Running head: DATABASE DESIGN 1

Final Project – Database Design

Submitted to:

Dr. Thidarat Tinnakornsrisuphap

Prepared by:

Jessica Ndegwa

Health Care Informatics

April 17, 2021

DATABASE DESIGN 2

Executive Summary

A pharmacy database was created to store data of patient prescriptions. This data includes

information found in a prescription such as patient medical record number (MRN), address,

medicine ordered and ordering prescriber (PSBR). To avoid the risk of update anomalies or

inconsistencies, a one-to-many relationship was created whereby a prescription belongs to one

patient, but a patient can have multiple prescriptions. The database was created in Microsoft

Access with two tables created namely Patient table and Prescription table with MRN as the

foreign key. Two forms were created for a user of the pharmacy database to enter data in either

table. Two queries were made to retrieve specific data from the database, and two reports were

generated that show the selected data in report form.

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1.0 Introduction

A pharmacy has a database of different types of medicine. The database should store the details

of the prescriptions of all the patients that use that pharmacy. A one-to-many relationship exists

whereby a prescription belongs to one patient, but a patient can have multiple prescriptions.

2.0 Methodology

• Tables

Data was retrieved from patient prescriptions. To represent this one-to-many relationship

between patients and their prescriptions in a database, while avoiding the risk of update

anomalies or inconsistencies, I created the following two tables as depicted in the attached

Microsoft Access file:

Patient (MRN, Street, City, State, Zipcode, PhoneNum)

Prescription (RxNum, MedicationName, Directions, Qtyfilled, Refill, PSBR, Dose, MRN)

Both Patient and Prescription tables have the MRN field in common. The MRN field in

the Prescription table is a foreign key that matches the primary key of the Patient table. No

alternate key is identified in either table. The patient table has PhoneNum as a secondary key.

The tables adhere to the entity integrity rule as they each have a primary key which cannot be

null. Each table also adheres to the referential integrity rule as the MRN in the patient table have

matches the MRN in the prescription table. This one-to-many relationship is shown in the

attached Microsoft access file using a join line between the Patient table and the Prescription

table with MRN as the matching field.

• Forms

Two forms were created for a user to enter patient data in the Patient table and

prescription data in the Prescription table.

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• Queries

o A query was created to retrieve the MedName of Qtyfilled greater than 30. SQL:

SELECT Prescription.MedName, Prescription.Qtyfilled

FROM Prescription

WHERE (((Prescription.Qtyfilled)>"30"));

o A second query was created to retrieve the MedName of Refill greater than zero.

SQL:

SELECT Prescription.MedName, Prescription.Refill

FROM Prescription

WHERE (((Prescription.Refill)>"0"));

3.0 Results

• Reports

The relational database final report shows two tables namely Patient and Prescription

with a one-to-many relationship. Two reports were generated based off the two queries that show

the selected data in report form. The first report depicts the query used to retrieve the MedName

of Qtyfilled greater than 30. This shows each medication that was dispensed/filled with more

than 30 pills which in the database was Lisinopril and Amlodipine with 60 pills dispensed/filled

for each. The second report depicts the query used to retrieve the MedName of Refill greater

than zero. This shows each medication that had a refill quantity of more than zero, which in the

database was Simvastatin, Lisinopril, Levothyroxine, Amlodipine and Omeprazole with each

having 3 refills.
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4.0 Conclusions and Recommendations

This pharmacy database showed the benefits of storing data in a database whereby specific data

can be easily retrieved through the use of queries, and data can be added or removed in an

efficient and organized way without the risk of redundancy or inconsistencies. A database

administrator can ensure data security through user access privileges unlike an excel spreadsheet

whereby anyone can make changes to the data. Additional data which could be included in the

pharmacy database is patient’s email address, allergies, indications for medication use, side

effect of medication prescribed, and phone number of the prescriber.

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Reference

Pratt, P., & Last, M. (2014). Concepts of database management (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage

Learning.