Surgical DB design help

[Guest]

Trying to build a DB of surgical patients. Will have tables for DRGs, Implants, ICD-9, Patient demographics, outcomes and others. Each patient is assigned a number by the hospital that stays with them for life (Medical Record number). Each visit they are assigned a unique account number. End goal is to be able to pull reports either by patient for all visits or one, or how many patients recieved a certain implant or were assigned a particular DRG etc.
Questions:
1) For data entry ease, if I enter a Medical Record number how do I recall pt demographics to the form to prevent retyping. (need to visualize the entries to verify no name changes etc.)

2) This is my first DB any suggestion on best design method? I am sure more questions will follow. Right now to ignorant to know what to ask. (I have done basic tutorials but no independent design)

Thanks!

 

[Jeff Boyce]

Rick

Given the potential gravity of the information you are describing, you may
wish to reconsider making this your "first" Access database.

Depending on where you live, various local, state, and national governmental
entities, like regulatory agencies, may have rules/laws governing
collection, storage, and protection of data about patients. Does your
development method and (final) application satisfy all these?

You didn't describe the use to which the reports you pull will be put -- but
I can only assume it would have something to do with patient care. How will
you ensure that the information in the report for PatientA truly belongs to
PatientA (not B), and is ALL of PatientA's information? What liability
might you have if something were added or left out, and this fact adversely
affected patient treatment?

Complex systems break. What is your backup strategy?

Data and systems are targets -- what are you doing to ensure the integrity
of your system and data?

How is it that you've decided that Access is the tool of choice in building
this system? How many users? What kind of systems/PCs? Which operating
system(s)? Which network system(s)?

If all this hasn't discouraged you, I'd suggest that the very first thing
you do is shut off your PC and take up pencil and paper. Read up on
normalization, sketch out your first draft of an entity-relationship
diagram, and then post back with specific questions regarding that. It's a
start...

Good luck!

Jeff Boyce
<Access MVP>

 

[Tim Ferguson]

Will have tables for DRGs, Implants, ICD-9, Patient demographics,
outcomes and others.

ICD9??? I was accused of being too old for this group recently, but I think
I remember my father using version 9...

<http://www.who.int/whosis/icd10/>


Best of luck, by the way.

Tim F

 

[John Vinson]

Trying to build a DB of surgical patients. Will have tables for DRGs, Implants, ICD-9, Patient demographics, outcomes and others. Each patient is assigned a number by the hospital that stays with them for life (Medical Record number). Each visit they are assigned a unique account number. End goal is to be able to pull reports either by patient for all visits or one, or how many patients recieved a certain implant or were assigned a particular DRG etc.
Questions:
1) For data entry ease, if I enter a Medical Record number how do I recall pt demographics to the form to prevent retyping. (need to visualize the entries to verify no name changes etc.)

2) This is my first DB any suggestion on best design method? I am sure more questions will follow. Right now to ignorant to know what to ask. (I have done basic tutorials but no independent design)

Thanks!

Jeff's concerns are well taken. Patient care information systems are
subject to STRINGENT patient-privacy and integrity constraints, by
law. I would suggest that you should contract with a professional
database developer, and not just any one (not me, in particular!), but
someone with experience in medical applications. You could be setting
yourself up for some real legal trouble otherwise!

 

[Troy D. Young]

Don't reinvent the wheel. There are a ton of EMR applications available
that no only do what is needed, but adhere to the standards put forth by
HIPAA and other organizations. I think the best one I've seen is Greenway
Medical's PrimeSuite. It's developed on the .NET platform and essentially
pays for itself within a short period of time. Unfortunately, so many
physicians are tight and trying to save a dime that they cost themselves a
dollar. Not the smart way to run a business, if you ask me.

Hope this helps.
Troy D. Young
http://www.onsitewv.com

Trying to build a DB of surgical patients. Will have tables for DRGs,

Implants, ICD-9, Patient demographics, outcomes and others. Each patient is
assigned a number by the hospital that stays with them for life (Medical
Record number). Each visit they are assigned a unique account number. End
goal is to be able to pull reports either by patient for all visits or one,
or how many patients recieved a certain implant or were assigned a
particular DRG etc.

Questions:
1) For data entry ease, if I enter a Medical Record number how do I recall

pt demographics to the form to prevent retyping. (need to visualize the
entries to verify no name changes etc.)

2) This is my first DB any suggestion on best design method? I am sure

more questions will follow. Right now to ignorant to know what to ask. (I
have done basic tutorials but no independent design)