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  1. #1
    Kevo is offline Advanced Beginner
    Windows 7 32bit Access 2010 32bit
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    Would like to learn Access for my project...Is it worth my time?

    Good Evening,
    My experience with access consists of a week worth of watching you-tube tutorials and reading access books from my local library. I realize this forum is far above my head but I have a question.



    Is access the best way to do what I am trying to do (is it worth learning for this project?)

    I work in the surgery department of a small hospital and wish to create a database/ application for our department. Our hospital is small and their is no budget for buying a program. I enjoy working on the computer and learning new things, so this will be a hobby/ project for me as well as benefiting the hospital.

    What I would like to do:

    Convert our current hand-written paper logs into an electronic computer entry system.
    We sterilize instruments after surgery and must document the process according to regulations.

    Ideally we will have a computer in the room that is dedicated to access and I would like to create a switchboard that in essence looks like any other application and is fool-proof for the operators to operate.

    Is access the best tool for the job? Do you have suggestions for learning on my own.



    Any advice would be appreciated.

  2. #2
    June7's Avatar
    June7 is offline VIP
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    Access sounds quite suitable for this. Of course, nothing is ever 100% fool-proof. No matter how much you try to anticipate scenarios and write code to deal with, someone will find a way to do something that makes you exclaim 'How in the world did you do that!'

    You made a good start with the on-line tutorials and reference books. A class wouldn't hurt. Maybe just need to start building.

    A simple project can be built without code but at some point, for your situation, I think you will have to employ code to get anywhere close to the 'fool-proof' state you desire. Access offers two options for code - VBA and macros. Can use one exclusively or both in combination. With couple of exceptions, I use only VBA. Look for references that include coding. Here is one: Access™ 2007 Programming by Example with VBA, XML, and ASP by Julitta Korol, Wordware Publishing, Inc.
    How to attach file: http://www.accessforums.net/showthread.php?t=70301 To provide db: copy, remove confidential data, run compact & repair, zip w/Windows Compression.

  3. #3
    Rod is offline Expert
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    I agree with everything June7 has said. My additional advice is that time and effort spent understanding and designing your database at the very beginning repays itself onehundredfold.

    Apologies for butting in.

  4. #4
    clean32 is offline Advanced Beginner
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    what he said ^^^^^^.

    the hardest bit is deciding where to start. Tables and relationships.

    back in 1990 i built a company wide inventry control and product traceability DB, or a few DB, it was getting to big for my head.

    now there were many things i did then that i would not do again but it worked and it survived 8 years before the next wave of new ideas came along.

    i did 99% of it using only macros. but it was fun.

    the only thing i can say as advice, make sure when you present your project, spelling and reports. the boss only cares about reports and doint know shit about the good work you have done but will bag you if you spell some thing wrong because that's all they can do to try and make them look smart.

  5. #5
    ndtownsend is offline Novice
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    Access is cool

    Yes, you have a perfect project for access. Access can be simple database or very complex depending on the application. How familiar are you with Excel? I find it a little easier to start with something you know then look at how Access can enhance the capabilities.

    Let me know if you need help along the way.....I love databases!

  6. #6
    Kevo is offline Advanced Beginner
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    Talking

    Thank you all for your words of encouragement. I half expected to be told to go take a hike since I am such a newbie!

    Well, let me explain a few things. First of all, I am the most computer literate (and youngest @ 40 years old) person in our department and I am slowly trying to drag our Operating Room into the 21st century. My boss is awesome and though she does not know alot about technology, she is open to improvement! So, the deal is, I create this database and she will get budget approval for the computer needed for the sterile processing area.

    I am going to post a basic idea of what I intend to accomplish. Is this the correct spot in the forum to ask these questions?

    I am working on a visio flowchart for the database. Will post when complete.

    Until then here is my grandest desires in a nut shell!


    We are the Surgery department and we are also the sterile processing department. (we decontaminate, repackage and sterilize all the hospital instrumentation after use)

    I would like to put the following things in an access application-

    -We have a huge inventory of instruments all that will need to be subdivided into the departments that they belong to.

    -We have "Sets" or "trays" that are an assembled collection of instruments.
    for example a "suture removal set" would contain a pair of scissors and forceps that are wrapped and sterilized together. This sets each have an assembly sheet (which is a list of all items inside)

    -We have a sterilization log that captures the process of sterilizing a "load". (Actually we have 3 different logs that capture 3 different types of sterilization loads, but I believe I can combine these for access)

    - We have "preference cards" that are pull lists for a specific surgeon and specific procedure.... ie- if we know we have a laprascopic cholecystectomy (removal of a gallbladder) tomorrow we go to our "preference card book" and pull the items (supplies, sets, instruments, gloves, etc) that we will need to perform this procedure with this particular Surgeon.
    (This was my project last year - I converted our preference card system from handwritten index cards to excel. We still print them out and place in a binder, but atleast when we need to make changes now we do it in Excel and not with an eraser!

    I think that is all I want to tackle for now! Whew! Atleast these things can be completed in stages and I have given myself a year to do it.

    So, if you folks don't mind I would love help along the way and I will in turn keep you updated and amused by my mistakes and antics!


    Thanks Again,
    Kevin

  7. #7
    June7's Avatar
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    Here's another forum resource, check out the 'sticky' thread tutorials at top of the forum http://forums.aspfree.com/microsoft-access-help-18/

    This database has features of inventory control and manufacturing assembly. The 'sets' or 'trays' are the products assembled from the instruments stock. Google these topics, you might find a database template you could adapt or at least learn from.

    The 3 logs probably could be one table in the Access. If all three have the same attributes, would just need another field for the load type.

    A year might be enough time but the more 'user friendly' and 'fool-proof', the more complex and more code is required. My first project was a 4-year development exercise. I took it over after it was 2 years into construction and I spent another 2 years almost full-time completing the project. However, this may be an extreme case as we were replacing a database that had been developed over 20 years of use and I was learning along the way. I also made a major revision in the design which added several months to the effort. I have other projects that were completed within weeks. I expect your effort will fall somewhere in between. But keep in mind, will probably never be 'finished'. Someone will have to be available who can make design edits and perform maintenance and 'fix' things. My project has been in full implementation 2.5 years now but still finding things to improve, just not as often.

    As you develop project and encounter issues, start a thread with specific question. We will be happy to help out.
    How to attach file: http://www.accessforums.net/showthread.php?t=70301 To provide db: copy, remove confidential data, run compact & repair, zip w/Windows Compression.

  8. #8
    ajetrumpet is offline VIP
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    Kevin,

    I didn't read everything you said, which I always have a habit of doing anyway. But you should know that, IMO, and in my others' opinions, Access is just about the easiest DB software you can learn. Most corps in the USA have caved in to MS online technology, simply because they have to. However, it doesn't mean that MS is even close to being good. It just means that they control the market.

    MS also doesn't make any money off of Access users because it's a part of the office package, which unfortunately you can get for free anytime you want if you search hard enough. MS Office is pirated and distributed extensively throughout the world, probably only less than the movies in Hollywood! The money is in server technology anyway.

    But for your purposes, as said above, Access is extremely easy to learn when in comparison with MYSQL, Oracle, SQL, SAP, yada yada. And the reason is because it has no requirements to run itself other than plugging in your machine and clicking on the Access icon. With the afore mentioned technologies, you have too much to deal with (overhead) such as installation, setup, choices for datatypes, 3rd party CP clients, yada yada.

    So IMO, most of the hassle I have just mentioned is exactly why Access is for you. Access is no different than any of those DB programs mentioned above with regard to running DB software, but the least integration required with other interfaces and programs to run your database, by far, can be found with Access. It doesn't need anything to run!

  9. #9
    JeffG3209 is offline Advanced Beginner
    Windows 7 64bit Access 2010 64bit
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    I'm sorta new...
    I just dug into access with no "real" coding experience about 3 months ago. I do have some web design experience, but that is just making things look pretty. If you can use excel and want to step up your game... I'd say go for it. I will say, HTML has helped with understanding some of the fundamentals, but it will take a little bit of time.

    Now that I have a basic idea of what can be done, I see where access could come into play in so many simple programs for people to use at work. (Just like you)

    By the way, the people here are happy to help and have helped me through some frustrating stuff.

  10. #10
    Kevo is offline Advanced Beginner
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    Making slow progress on design!

    Well, I have read 2 books on access now and have watched countless youtube tutorials. I think I could create a table in my sleep. Alas, creating a table is nothing compared to planning and designing one!

    I have a couple of issues I would like to throw out here for suggestions.

    1st Issue
    - One of the main components (on my switchboard) of this project will be a way to enter our "Load Sterilization Record"

    Briefly explained, we have a biological indicator which is a small vial that is placed in the sterilizer with the instruments.
    After removing the load of instruments, this vial is then placed in an incubator where it will eventually indicate if the load was brought to sufficient temperature, etc...required to ensure the instruments were sterilized.

    So, part of the info I need to capture is - Date In, Time In, Operator Initials when the vial is placed in incubator and then Date Out , Time Out, Operator Initials and Result (Positive/Negative) when vial is removed from incubator.

    Does this present a problem for a form on a "swichboard" to enter part of the info and then go back and enter second part?
    Can I have the form just "hanging out" on the switchboard until all data is entered or would you approach by having this info split between 2 separate tables and forms.

    2nd Issue-
    I know this seems elementary but, I am having a horrible time grasping the concept of an assembly! In my case, I have a tbl that is in essence a list of all our surgical instruments...(parts tbl) and I wanted to have an assembly tbl which would be all the instruments in a particular set of instruments.
    I am having trouble because I want to think of this like a list with the name of the set as the name of the table and somehow list the instruments in the table. This does not work. I am slowly banging it into my head that each entry in the table is a "record" and not like a big list.

    A co-worker who knows just barely more about access than I, had suggested that I make my tbl like this:

    SetName/InstrumentA/InstrumentB/InstrumentC/InstrumentD, etc......

    MajorSet/ 8 /6 / 4 / 6
    MinorSet/ 4 / 2 / 4 / 4


    The numbers being the qty of each instrument in each set. Does this seem the best way? I want to be able to print a report that would be used as an "assembly" sheet. The only problem with this is there would be possibly hundreds of instruments thus columns in this tbl?

    Sorry for the long post. Any help would be much appreciated but not expected.

    Thank You for your time!

    Kevin

  11. #11
    clean32 is offline Advanced Beginner
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    assembly is quite simple

    but some questions first. you sets ate made up of different instruments.

    but are there different types of pliers. if you were to pick an instruments from a list will you have to scrol though 500 difrentt types of pliers to get to the one you want?
    or what is the total instrument list count.

    what i am trying to gauge is should you have a set name and then select each item for that list or should we have list name, instrument type ( pliers) then pliers instruments.

  12. #12
    Kevo is offline Advanced Beginner
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    Yes Clean,

    There are several types of each instruments. For example:

    Forceps - Debakey Forceps, Adson Forceps Smooth, Adson Forceps with teeth, Russian Forceps,etc...

    Scissors - Mayo Scissors, Mayo Scissors Long, Metz Scissors, Metz Scissors Long, Iris Scissors, etc.....

    And p.s - each department in the hospital (OR, ER, XRay,etc) has a supply of instruments that we clean and sterilize.

    The good news is each instrument does not need to be tracked individually. In other words, each "Debakey Forcep" does not need a unique ID for our inventory purpose. In fact I would like to asign each instrument the Manuf. Reference number so this database could help with ordering in the furture.

    Thanks for your help by the way!

    Kevin

  13. #13
    ndtownsend is offline Novice
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    Okay Let's start with issue 2.......

    Create several tables.... not just one. Think of order processing...

    Table 1 - Instruments
    suggested columns: InstId, Name or description, mfgr, date added, etc.

    Table 2 - Trays
    suggested column: TrayID, Name or desc, dept, surgeon, date created
    (yes, create a unique entry for each "preference card")

    Table 3 - Traybuild
    Columns: TrayBuildId, TrayId, InstId, Qty

  14. #14
    ndtownsend is offline Novice
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    Okay on to Issue #1 - Load Sterilization Record

    This would be similar to a transaction table...

    Table - LSR? -
    Columns : JobID, TrayID, Date In, Time In, Operator Initials In,Date Out , Time Out, Operator Initials out, Result (Positive/Negative)

    I would create then your form that would include the detail records for this table filtering on any record that was not complete

  15. #15
    Kevo is offline Advanced Beginner
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    Thank You ndtownsend!
    I appreciate the help. I think I am beginning to understand what tables I am going to need.

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