Re: [Gnumed-devel] Better-supporting staff and other non-patient persons

[Karsten Hilbert]

On Sat, Sep 13, 2008 at 08:38:46PM -0700, Jim Busser wrote:

> I have no quarrel that the schema treats all persons (no matter their  
> role) as needing to exist in the demographic schema.
>
> I only have a problem that the schema requires staff (and by extension, 
> any and every other kind of person) to be created first as a patient, and 
> to then be "enlisted as staff".

In light of now being able to create person records without
a date of birth shall we rename "register new patient" as
"register person" ? It would then make a lot more sense.

> We also recognize that we may wish to 
> create (register) additional persons, who are not patients and who are 
> not staff, in the database. I am thinking here consultant physicians or 
> other clinicians whom we may wish to attach as involved in the care of 
> particular patients.
Since there is no explicit marker to the effect of "this is
a patient" I fail to fully appreciate the problem (apart
from previously having to enter some sort of DOB which,
however, isn't taken into argument here).

> Such people also immediately acquire an EMR with statistics of zero. I 
> think it is important to not confuse the fact that someone is a person, 
> with whether or not they ever got care, or whether or not it is even 
> intended or appropriate that any clinical entries get created. This 
> should be protected-against.
The only "clinical" entry that is made is an encounter. And
that's not really a clinical entry as such but rather an
administrative act.

> - it can help avoid the creation of an EMR
There isn't really any such thing as "creation of an EMR".
An EMR exists by virtue of any clinical entries being linked
to an identity (via an encounter).

> Changing the status of a person who was not a patient, to become a  
> patient, would require that any missing dob and gender be entered.  
> However I cannot see that it is presently supported (in the GUI) to  
> alter a person's date of birth or gender.
That's done in the demographics plugin along with the name.

> The clinical plug-ins (EMR tree, Progress notes, EMR journal, Documents, 
> Attach documents, and Measurements) should refuse to be switched-tom the 
> way they presently refuse when "no patient is selected". In other words, 
> they should require more than having a *person* in focus, they should 
> require to have *a person who is_a_patient* in focus.
Can you register this part as a wishlist bug on launchpad ?

> I would relabel the "Patient details" widget to "Demographics" which  
> will cover the general case whether or not the person is a patient.

Done.

Karsten
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