The Secret to Faster Ad-Hoc Reports

[Tina Alviar]

Does this sound familiar?   “The Business Office wants a report that includes all accounts, active as well as those that may have been archived as Historical (PAA)?  That’s not so bad.  They want it today?  Ooooohhhh”

If you have a trusted decision support system, you should explore that option first, as you may be able to request the information and provide it to them today.  Otherwise if you have to write an Invision ad-hoc report that has to access the PX Library…well then, that is a bit of a challenge.

Trying to tell them that you can write the report today, but the system takes two days to produce the report.  Trust me, they will not like that answer.  “Well why can’t we get the report sooner?”  You can try to explain that Invision is based on 1969 technology and that there are storage limitations, and that once an account is resolved, the system moves the account to Historical Archive file.  Accessing this data requires one day end processing to add the report to the schedule, and a second day end process to report……and……you can see their eyes glazing over. 

Well there are two other options….        

1.  You can open a Service Request (SR) with Siemens to have them run a DEMAND ad-hoc today.  There will be a fee charged, which will appear on your monthly SMS Invoice.  The last time I did this it was $100 per ad-hoc request.  The tricky part is the timing. 
   
   Once you receive the request, you have to write the ad-hoc report and open a Service Request with SMS.  These demand runs are only performed a few scheduled times a day at Siemens. 
   For example : The demand jobs may only run at 11am, 2pm, and 5pm.   So there are several variables to producing this report “Today”.  What time did you receive the request?  How long will it take to write and validate the ad-hoc?  How long does it take SMS to respond to the Service Request (SR)?  When is the next schedule DEMAND report run? 
   
   So don’t be too quick to offer up that fact that SMS can run it today, for a mere $100.  Unless the request is received early in the day, the requestor may not get the report till late in the day.
2. The second option is that if they can wait to receive the report the next day, then here’s a scheduling Tip/Trick that someone else shared with our office.
   
   1. Normally you write the PX ad-hoc (TODAY), and then add the report to the PX schedule.   During TODAY’s day end processing Invision adds the report to the schedule, and then during tomorrow’s day end processing (TODAY+1), it runs the report, and you are able to retrieve it first thing the following day (TODAY+2).  
   2. The trick is to have a generic ad-hoc report already added to the PXEXDY schedule, ready and waiting, which cuts out one day.  When you need a PX report tomorrow, you simply write your ad-hoc report and copy it to the generic report.
   3. For example we added *$PXNOW1 to the PXEXDY schedule as a daily report.  *$PXNOW1 is reserved, and only used when needed, to get the report the next day, and then it is deleted once the report produces   
   4. Once you write your ad-hoc report, copy it to *$PXNOW1, which is already scheduled to run daily.  The ad-hoc will produce around 5pm tonight, depending on your individual day end processing cycle.  As long as you have the report written and copied to *$PXNOW1 by 4pm, you shouldn’t have any issues with getting the report.  If you miss the 4pm cutoff, you won’t get the report until the next day at 5pm.
   5. You just need to remember to delete the *$PXNOW1 ad-hoc once you have received your report.   Otherwise the report will continue to run daily and SMS will charge you for the daily PX ad-hoc depending on your contract limitations. 
   6. If the report needs to be continued, you simply schedule your original report name to the PX library and once it is producing, you delete the PXNOW1 ad-hoc.

I hope this was helpful.  Trust me- write a generic ad-hoc, schedule it, let it run once, and then delete the ad-hoc, so you have it ready and waiting for the next time you need a report TOMORROW.  Test it out now, so that you are confident it works correctly, and you will be glad you did, the next time you need to produce a historical report TOMORROW.

 

Tina Alviar has worked for over 25 years with Invision Financials and is currently Director of Patient Financial Systems at MedStar Health System.

 

The views and opinions published reflect those of the author and are not reflective of the MedStar Health System.