In Fileman it is very difficult to program a specific report, unless you have considerable knowledge of the file structure.

A report writer  that addresses the issue of file structure is a requirement of a useful tool.

(Crystal Reports?)

The report most often needed is Pharmacist Activity (How many and what type of orders during a specific time period.)

Another is the number of doses dispensed for the IV module and for the UD module for a pecific time period.

A report that can be free-handed with options that focuses on the Drug File is highly desireable.

A designable report of all drugs in the "Formulary" is necessary for JCOAH and to publish.(High Priority)  (Fileman requires extensive editing of output)

    It should be able to categorize etc.

Patient's on Specific Drugs should be more flexible (have choices of output)

A batch program that allows us to print specific reports on a time schedule.

This is fantastic.

Some thoughts:

To start with, I see perhaps two primary user personas to consider here:

1. "Bonnie", the clinical techie, a pharmacist or pharmacy technician, who understands basic pharmacy operations and has an aptitude with software. In VA terms, perhaps a CAC or ADPAC. Bonnie would be able to author reports that weren't part of the standard set.

2. "Clyde", the staff pharmacist, who needs to run clinical and administrative reports in order to meet departmental needs.

The reports tools should insulate both Bonnie and Clyde from much of the internal file structure.

- A Report Author Tool would provide Bonnie with all of the files and fields that are relevant to pharmacy reports using a clinical data dictionary so she could create reports requested by Clyde.

- A couple of Query by Form (QBF) tools would allow Clyde some flexibility in creating a variety of ad hoc and saved reports. FOr example, a QBF might be the Drug File - which internally consists of the drug file and related files (e,g, dosage, va_product , etc.). Clyde might want a list of all Active drugs in the AHFS class Antibiotics that are intended for IV use. He would call up the Drug File QBF, fill in the fields to select on (status = Active, AHFS class = Antibiotics), select a format (if more than one is available), (format = List) and press "Print". The most common QBF tools would be Patient, Drug, and Order.

- A set of canned reports would run as is with minimal input. These could be copied and modified by Bonnie.

In going forward, to create requirements, I would suggest following three basic rules:

1. State the problem that needs to be solved or the departmental goal to achieve. (it's ok to propose a solution, but state the problem first)

2. Create personas and stories to describe relevant scenarios.

3. If you have a solution in mind, create an example of the end product (for example a mock-up of a Pharmacist Activity Report)