Quick and Dirty, Part Three
Recently, 3-hour long evening classes were locally offered to managers to learn Microsoft Word. That seems excessive for a fancy typewriter, except that Word 2003 for Dummies is 432 pages. Technology meant to save us so much work shouldn't be this complicated.
Comparable effort to explain how to use a sheet of paper, pen or even a real typewriter would be absurd. This bloatware blight creates software that is harder to write, harder to debug, and just plain harder to use.
But a program of a few lines is easy to write, bug-free and usable. For our problem of collecting quality data at point of entry, we need a way to capture the interruption (requisitions without a diagnosis) without creating another. A batch file equivalent of a paper log sheet does just that.
And here it is:
@ECHO OFF
ECHO 1 - Smith
ECHO 2 - Jones
ECHO 3 - Doe
ECHO.
SET /P CHOICE=Enter choice
SET /P ACCT=Enter account
ECHO %CHOICE% %ACCT% %DATE% %TIME% >> NODX.LOG
Be sure to add a space at the end of the "Enter" prompts. Then, cut and paste it into Notepad and save as NODX.BAT.
Double-click the batch file icon. It lists a menu of last names and prompts you to enter the number matching the name and patient account number. The information is added to a file called NODX.LOG, a text file readable by Notepad, Word or Excel.
If this batch file is added to the Windows Start Menu or Quick Launch bar, a phlebotomist can collect data in a few seconds--including date and time. NODX.LOG can reside anywhere on your network.
You can easily add names, prompts and even write to multiple files. Next, I'll explain how.