Thread: Document Based Design Problem

Ok ... so what's the problem?

Originally Posted by Fxguy

Hello All!

First time poster here. I am trying to design a software application for work. Currently we have several pre-printed documents (orders) at the hospital I work at. We repeatedly add the patients name, account number, and room number to the top of the document and then make selections within the document to clarify orders. We then date and time the order, scan it into the que and send it to the floor to be placed in the patients paper chart (I know! I Know! ) . Anyways, I thought it would be nice to write and application that could enter a patient name, account number, and room and then select a checkbox next to the orders you want to generate for that patient. Then it would ask what selection you want, then print out the orders all at once. Any suggestions? I created a Physician Signature Database application to check signatures against know physicians if we cant read the doctors signature and now I'm trying to complete the next application.


Thanks!
Fxguy

What are you using to do this?

MSVC? What year?
What language C++ WIN32, MFC, C#, VB?

Sounds like you need to start simple and add functionality as you become more familiar with windows apps.

The UI depends on the actual data in some ways.

Originally Posted by Fxguy

Anyways, I thought it would be nice to write and application that could enter a patient name, account number, and room

Start with a series of Edit controls.

Add presistent storage (DB, file etc) later.

Originally Posted by Fxguy

and then select a checkbox next to the orders you want to generate for that patient.

Depends on the 'orders'. How many? How complex? How often they vary or need to be edited?

You can store the items in teh app (ie string table) but then need to rebuild each time you want to add / modify an 'order'.
Or store the 'orders' in a file and load at run time. You can tehn edit the file to add/modify 'orders'.

Have a look at listviews (or listbox etc).

You can have a checkbox next to an item and let the user edit items (if required).

Originally Posted by Fxguy

We then date and time the order,

Use the system time.

Originally Posted by Fxguy

Well I'm not sure how to best go about the design. I'm not sure if it would be better to store the orders inside the application as objects that contain the text in the pre-printed document or if it would be better to read the documents in at runtime.

Tim

Which one do you think will be the most useful for you?

Any C#?

If I wanted to eventually earn a living programming I would pick C# to learn (though I prefer C++) but any of those languages will do this, with differing degrees of difficulty...

As to design, break it into smaller parts.
Start with what the minimum the app has to do to be a useful tool.
This is what I think you should build first, and add extra features later.

Look at your data, is it a constant value (stored) or do you need to collect it each time (user input).

Start with identifing the patient. I think this info should be visible at all times, so I would put it on the top of the main screen.

Next I would look at how I could validate this data (based on the risk if I don't validate).
[At least ensure all fields have input, the room number is in the right format and exists, etc]

[Ideally I would offer the user a list of patients, drawn from an already validated data base, but that can be added later.]

Next the orders. This is the important bit and may require some thought.

List all the orders (gather your data so you can look for 'patterns' or similarities to 'group' it by).

Divide each order up into (hopefully) a standard list of 'parts' (that can be used for all orders).

Try to get a standard list for each 'part' (that can be used for all orders)

How many orders per patient?

Thinking about this will help you decide what controls and data objects are needed.

Also think about ways to make it easier for the user, because that is the main reason for this app.
ie select a room from a list (of all the rooms) in a combo box or is the list too long?

You could look at an editable listview to hold the orders. Something like;
In-place editing of ListView subitems - CodeProject