Just a little bit of help with Access...

November 5, 2007 11:27 AM

I've been asked to create a software facility through which a nurse can print medicine dosing cards for patients.

At the moment, the nurse writes out these cards (templates sold by a big company) by hand. Fields are medicine name, dose, and when it should be taken. There can be more than one type of medicine needed to be taken.

They serve as an aide memoire for the patient and as general information about what the patient is taking for reference.

My thinking is that this could be done in Excel (perhaps not so pretty) or Access. My choice would be Access because I think it's a more natural fit than Excel. The forms the nurse would use would pull names of medicines and patients from tables and then feed that data into reports which would form the 'cards'.

Before I start, is this the right way to be going about this, and has anyone any tips on (for example) how to print precisely onto templates. In films somebody shoves a cheque into the printer, types an amount into a box, hits print and bam, there's the amount perfectly positioned on the cheque. When I try this I usually end up with a lot of wasted paper before I hit the jackpot. Is it just trial and error?

posted by dance to computers & internet (2 answers total)

These templates sold by a big company -- how big? Big like Avery big? Because Avery (and probably other companies) have templates set up for them in Word (and can probably be used in other Office Apps as well). So that can save you the hassle of trying to get everything to show up in the right place on the cards.

Then, yes, I'd use Access. It has great Wizards to let you create a form. Then switch to design mode and move the forms around until they look exactly the way you want them to.
posted by Deathalicious at 11:40 AM on November 5, 2007

You might find something interesting in the Target ClearRxSM prescription system, which includes an "integrated patient information card." Designed by Deborah Adler, who worked in Milton Glaser's office, and exhibited in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Triennial last year.
posted by Dave 9 at 12:13 PM on November 5, 2007