Part 1 - Navigating to an Internet site

One of the most obvious features of SQL Server Reporting Services is that the reports are presented to the user with a web browser. This means that SSRS natively has access to many of the same functional principles as most web pages and web sites. Specifically, this would include the use of hyperlinks (URLs) to easily navigate to other reports, web pages, or other web-based resources. How do we do that? With the Action property.

CMS recently published the FY 2021 proposed rule for the Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems (IPPS) and has proposed changes to the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) program and Medicare & Medicaid Promoting Interoperability (PI) program for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals. For the full text of the rule, see the Federal Register.

It doesn’t matter which MEDITECH version you have; from MAGIC to Expanse, each reporting technology has its own strengths and weaknesses. Whether it’s good old NPR, Report Designer or Data Repository with SQL Server, you can get the most out of each of them by using them together. While Data Repository has increasingly become the “go-to” choice for many reports, DR and SQL tools can also be used as an intermediary tool to help you build better NPR and RD reports too!

Technically speaking, MEDITECH's Data Repository is a typical relational database, in that it stores data in tables, uses primary key columns for referential integrity, and is interacted with using off-the-shelf tools like Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. But there are several aspects that make it unique – and challenging to work with – all of which are important to understand if you’re a data analyst or report writer at a MEDITECH hospital.

CMS recently published the CY 2020 Quality Payment Program (QPP) Final Rule which included numerous updates to the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) for 2019, 2020 and 2021 reporting.

One of my favorite features of SQL Server Reporting Services is the ability to provide a parameter with multiple values. This is a great way to give your users flexibility at runtime by allowing them to select one, two, several, or all values from a given list. It even has a built-in way to easily select and de-select all the possible values. A common scenario that would benefit from this is when you are going to publish a single report that could potentially be used by multiple locations or departments.

How do I find data in the MEDITECH Data Repository?

Many new DR report writers have a challenging time locating data in the DR because they're unfamiliar with the database table and column naming conventions. Luckily for those users, MEDITECH has provided tools within each application as well as system level tables for both the NPR and M-AT platforms that help to identify table and column data.

Knowing which tables to use is one of the biggest challenges when writing DR reports. Understanding those tables, and the relationships between them is part of that challenge. Primary keys are a critical part of any database, but especially so in the DR, since they are the only definition we have for how to correctly and quickly get information.