Home Forums Discussions Problems Locking Records

OK, that clunking sound is my head banging on the wall. We are a very small office, 2 PT Endos, 1 FT NP and a small research practice. I have been kicking around installing AC on an MS 2003 Server with Terminal Server running and see that a couple of people have done this before with good results.
So, I spent a couple of hours today working with one of my friends servers and playing with the setup when I suddenly realized that I had the same chart open on two different computers. Of course only the last one I saved updated.
Which leads me to my question.

How do you set the charts/AC so that only one person can have a chart open at a time? I know that ACCESS supports this and since AC is ACCESS based I assume it must. However I can not figure out what we are doing wrong.

We have a second office opening soon and I have given up on the VPN idea (tried several got them working - too slow) so we are going after this with a mainframe approach. I am afraid of "SYNCING" and dont want to do that, I would rather maintain the one data based and call it good. So, what am I doing wrong? How do I lock the charts to one user at a time?

Thanks!

Tomas

You can't, well you could technically, but not from one particular chart. And, you don't want to. Technically, you could have fifty users who could all have access to the chart at the same time.

Microsoft Access uses a file called .ldb or a locking database file for DATABASES, not charts within the database, which are open at the same time. So, if more than one user is accessing the database at one time, you should be able to see Amazingcharts.ldb in the same folder as Amazingcharts.mdb. Whenever the last user closing the database, the .ldb file will close. No data is written to the .ldb file. It is there for Access to monitor what computers and at what time they are accessing MS Access.

Imagine how frustrating it would be if a new patient registered and filled out paperwork, then gave this to your receptionist. You saw the patient, but couldn't open the chart for 15 minutes, because your receptionist had it open. Then, when you finally had a chance, your biller opened it to add the patient to billing. No, all three of you could open it, and you could print a script, while your receptionist printed demographics. All the while Access would have the database locked for these purposes.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/208778

Actually you have TWO people opening the chart at the same time, and EACH is working on a SEPARATE note. There is nothing wrong with this. In our office I might be working on a catch-up note at the same time my partner is actually seeing the patient - or on SOME weekends we're BOTH doing catch-up notes at the same time.

Bert's right. This is not a problem. If there are two actual chart notes open and they're both saved, last one saved becomes the last note. Prescriptions saved all go to the same Rx list. It's easy enough to get any PMH, SH, or FH changes and bring them forward on the rare occasions where you're both changing them. I don't think this is going to be as big a problem as you think it is going to be.

I wouldn't trust syncing at this point. We have three computers in our office that are dual-use machines, and each have installed a copy of (FREE!) UltraVNC Server. These machines can be remote controlled. The one on the side desk becomes the main machine for our remote office when that office is opened. Yes, you can also do this with terminal server, and it works just fine if you have the extra server, RAM and MS$ license fee money. We also have some older laptops that run with the screens closed to be remote terminal servers - and like good Christmas lights, when one goes down the rest stay lit. In other words there are a lot of different ways to provision a remote office without using either sync or a possibly unreliable VPN

Anyway, hope this helps.

V.