HELP! I am trying to build a data base.

[Guest]

I am trying to build a database. I dont know if I should use Access or Excel
or Both.
In this data base I need to track patients, the centers by which they are
recieving treatment, the types of treatments they are recieving, their
individual collective diagnosis,medications, medial specialist they are
seeing, appointments for each patient.etc.
The problem is no patient has just one id or attends just one center for
treatment or has just one diagnosis,etc. For example All patients have been
assigned a master medical record number by the state(MMR#). Not All patients
I treat and has been assigned a MMR# has is identified by just that ID.
- Some patients recieve multiple treatments from one center and one medical
health professional and can be easily id by their MMR# (Group A)
- , some patients recieve treatment from several different centers and can
still be id by the one MMR# assigned them (Group B)
- some patients recieve tretment from only one medical center and are
identified by two record #'s, the MMR# and the CMR# (center medical record
number) (Group C)
-Some patients recieve treatment from several centers and have different
record #'s specific to the center by which they are recieving care from in
conjunction with the MMR# assigned by the state Group D
_ Some patients are asisgned MR#'s based on the type of payments they use ,
etc.

I need to find a way to not only log and track client's info, but be able to
pull up info based on groupings. I need to be able to change dates, and fees,
and calculate expenses associated with each patient, sort by diagnosises,
dates, find out which patients with what diagnosis are coming in on a
particular day,track all of the patients who frequently change their
appointments and when, be able to pull up all the patients, etc. I want to be
able to keep track of contact info relating to each patient and be able to
imput the data into one sheet or form and the info be transferred to
different tables or fields throughout the database itself if the informaton
is shared. I also need to include pictures of routing maps so that when i
pull up a particular patient, the map comes up for the transportation
department.

I know this was a lot to ask. But I am hoping someone can help.

Just trying to learn.

 

[Ken Snell [MVP]]

ACCESS is very capable to being programmed/developed into an application
that will do what you seek...but it is not a job for a person who's just
beginning on ACCESS. What you seek involves a lot of work.

I would suggest that you "cut your teeth" on a much simpler database
concept..ACCESS takes a steep learning curve, but it is worthwhile to learn
it. Then you can move to such an application that you describe.

May I suggest that you start with a good book on database design / ACCESS
and go from there? The newsgroups are not designed for obtaining
sophisticated advice/help on building an entire application/database --
rather, they're designed for anwsering fairly specific questions about
things that you're doing.

Good luck!

 

[Guest]

Therapist, this is an ideal scenario for using Access...Excel just doesn't
have the flexibility to manage all this. You will have multiple tables,
linked appropriately by relationship, to address your needs. Do you have the
experience to do this yourself? It may be over your head, as designing the
structure is key to making this work. You will need Access to assign a
unique client ID for each patient, then tie that into the other various ID's
assigned by the various agencies. Let me know if this helps. Feel free to
contact me directly.

Destin Richter
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Guest]

Thank you , I appreciate your answering my question directly as I asked it. I
had begun starting the access database already set up tables for each
interest and began creating relationships between fields in different tables
i built. I was wanting confirmatin that I was designing my database in the
right program before I had invested anymore time. And a lot of time I have
invested.

Thanks for not just throwing me in the brawl patch. I appreciate it. Over my
head or not, I gotta do what i gotta do, so I am fastening my seatbealt as i
prepare for a rocky ride...

 

[John Vinson]

Thank you , I appreciate your answering my question directly as I asked it. I
had begun starting the access database already set up tables for each
interest

Well... that's your first mistake, and a very easy one to make when
you're getting started. Storing data (interests) in tablenames is
*not* correct design.

You should instead have A SINGLE TABLE of "interests" with one row for
each interest; if you're tracking people's interests, you need three
tables - the table of interests (with just the name of the interest,
probably); a table of People (with a unique PersonID, LastName,
FirstName, other bio information, but NOTHING about their interests);
and a third table linking the two - with the unique ID of the person
(and *nothing* more about the person) and the interest (and *nothing*
else from the Interests table). If one person has six interests, there
would be six records in this table for that person; if sixty people
share an interest, there would be sixty rows for that interest, all
with different PersonIDs.

and began creating relationships between fields in different tables
i built. I was wanting confirmatin that I was designing my database in the
right program before I had invested anymore time. And a lot of time I have
invested.

It's clearly the right program - what's important before you get too
deep is to be sure you have the correct table structure!

John W. Vinson[MVP]