My wife manages a large access center for Vanderbilt Medical Center, and I've been trying to think of something I can put together for her to help her associates at their job.

They use a large 5" notebook with doctors, nurses, clinics, diagnosis, etc. that they flip through anytime someone calls. Her associates each handle well over 100 (sometimes 200) calls per day. I thought of putting everything into a database so they could search through it on an internal website, but there is too many variables they would have to search for (doctors name, diagnosis, nurse, clinic, etc.). It's not feasible to put into a database format, so I was considering building a wiki site for her.

The information updates almost daily, so a wiki would be better than setting up a PHP / SQL interface for her. She would like it to be restricted by login or only to those who should have access. It wouldn't have any HIPPA related stuff, so it doesn't need to be completely locked down. She just doesn't want her people to be able to edit the information, just herself.

Anyone familiar with setting something up? Know a website where I could get started?

Must be free.

 

I have not setup a wiki but here's my 5 minutes of research!

http://www.wikidot.com/
http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_farms

If it was me I'd spend hours comparing software and host it on my server.\


edit: I think this is the one! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialtext
Authentication and they are free up to 50 users.

 

If it can't be hosted on an existing wiki site, it would have to be hosted internally on Vanderbilt's servers. I'd hopefully just do the setup and be able to get them to implement it, or maybe just have my wife get them to implement it. Their IT dept. is severely understaffed, and I don't know how they'll like taking files and uploading them without major review (my guess is not likely)

 

wikis by nature are open source where the user can put on whatever information that they would like. if you wanted to, you could create a group of articles on wikipedia and call it Vanderbuilt internal policies. This would not protect the data from vandalisim, but there is alway reversion to previous changes.

 

^ I doubt wikipedia would allow such articles on its site. I also doubt the company would like their internal policies exposed for all to see.

Almost any company should have a company-wide internal wiki, have her take it up to the techies..

She could also use google docs. She can edit a document whenever she wants, and have it shared with the people who need it (she can give them only "view" access).

 

Google docs is a good alternative.

The major hurdle she has is that her associates' computers are restricted to internet only. They have Office installed, but can't access the hard drive. If they open a document from e-mail, it will open in Office (Excel or Word) but they can't save to their computer or start an Office program without first having access to the file.

They may have access to a network drive, but I'm not 100% certain on that.