Read220e Premvet 5 (Version 2.20.03) - April 2005

Access Permissions

Access permission 22 (Breed Help) this used to restrict the user to all aspects of the Breed/Poisons help which included the Optimum Weight of the breed. The Optimum Weight is NO LONGER blocked by this access permission.

143 - Block Custom Sheet - If both the custom sheet and SQL queries are available then this option will block the Custom option. Access to the SQL queries is unaffected.

New table entries:

Client:	LastPaid	Last recorded payment for the Client
Animal:	LastPaidDate	Last recorded payment for the Animal

Animal Age - This is now expressed as a decimal, 1 year 6 months is 1.5, 1 year 3 months is 1.25, 6 months is 0.5 etc.

Ad-Hoc report - 'By Date and Ana Code'

When entering the 'User', if the user does not exist the system will assume you are looking for work done by a 'group'. This enables you to list based on work done by 'vet' or for all vets. You can also enter multiples e.g. vet|admin for work done by all users in EITHER the group vet OR the group admin.

The reports can also be broken down by 'Analysis Group', this allows reports to be based on the analysis grouping used. Combined with the user and user group options you can report easily now on 'All consultations by vets', or 'All medical work by user TWM' without having to use ODBC or getting custom reports written. The sub-group option will break the work down first by Group then by analysis code - allowing you to look in more detail at who as done what.

The group by 'date' has had a sub-grouping added. You can group by Month/Year (as existing), Year, Month, Quarter, Week, Day of Month, Weekday or Hour.

If grouping is used a new question 'Include Rollup' will appear. This will add 'sub-totals' and 'total' to the report and is only operational with MySQL version 4.1.11 (or higher) it is ignored otherwise. One point to note with rollup - if you are planning to export to Works, Excel, OpenOffice etc for further analysis then you should NOT include it. The other aspect - depending on what you are grouping by, you may see what you think is a duplicate row - it's not - rollup lines will have the text 'NULL' in them - these are sub-total/total lines.

At both the Analysis code fields you can enter a '?' to bring up a box will all your analysis codes in it. If you are looking at groups (e.g. the 1st analysis code is blank) the box will list your groups.

If you enter a '?' at the 'User/Group' prompt you will get a list of all groups and users (groups will be prefixed with 'Group:') on the system - it will exclude retired users - you can still search retired by entering the User ID.

If you enter a '?' at the 'Restrict by' prompt you will have the option to enter some of the 'common' restrict by fields. If you press F1 the screen will display ALL the fields that are available to you, the field names should be self-explanatory - see the manual for full details of each field.

Ad-Hoc - Text Search

The system will highlight the text entered when the results are displayed. The same option as above have been added to the 'restrict by' field.

Starting with MySQL 4.1 you have the option for 'Query Expansion' (in particular, the variant "blind query expansion"). This is where the system does two passes of the records with the 2nd pass including some of the 'common' words found on the 1st. For examples, looking for 'RABIES', if your records return a lot of lines 'xxx vials rabies ...' then with query expansion, the chances are all records with 'vials' in them will be returned as well. This can generate a LOT of results - the default is NOT to use it. It is easy to 're-run' the report and switch on expansion if needed.

Misc

New Build option: -M months - This will over-ride the years option and re-build based on number of months data e.g. -M 15 will always include 15 months of data.

The 'List Table Data' has been moved to the Custom menu - the clinical, animal and owner tables have had a limit added - they will no longer list ALL data.

Windows Client

A Windows query client has been installed in \\server\common this can be used to run queries via a graphical front end.
Documentation at: http://www.mysql.com/products/query-browser/

Recalls

New menu option in Ad-Hoc reports - recalls - this allows you to look at recalls due, done, overdue, blank. There are criteria for animal age, last seen, surgery number etc.

See the on-line manual for details: http://www.premvet.co.uk/premvet/manual/dm/dmrec.html

Modified Stored Reports

Recalls -> Compare MR with Clinical

This has been updated to look for records where the vaccination date has been entered but there is no matching clinical entry. This will apply where you are prompted for the vaccination data when an animal is added. An '*' will be added to the 1st registered date to indicate this is the same month as the recall is dated.

As mileage is one of the common questions asked on the additional screen, it has been handled slightly differently. If specified in the 'Questions Asked' then a separate prompt will be issued when adding a new animal.

You do not need to switch over to the additional screen if you are just asking for mileage.

Getting some inkjet/deskjet printers to handle the 'nice' looking reports from nroff is cumbersome - you would have to add a specific .FILTER entry to every form you are generating - this restricted the distribution of the forms to other sites.

You can, in conjunction with a params.txt entry, get the system to automatically use the correct device for the printer.

On the printer setup screen, the bottom line relates to the device type when processing forms, two new options have been added:

4	Will looks at the params.txt entry: GS_Device_{printer letter} = xxxx, where xxxx can be set to any supported GhostScript Devices available to you - use gs -? at a # or $ prompt to get the full list.
5	This will export the form as a .png 'Portable Network Graphics' image - suitable for importing into Microsoft Word. Could be used to get existing forms into newsletters etc. (Well that is what we are using it for in-house - you may also have a use for it) - The form will be exported to /tmp

When looking for an item from the main AP menu: the description prompt, this used to only look at the 1st part of the text - now the system will search for the text ANYWHERE in the line by default.

If you prefix the text to look for with a full stop (.) this will switch back to old behaviour. e.g. enter cons will find the text cons anywhere on the line entering .cons will only look for AP lines starting with cons.

The above applies ONLY to searching on the main Automatic Pricing menu - NOT at the auto prompt line (you can do the same there by prefixing the code with double slashes //)

(Unless you are a multi-site practice with common params.txt entries you bounce then ignore this section).

The text file 'params.local' will be scanned (if present) before any params.txt entries - this allows you to have a static site specific file and then bounce a practice-wide params.txt around all sites.

A new option on the Stock -> Ordering -> On-Line Services -> Supplier

Pickup Price Update Disk

(Currently only Genusxpress and Dunlops offer this as a service - speak to your wholesaler if not listed)

This will connect to the Wholesalers Web Site and download the latest price update disk directly onto your system and put it in the correct place. You do NOT need to use or receive floppy disks etc. Just run the 'Update Prices' option as normal.

Note on Dunlops: You will need to add your user name and password for access to the Dunlops web site - if you are not sure of them contact Dunlops IT department. Once you have them you need to add them to params.txt:

        Dunlops_url_user =  your-user-name
        Dunlops_url_pass =  your-password

If you don't add them (or they are wrong) you will get an '401 Authorization Required' message when trying the download.

When taking a payment, you have the choice of one of the preset options (1-9) or entering freehand what it was. If the params.txt entry Cash_Force_Option = Yes then this will DISABLE the freehand text option.

It will NOT affect the ability to use the 'S' or 'D' option to give Surcharges/Discount - it will block entries where there is no description against one of the number options.

The search engine used to index the Premvet documentation has been changed. You will now see some of the context of the page, the word(s) you are looking for will be highlight. The search option is limited to just the Premvet documentation. It will no longer includes any of the third party documentation. It will however, index any Microsoft Word and PDF files it finds.

By default the system will now notify you by E-Mail when a fax has been successfully sent. You can revert to the old behaviour (only notified on failures) by setting Fax_No_Mail = No in params.txt.

When sending attachments and print jobs to the fax system you will now be asked if you want a cover sheet printed.

A Windows client for HylaFAX has been included in the update CD. Documentation available at: http://www.uli-eckhardt.de/whfc/

A script make_faxcover has been included with this release to allow you to design your own fax cover sheets with logo's etc.

The procedure is as follows:

• Design your cover sheet, tested with both tgif from the SCO skunkware site and MS Word (using a postscript printer driver), adding in XXXX-Name - where Name is one of the options on the cover sheet e.g. XXXX-to for the person you are sending to (this is very similar to the reserved words options within premvet), for the full list of options see man faxcover.

• Save it, (Print to file) as an EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) file

• Shift to where the cover sheets are located - for the default cover sheet this is /usr/local/lib/fax

• Type:

  make_faxcover < your_eps_file > faxcover.ps
  

Test it by sending yourself a fax.

Notes:

• If you get a blank page between the cover sheets and the actual fax then manually remove the last 'showpage' line from the faxcover.ps file with any text editor.

• With Word we had to change to font to Courier for the XXXX entries.

If you have a third party Web Archiving system, such as VetDACS installed you can add this to the Attachment screen and when the hidden clinical option 'X' is used it will be called directly. You need to add the following entries to params.txt.

     Web_Link_Name = 'Name to appear on menu'
     Web_Link_Url  = 'Url to be called'

The Web_Link_Url will be checked for '%%J' - if found it will be replaced with the current animal number. e.g. using VetDACS as an example, the entries would be:

     Web_Link_Name = VetDACS
     Web_Link_Url  = http://server/cgi-bin/vdax.pl?Client=%%J-%%J

The amount of space allocated to 'command' has been increased. In addition, when the command calls a browser (cmd starts with http:) any of the 'Options' will also be passed to the end of the url.

You can also have a 'personal' set of Function keys, these are setup in an identical manner to the global ones. If a personal file exists it WILL take priority over the global settings.

In addition to setting the function keys on the Utilities menu they can also be set (Personal only) via the User_info option from the main menu.

The OOH_time option in params.txt (see read220d for details) has been expanded to handle specific days of the week and alter when OOH work finishes.

The best way to describe it is to look at an example:

    OOH_Surgery = 20:30 2 18,Sat 13:15 2 18, Sun 0 2 18, End 08:30

This will be expanded to:

Overnight the OOH work will finish at 8:30am (End 08:30), on Sundays it runs all day (Sun 0), and on Saturdays it starts at quarter past 1pm (Sat 13:15).

Separate out the days by comma and if you do need to alter the end time put the 'End' option LAST.

The other format supported is Day Start-End ... as an example lets say the OOH work starts at a different time on Mondays, you could add Mon 18:30-23:59 to indicate that OOH starts at 6:30 pm.

• Definition files with a file-size of zero (blank ones) are trapped and will no longer cause an error.

• If you are in the habit of using back slashes (\) in text boxes and printing clinical reports (nroff format) the \ could cause the text to wrap incorrectly. These have now been trapped and are handled correctly.

• Long address lines on management address labels will no longer cause the printer to wrap.

• Lab E-Mail - multiple e-mail's arriving at the same time could cause the system to reject the 2nd message and bounce it back with '.lab' unknown user - this has been resolved.

• Two problems in invoice production (Automatic surcharges being included in Aged figures, Stage letters based on aged amounts) have been sorted.

• Lifelearn, BSAVA Formulary, Henston and NOAH - If you have the web based version of these installed - these can be searched in the same manner as the premvet documentations. You will need to contact us as this search facility cannot be installed automatically.

• Admin menu: New option 'Show Version' on the 1st screen can be used to display what version of the OS you are on and the Premvet version numbers.

• Sound on Balance Due - If you want the system to play a sound if there is a balance outstanding;
  Copy the sound required to 220.wav (in the sounds folder) and it will be played automatically. 220 is the same as the colour event for that field.

• Site_Specific `help' - adding Site_Specific_X (where x is 1-9) to params.txt - this will be displayed beside the details as a reminder as to what it is.

• Selling a fractions of a ml on a batch recorded item will no longer reset the batch numbers to zero.

URI » http://www.premvet.co.uk/ • Updated » Sat May 28 22:48:47 BST 2005 by twm