August 2006 Newsletter

Summer Maintenance:
Purge, Purge, Purge

By: Technical Support Manger

It's often the little things in life we have a tendency to overlook that can benefit us in the long run. The same holds true for your HARP system. Here are some of those "little things" you can do that will help you reap big benefits by maintaining your system for optimum performance. These simple tasks, detailed below, should be done routinely and, for the most part, should not interfere with your daily operation. In fact, they should enhance it. It may be helpful to create a checklist of maintenance tasks, based on these ideas, so that these simple tasks aren't overlooked.

Purge Old Processing Schedules and Monitor Messages

Purging old data that is no longer needed helps reduce the amount of time it takes for system processing and backups. The Delete Old Data option, located under the Tools menu in the System Monitor, does just that. This function streams a batch job that will delete entries from the System Monitor Schedule and/or the System Monitor Messages. (The System Monitor Messages is referred to as log data since it includes messages, batch job logs, and other information.) Simply enter a date to schedule data, log data, or both. However, the date for scheduling data cannot be within a week of the current date, as at least one week of scheduling data must be kept. Similarly, the date for log data cannot be within one month of the current date, as one month of log data must be kept.

A confirmation query will appear after pressing [Accept F7].

As rule, it is strongly recommended that clients keep about six months worth of scheduling and log data. If a problem occurs, it is helpful to have some history to review.

Purge Old Remittance Data

A memo was sent to our Standalone clients in March about purging old remittance files. As the memo indicated, Quadax only keeps a year to a year and a half of data on our system. In fact, you are required to keep at least a year of remittance data on your system. Since we archive all remittance files on our system, we would be able to restore any file that may have been purged if the need arose.

If you would like to purge some of those old remit files, just complete the request form and fax it to your Technical Service Consultant. You can also call or e-mail your Technical Service Consultant if additional forms are needed.

Purge Old Databases

Some of our clients keep databases they no longer use on their system. For maximum efficiency, databases no longer being used should be purged from the system. Purged databases will not get backed up with the Daily or Total Backup, which will have a significant impact on how long the backup process will take. This will also increase available disc space. Please contact you Technical Support Consultant for proper instructions on how to purge old databases.

Purge Old Data from Active Database

As new demographics, charges, receipts, and adjustments are being added on a daily basis, your databases continue to expand. As the databases grow, the time it takes to run a report, run processing, and store the databases also continues to grow. Running a purge will increase available disc space, decrease processing time (especially when Insurance Review (HAIRS) is run), and decrease the time it takes to store the database for daily backups as well as total backups. The purge system in HARP gives you the option to purge old patient demographics and/or transactions.

There are four job streams in the purge process - PREPURGE, PURGESEL, PURGEJOB, and POSTPRG. Each is submitted by the previous job, and the PREPURGE is submitted from the Purge Selection Screen. The Purge Selection Screen can be accessed from HARP (Main Menu > Account Processing > Purge System) or SYSMON (Main Menu > Account Utilities > Purge System).

It is difficult to predict the resources needed to perform a purge. Processing time depends on the size of the client database and the amount of data being deleted. The general rule is the larger the client database, the longer the purge process. The amount of additional disc space depends on the size of the client database, the amount of data being deleted, the purge percentage parameter, and whether the purge runs with an archive database.

When a purge is run, there are several options available to retrieve purged data, if needed. These options include putting the data to a report or a CD, or archiving it on your systems. For more information, go to "System Operations" in the HARP Documentation, which can be accessed from the ASP Portal at www.quadax.com.