Hi all,
I am new to using Access, I have inherited an database created by the person who was in post before me. I have been using it for about 4 months now and I am realizing it could be improved in several ways, so that's what I'm trying to do, but the more I learn about Access, the more I think of things I could change/add, etc and I just get stuck and don't know where to start! So I would like some advice/pointers/anything really!!
Let me summarize the situation for you.
The setting:
A psychiatric hospital ward.
The project:
The database is used for mainly research purposes (e.g. writing reports on ward activity, on patient improvement, etc...). It consists of TWO main aspects:
1- Routine patient information storage (Referrals -details of new individuals referred to our service, who referred them, dates-, Admissions -dates, medical info, demographics, length of stay-) ... this needs to be updated on a regular basis
2- Storage of responses from several questionnaires (patients are given questionnaires at various times during the admission, and these data then need to be extracted to be analysed on a statistical software)
Where do I start???
I have been reading on forums etc and it seems like most examples cover either a patient info management database, or a questionnaire/survey database... the fact that I am trying to combine the two seems pretty daunting. Perhaps I shouldn't? But I really want to, since the "routine demographic info" could also be useful if I want to analyse the questionnaire data in the future.
In addition, I would like the questionnaire side of the database to be flexible enough so that if we decide to introduce a new questionnaire, I can add it to the structure without having to edit forms.
Any word of advice/support will be greatly appreciated...!!
I am new to using Access, I have inherited an database created by the person who was in post before me. I have been using it for about 4 months now and I am realizing it could be improved in several ways, so that's what I'm trying to do, but the more I learn about Access, the more I think of things I could change/add, etc and I just get stuck and don't know where to start! So I would like some advice/pointers/anything really!!
Let me summarize the situation for you.
The setting:
A psychiatric hospital ward.
The project:
The database is used for mainly research purposes (e.g. writing reports on ward activity, on patient improvement, etc...). It consists of TWO main aspects:
1- Routine patient information storage (Referrals -details of new individuals referred to our service, who referred them, dates-, Admissions -dates, medical info, demographics, length of stay-) ... this needs to be updated on a regular basis
2- Storage of responses from several questionnaires (patients are given questionnaires at various times during the admission, and these data then need to be extracted to be analysed on a statistical software)
Where do I start???
I have been reading on forums etc and it seems like most examples cover either a patient info management database, or a questionnaire/survey database... the fact that I am trying to combine the two seems pretty daunting. Perhaps I shouldn't? But I really want to, since the "routine demographic info" could also be useful if I want to analyse the questionnaire data in the future.
In addition, I would like the questionnaire side of the database to be flexible enough so that if we decide to introduce a new questionnaire, I can add it to the structure without having to edit forms.
Any word of advice/support will be greatly appreciated...!!
