Computer help - time & data logging

[Marjorie Proops]

Can anyone recommend a fairly simple way that I can set up a Time-stamped data entry system that then downloads to a separate storage device or another pc.


Eg. We have a nightshift in the care home that should carry out certain overnight routines - but I suspect that one or two individuals may be 'napping' on a sofa for hours and then making multiple diary entries as if they had been working.

Some staff are computer illiterate and I don't want to punish the innocent for the failures of the few - so it has to be simple.

Perhaps something based on Outlook that both prompts and records the answer.

Eg. 2:30 am - "Record building and fridge temperatures now"

Answer: ..........................

Log-in code number.

Etc.

 

[Toyo]

software called 'ACT' by Sage might be worth considering
it is actually a contact management system but very customisable, with alarms etc can also link up to email etc etc on activities- well worth a look
Must be others out there

 

[admiral]

Hi,

Perhaps just ask them to email the task and result when they do it. e-mails are timestamped.
Or you could have a simple web page, where they enter the tasks and result. This could be logged to a (remote) database (all done using free open source software), or it could create and send an email, just like plan a above?

Regards

Admiral

 

[Marjorie Proops]

Hi,

Perhaps just ask them to email the task and result when they do it. e-mails are timestamped.
Or you could have a simple web page, where they enter the tasks and result. This could be logged to a (remote) database (all done using free open source software), or it could create and send an email, just like plan a above?

Regards

Admiral

Clever

 

[Slowdown]

http://www.taskfreak.com seems to do what you want - there's a free online demo on their website. There's bound to be other free software about - I just 'felt lucky. on a Google search.

It's take a day or so to set it up, but then it's 'there'

You'd need a linux installation on a PC and 'LAMP' installed. Again, a days work, if you've never done it before.

There's tons and tons of help available online - I've done a few similar things recently and it really is much easier than you think (or imagine)

E-mails work ok if there's only a couple of things you want 'logging', but you'll be swamped if there's dozens of e-mails coming through every night. Imagine going away for 2 weeks and coming back to a thousand e-mails!

 

[oldishnovice]

Sorry to hear you got lazy gits as staff, hard enough to run places like that with good staff let alone with a bad apple or two.

Is there anyway to modify your nurse call system? I do lots of work in a residential home, their system logs stuff on a data base, the guy that runs this home fitted it himself, its a lot of work if your starting from scratch. He was quoted 3 grand for it but he knows his way round electronics so saved a bit. I could get more info on it if you wish.

Also have a look on CPC's catalogue, may be some cheaper options there for data logging?

That said I've done a bit of security work with all this data logging stuff, you just end up doing the walking round bit and pay little attention to very little else. Integrity... they either got it or not, hard to know, sorry. Best of luck with it mate.

 

[Bill-H]

still won't prove what time they performed the task, if they performed it at all, will only show they were sitting at the keyboard at a particular time logging that they had performed the task (before going back to sleep/playing computer games/surfing 'tinternet)
That's not much help I realise just an observation from a lazy so-and-so

 

[Marjorie Proops]

Cheers guys, data logging is the way forward I'm sure, that way I can gradually increase the number of automatic recordings (various room temperatures for example) and then cross-check those against manually taken readings.

What I really need though is some kind of data prompting and entry system that both prompts and then provides say a 15 minute time slot during which that data or entry must be made otherwise you are locked out and cannot simply back-fill in all the data every few hours. Then a the end of the shift a 'summary' could be brought up showing any missed entries in red or whatever. I'm sure that, as soon that these couple of bad eggs realise what's going on, they'll either pull up their socks or move on. Shame, they're spoiling it for all the rest of what is good little team.

Also looking at our apple mac systems to get staff to 'log in to Bonjour' on 'ichat' so that we have a video log -in at say 30 minute intervals. CCTV is not allowed in care homes, so maybe that could be a way round things.

Any more brain waves warmly received

 

[SlowJohn]

At the risk of sounding geeky ... I'd be tempted to write a simple application to do it. Store the data in Access and use Visual Basic (VB) to read / write it (you could actually do the whole thing in Access at a push (I just like VB better).

A message pops up on the screen at a given time. They then go off and do the task, come back and click done. You track how long they've taken between the message appearing and the done clicked.

I know it's still open to abuse but maybe slightly better?

You seem to have a good idea of what you want and that tends to make these sort of programs pretty easy (and hence cheap) to write.

If you've got some sort of data recording you could interface it with your own program which you probably won't be able to do with freeware or a commercial application.

 

[oldishnovice]

Just a trhought. What about a security camera??? Maybe a sneaky one?

 

[Marjorie Proops]

Just a trhought. What about a security camera??? Maybe a sneaky one?

Not allowed in a care home

 

[ianf]

I'd recommend you look at the open-source approach rather than get tied down with Visual basic and access. If you go down that path, you are stuck for support from the original supplier, and the quality won't be as good causing you to go back for help more often.

The solution using Linux, apache, mysql, and php for task scheduling and reporting as Slowdown points out would not be too terrible to set up and maintainable without using a legacy technology like vb.