Merits and Demerits in End User Computing Based Online Incident Reporting Application Made With FileMaker Pro in Comparison With Organized Computing Based Counterpart

Safety management in the medical world has become critical and many trials are reported. Our hospital renewed our safety management system in May 2005, and worked on the safety management using the online incident reporting application (OIRA) that we developed with FileMaker Pro. OIRA made the trouble information available to the hospital staff, and at the same time, we worked on access management to the database that varies record by record. Installation of OIRA was successful and in use without serious system trouble. However, in 2007, we experienced the incident reporting application replacement due to the hospital information system (HIS) replacement. After the installation of the vendor application, several inconveniences were noted. There are always controversies over end user computing (EUC) application use in the medical scene, while organized computing (OC) application is also provided by vendors that might meet the business needs. After experiencing both environments, we concluded that both EUC and OC have merits and demerits. It seems that if the speed of development, usability and flexibility of EUC are provided with a stable developing and supporting environment of OC, the computing will provide an even greater benefit.

Keywords: FileMaker Pro, incident report, end user computing, organized computing, merit, demerit, safety management, online incident reporting application, access management, record access management, on-screen help, usability, adaptability, maintenance.