Tricks of the Trade: MEDITECH NPR Report Impact Analysis for the 5.6 CS & MAGIC Platforms

By: John Sharpe, President, Comstock Software, Inc.

Part I: Searching Reports for Fields using the MEDITECH 5.6 Platforms

New projects, system upgrades and implementations are sure to affect your custom NPR reports.

Many reports use macros and fragments to access information from modules other than the primary DPM the report uses.  Subject areas such as Vital Signs, Inputs and Outputs are often retrieved by reports written in modules other than PCS.  Reports written in ADM, EDM, LAB, OE, & PHA frequently reference this documentation.

If a new Nursing Assessment includes queries from other MIS Assessments or MIS Screens, this new data source could impact other reports.  Your reporting requirements will determine whether to include or exclude the new Assessment and its MIS Queries to ensure existing reports continue to meet the needs of the report users.

As you consider the challenges in keeping customer defined documentation in synch with customer NPR reports; you might feel overwhelmed.  Fortunately, the Search Report for Field routine is just the tool for the job.  This routine was designed to identify free text in custom NPR reports.  You can access this MEDITECH utility from the standard NPR menu.  This search utility produces a report, a report you can work from, to update your custom NPR reports.

For MEDITECH Magic, use option 58 to perform your search.

Enter your 'search for' criteria at the prompt; examples include Lab Print Numbers or Test Mnemonics, MIS Queries or Assessments, Nursing Interventions & more.  Search all DPMs using the BEGINNING and END keywords.   Enter 'Y' for all report sections from Field Names to Macros.

For MEDITECH Client Server, access Miscellaneous Routines, then Search Reports for Fields.

Enter your 'search for' criteria at the prompt; examples include Lab Print Numbers or Test Mnemonics, MIS Queries or Assessments, Nursing Interventions & more.  Search all DPMs using the BEGINNING and END keywords.   Enter 'Y' for all report sections from Field Names to Macros.

The Search Reports for Fields routine will search all of your NPR reports based on your search criteria.  If you have a large number of reports (some hospitals have thousands of custom reports), this can take 10 minutes or longer.  Once the Search Routine completes, you can review the NPR reports that may be affected and make a case by case decision on whether this report needs to be updated.

Part II: Using Search Reports for Fields to Prepare for your MEDITECH 5.6 Upgrade

If you are currently planning a migration to 5.6; it is likely MEDITECH will recommend you inactivate any reports that aren't in use, before the upgrade.

To identify reports not in use:

• Construct and run a report based in the NPR.REP.rw.usage.log segment to learn which reports are regularly used.  Refer to these reports as active.
• Construct and run a report out of NPR.REP.main to list all reports.
• Compare the two lists.  I prefer to use SQL Server (Microsoft Excel or Access are good choices too) to filter out the reports not in regular use, this will be the start of reports you may inactivate.
• Use 'Search Reports for Fields' to search all reports for the word 'fragment'.
• Mark reports, called as fragments by reports in use, as active.

As you complete these tasks, you will have a candidate list of reports, to review for inactivation.  Once reports have been inactivated, they can no longer be run from the menu or report writer.  Because fragments are reports called by other reports, they do not have to be active to be run.  Inactive fragments can still be called by a production report; which means … that a production report is at risk whenever it contains a call to an inactivated fragment.  A little preparation at this stage of the 5.6 update, will make your upgrade to 5.6 a lot easier.

GLOSSARY:

- DPM stands for Data Procedure Module.  A DPM is a collection of Procedures, Screens and Reports that work within a set of Data Definitions.

- Fragments are reports than can be included in other reports.  They typically are not setup to run as standalone reports from the menu.

Questions regarding reports and your 5.6 upgrade?
Email them to John at jsharpe@comstock-software.com.

John Sharpe is President / NPR Consultant at Comstock Software, Inc. Learn more about NPR Report Writing at the MEDITECH NPR Report Writing Blog.