Hello All, I am very appreciative for all the insight and ideas. This is clearly going to be a complicated task and fortunately I have some time to put it together and troubleshoot it.
Eventually there will be 10 to 20 users and possibly up to 4 sites. IT is willing to support a filemaker solution. HIPAA will definitely affect the development of this and I appreciate all the security points. I have decided against using calculations around the MRN/ID as to not code in business logic in the key. Beatrice point about not using the MRN is something I am looking at now because, as might be expected, I was using it. It makes sense though that this is something else that may need to be hidden. Question: Does the more complex key become the one you use as the main patient key throughout the patient-centric data? The billing issue is an issue and I have been deciding whether to build it within one database or share info between two databases as the focus becomes two sided. There are definitely multiple payers. I am working to normalize the database as well and appreciate the feedback on this process. I am working to pare it down into info that changes frequently and almost never changes and will work harder to normalize the data that changes frequently. I thank all of you for the continued feedback and thoughts and will add more questions as I continue the design. Please be assured that I am actually reading...and trying to process...the different comments. Jeff On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 3:45 AM, David McQueen <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> As far as the other data tables; Visits go in a separate encounter table >> (BP, etc). Lab results in a table related to encounters. I consider this a >> pretty small and simple project. >> > > Hi Beatrice, > > I am assuming that Jeff is stateside. He may have a few things that you > wouldn't have. There are the HIPPA provisions. In addition, where the > clinical management database I worked on got fairly complicated was when it > got into payments. In Canada there is one payer most times. In this system > there had to be provision for multiple payers and provision to capture > multiple receipts per event. Their system is complicated. > > I am only commenting because in Jeff's original post he talks of insurance > numbers. I am not sure how far he would take this within what he is > planning. If it does get to billing and receipts, the focus does change at > least in that part of the system. > > If billing is a separate issue, you are right in that it becomes an event > capture which is patient focused. > > > Dave McQueen > -- > ................... > David A. McQueen > LICHEN Software > Barrie, ON, CANADA > www.lichen-software.com > (705)720-9022 >
