Adding a scheduling component to Access

>Here's the scenario. I'm building an integrated electronic health
>record for maternal/infant outpatient case management for my employer,
>a hospital. We are basing the EHR in Access 2003 (fully expecting to
>move to SQL server after we go live and add users).
>
>One core piece of the database involves the users' need to manage
>schedules from within the EHR. I need an ability to push appointments
>from Access to Outlook 2003/Exchange, and to read those appointments
>back for reporting.
>
>Obviously, simply linking tables is not a robust solution.
>
>I'm wondering, in broad terms, what you good people recommend.
>
>I'm not absolutely beholden to Outlook if there is a different
>schedule-management solution that might be more appropriate.

On 10 Nov 2006 13:10:41 -0800, "Jason Gillikin"
<gillikin.jason@gmail.comwrote:
>
Outlook can display the schedule for you, but it will not manage it -
that's up to your app to do.
I like apps that integrate tightly with Outlook. WithEvents can be
very powerful. Unfortunately the Outlook event model is somewhat
uneven; I think better in O2003 than before.
Managing schedules can be done efficiently in MsProject.
>
-Tom.
>
>

Thanks, Tom. I'm wondering what people think about the most
appropriate and user-friendly model for adding a relatively robust
schedule-management function to an Access database might entail. Do it
all internally, with tables? Or integrate to some degree with
Exchange/Outlook? Or find a groupware solution?

The answer depends entirely on your audience:
>
If everyone who will be using the app is guaranteed to have
Outlook, then why not use the power and features already there?
There are several sites with information on Outlook and Access,
such as:
>
http://www.outlookcode.com/d/index.htm
>
If even one user may NOT have Outlook, then don't attempt to use
it.