[AccessD] 2 quick questions

I am also doing quite a bit with company/individual name and address matching...and you gave the perfect example that causes issues:
Joe T Murphy, born on Dec 7th, 1994 
 
Age 5 Joe comes in...age 10 Joseph comes in...age 14...he switched to using his middle name in high school.
 
I don't remember who suggested it...but I liked the idea of the lookup in the interface to choose the existing patient.
 
Mark A. Matte
 
 
> Date: Thu, 26 May 2011 13:13:54 -0700
> From: charlotte.foust at gmail.com
> To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com
> Subject: Re: [AccessD] 2 quick questions
> 
> What Susan is trying to say politely is that you're making work for
> yourself. Your users don't need to see the unique identifier, they
> need to see the information on the client. So provide them with a
> fill in textbox or two to enter a name and then show them a list of
> the clients showing name, last visit, etc., and let them select the
> one they want to see. They may THINK they need a shortcut ID, but
> that leads to other shortcuts that lead to corrupted records and data.
> They try to memorize IDs to speed things up and it gets them in
> trouble.
> 
> Charlotte Foust
> 
> On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 11:56 AM, John Clark
> <John.Clark at niagaracounty.com> wrote:
> > It is going to be used to track their clients. There are 3 alternate surveys, but I think each one can be given multiple times. They want to track the clients and how their dental visit habits change. So, I asked them if they want to know if these same clients return and they are saying yes.
> >
> > So, if my example Joe T Murphy is entered as a 5 yr old, and they return and take another survey at 10, and then at 15 and finally at 20, they'll need a way to tell that this was the same person each time.
> >
> >>>> "Susan Harkins" <ssharkins at gmail.com> 5/26/2011 2:36 P >>>
> >> 1)
> >> The data for the program I am working on, comes w/no real good unique
> >> identifier, so I'm trying to create my own.  The only personal data I am
> >> getting is name (last, first, MI) and DoB. The rest is survey data. This
> >> is a dental survey form, and they want to track clients if/as they go from
> >> infant to adult, so I told them we need some sort of identifier.
> >>
> >> The method I've come up with, to create an identifier is using the 1st 3
> >> letters of the last name, the 1st 2 of the first name, the middle
> >> initial...if there isn't one, I place an "X" into the ID...then 6 digits
> >> of DoB.
> >>
> >> For example: a client named Joe T Murphy, born on Dec 7th, 1994 would be
> >> assigned an ID of MURJOT120794
> >>
> >> It is not air-tight, so to speak, but I don't see another way...I'm just
> >> looking for opinions on this...
> >
> >
> > =========Who's going to use this identifier and how will they apply it? If
> > you just need a unique value, just use an AutoNumber. Why are you going to
> > all this trouble?
> >
> > Susan H.