any time you're storing information about medical
treatments and patient identification, your database is subject to the
(complex and stringent!!) HIPAA patient privacy regulations. Professional
advice from someone well versed in HIPAA would be prudent ($50,000 fines can
put a real dent in your budget!)

 

[Fred]

There ought to be a different (simple) place to go for people who decide that
they want to pay for help, knowing that they want to get a lot more help than
just a question answered. Maybe with the impramateur or vetting of having
some type of criteria for the providers. Some people really need that. Is
there such a place?

That would meet that need without polluting the concept of this for a free
forum.

 

[John... Visio MVP]

<<....they want (need..sic) to get a lot more help than just a question
answered. Some people really need that >>

I try to always judiciously use the above criteria (in my opinion) when I
offer help to a poster. I DO NOT offer fee paid help to all posters! There
are some posts where it is obvious that a quick answer to a question is
all that is needed. Sometimes I will provide a quick answer.

Steve

You really do not get it. These groups were provided by Microsoft for FREE
peer to peer support. Offering fee paid help to ANY poster is not allowed.

John... Visio MVP

 

[Daniel Pineault]

Fred,

There are several websites devoted to matching business needs with availble
developers, including for MS Access database development. The problem is
that anyone can claim to be a professional developer and typically work goes
to the lowest bidder, which is not the best approach to getting optimum
solutions... There are good developers, don't get me wrong, but one has to
be very careful.

One of these website would be http://www.guru.com/index.aspx but there are
tons more out there.

I still prefer to find someone local that I can do a face to face with.
--
Hope this helps,

Daniel Pineault
http://www.cardaconsultants.com/
For Access Tips and Examples: http://www.devhut.net
Please rate this post using the vote buttons if it was helpful.

 

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

I work for a fire department and one of my job duties is keeping track of
drugs that we keep on Rescue's and Engines.

For what it's worth I'm working on a Fleet Management system right
now. I will shortly be working on inventory and should have it ready
in a few months. This will include those requirements you've
specified.

See the Fleet Management system at http://www.granite.ab.ca/fleet/

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/