Keep client records computerized in Word vs buying a program?

[Guest]

Veterinary hospital trying to keep client records computerized vs handwritten
on cards. Nothing elaborate, but general information would be a good start
on the computer.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Buy a program! This is database information. Access, for instance, is a
database program. FileMaker Pro is another one. Start out in a database
system and as the system gets bigger, it will grow with you. Starting in
Word will make it difficult to grow, meaning you have to do a major
transition to the computer, in 3 years the Word-based client system will
be beyond pathetic, you'll need to do another major transition again to
a new computer system.

Anyone with the willingness and know-how to force Word into doing this
can figure out a database program, and the database will be easier to
maintain and to teach people to use once it is established.

I'm not sure what you mean by client records. If you just mean contact
information for pet owners, etc, then essentially you just want an
address book. If you are keeping medical records in it, that's
trickier. But it's database information either way (address book
programs are essentially databases and might serve your purposes for
now--most will let you export to a form that can be imported into a more
powerful program later).

A quick google for "veterinary software" turned up several software
programs to manage a practice. Even if you don't want to spend that
sort of money, checking out what they say they do will help you get a
sense of what you want to do with the computer, and let you give the
right instructions to whomever is going to set the system up.

My two cents. Trying to force Word to do things it was not really
designed to do is the road to frustration.

 

[Graham Mayor]

If you live in the UK (and maybe other countries) the ludicrously ill
conceived data protection act controls what personal information you can and
cannot keep.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

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[CyberTaz]

Just a note in support of everything Daiya mentions in her post - except
that I believe 3 years is being quite generous. Three months or even three
_weeks_ is a more realistic time frame for experiencing difficulties if
trying to use Word for a purpose of this nature.

FileMaker Pro would be a far better & more appropriate choice. It is a very
easy-to-use program & even the most current version can be had for less than
$100 - older versions perhaps even less.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I pulled 3 years out of thin air, certainly. I'm sure you're right
about the time being much shorter than that.

The other point I would make to Cheryl--once you start computerizing
information, you want it to do more and more. Even if you are just
tracking all the owners who bring their pets to you, and which pets each
owner has, at some point someone will say "hey, can't the computer tell
us exactly how many dogs and how many cats have been seen by our
practice?" A properly set up database will let you run a search that
lists all the cats in the client database in seconds. God only knows how
difficult this would be in a list of addresses maintained in Word.

Furthermore, if you hire someone once to build you a custom database in
FileMaker Pro, any database expert can likely come along in 5 years and
improve it for you. If you jury-rig something in Word, no one in 5
years will remember what was done or how to improve it and it will all
need to be done again.

 

[Dan Freeman]

I'd take a serious look at ANY commercial offering in this arena.

Having written VetMed software before, there are MANY considerations the
average end-user (or developer) may not consider until after the fact when
it is VERY expensive and time-consuming to correct.

For just one example, in most databases "Sex" is a two-value field. (M or F)
For a VetMed practice it has to handle M, F, Spayed, Neutered, and Unknown.
(The latter is used mostly for reptilian patients, I'm told.)

Off-the-shelf software may seem expensive, but taking advantage of someone
else's learning curve is well worth it.

Dan