Author Topic: Is CiviCase a good candidate for our defect reporting system ? (Read 1017 times)

pete · January 18, 2011, 07:53:23 am

Hi.

Our lab (part of the UK NHS) deals with reports of medical device malfunctions for Wales. These range from a simple glove with a hole in it up to surgical instruments breaking in use.

we currently use a custom database, plus a separate tracking application (GNATS) for this.

Our requirements are for:

a standard data set (device name, manufacturer, complainant, complainant's hospital etc)
ability to assign the case to someone in the lab
ability to record the outcomes of telephone interviews with the clinicians (and/or manufacturers)
facility to record the outcomes of lab tests
fields for the final report to go to the manufacturer
tracking on reports still open so we can chase up the manufacturer
facility to generate a final report based on the data set and
email to the manufacturer

Will CiviCase do the job for us ?

We are a linux based lab just starting to run Joomla for content management)

Regards,
Pete Phillips
SMTL

xavier · January 18, 2011, 11:30:02 am

Hi,

You can create custom activities, and having custom fields (different types) let you track extra informations.

Should work. You might want to create a custom report containing the fields you want.

X+

Erik Hommel · January 19, 2011, 12:54:11 am

We are currently in a project where we use CiviCase, I think you can do the things you mention with CiviCase. If you are going to use Joomla, check the ACL possibilities because I would expect you to want to limit access to some parts / case type to some users. Perhaps you should consider a move to Drupal as a CMS? Make sure you check comparisons between the two carefully against your set of requirements. Sounds like a good project!
Erik

davem · January 19, 2011, 04:49:14 am

Hi Pete
we've implemented something for SCIE using CiviCase where applications for a funding programme they are running generate a whole bunch of activities that are assigned to different people (there was some customisation to kick off the case from another form but otherwise standard case setup).

-a standard data set (device name, manufacturer, complainant, complainant's hospital etc)
-- custom fields
-ability to assign the case to someone in the lab
-- case has a case coordinator
-ability to record the outcomes of telephone interviews with the clinicians (and/or manufacturers)
-- if your phones can record conversations, you can attach the MP3s to activities. As well as the activities you set up by default, you can add other activities at any time as long as you've defined your case so that those activities are available in that case type.
- facility to record the outcomes of lab tests
-- likewise either initially defined or add adhoc
- fields for the final report to go to the manufacturer
--custom fields
-tracking on reports still open so we can chase up the manufacturer
-- in the wonderful civicase dashboard you can see all the cases and filter by whichever stage they are at - you can also run a report and make this available to you dashboard
-facility to generate a final report based on the data set and
email to the manufacturer
-- might need a bit of customisation of an existing report for this but you should be able to get everything

So it all sounds a pretty good fit. Would you record devices as contacts? Sounds a bit odd but might give you some useful views of the data you hold for Glove X or Clamp Y, you'd also be able to record relationships such as "manufactured by" which would then show up on the manufacturer record as well... As Eric says you might like to look at Drupal as well for your content management. For something like this I would imagine its Organic Groups would come in useful and it give you good access control, which is not available with Joomla! until civi 3.4/4 - should be available end March according to http://civicrm.org/blogs/eileen/whats-happening-34-and-40

HTH

DaveM

pete · January 19, 2011, 06:36:02 am

We are going to stick with Joomla as we have spend months setting up the new web site under it, and are just starting to understand it!. We have had years of using Apache, Zope, Plone, and a variety of other systems - we are trying to standardise on a single front end.

Thanks for the comments guys - it sounds very promising. I think I will ask our IT guy to set up a test systm so we can explore what is possible.

Quote from: davem on January 19, 2011, 04:49:14 am

Would you record devices as contacts? Sounds a bit odd but might give you some useful views of the data you hold for Glove X or Clamp Y, you'd also be able to record relationships such as "manufactured by" which would then show up on the manufacturer record as well.

yes - I think we would. it allows consistency in reporting then.

Thanks for your thoughts - greatly appreciated.

Pete

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Author Topic: Is CiviCase a good candidate for our defect reporting system ? (Read 1017 times)

pete

Is CiviCase a good candidate for our defect reporting system ?

xavier

Re: Is CiviCase a good candidate for our defect reporting system ?

Erik Hommel

Re: Is CiviCase a good candidate for our defect reporting system ?

davem

Re: Is CiviCase a good candidate for our defect reporting system ?

pete

Re: Is CiviCase a good candidate for our defect reporting system ?