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On occasion you will have a record in your database that you would just as soon delete. (Perhaps it is someone who is deceased; or perhaps it is a duplicate record.) Some software programs will not let you delete a record if history is attached to it (payment records, for example). If this is the case, there are ways you can alter the undesired records so they at least cluster when doing sorts by last name. By modifying the Last Name field to a pre-established name of your choice, the records can fall either at the BEGINNING of an alpha-by-last-name sort or at the END of an alpha-by-last-name sort. For example, for each record that you would like to delete, you can change the person's last name to ***DUPE--DO NOT USE****, in which case all records with that last name would fall at the beginning of an alpha sort by last name. Or for each record that you would like to delete, you can change the person's last name to ZZ999, in which case the records would fall at the end of an alpha sort by Last Name.
The advantage to having the names fall at the BEGINNING of a sort? It is easily seen if you import data files into Excel and sort by last name using Excel's default. The disadvantage? If your software allows you to do lookups by last name, and the records at the beginning of the sort file get displayed on the user's screen, the ***DUPE--DO NOT USE*** records fall at the beginning of the sort list. Depending on the level of training your database users have, this may cause confusion amongst staff in your organization.
The advantages and disadvantages of having such records fall at the END of the sort are the same, only in reverse: The disadvantage is that the records might be missed if imported into Excel and sorted by last name. The advantage, though, is that when doing a lookup by last name, on screens the undesired records would fall at the end of the sort list and therefore would not be seen by the user. Not seeing undesired records in lookups might be a plus, depending on the level of training your staff has had re your database. This tip was contributed by Marcia Hendershot, Director of Membership, American College of Radiology. .
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