Orientation (Informatics)
Prerequisites
1. It is highly recommended the following activities are completed prior to this activity:
• Query – Basic Orientation (Informatics)
Student instructions
1. If you have questions about this activity, please contact your instructor for assistance.
2. You will use the EHR Go queries tool to complete this activity. Your
instructor has provided you with a link to the Query – Advanced
Orientation activity. Click on 2: Launch EHR to launch the queries tool and
begin this activity.
3. You’ve been granted access to certain data in the EHR to complete this
activity. The approved data has already been linked to the queries tool in
the EHR.
4. Document your answers directly on this activity document as you complete the
activity. When you are finished, you will save this activity document to your
device and upload this activity document with your answers to your Learning
Management System (LMS).
Introduction
The previous activity, Query - Basic Orientation, explored the fundamental concepts of
querying data. Queries with a single logical operator (i.e. AND) were used to determine
the number of Cesarean births. However, in many cases, queries need to use both AND
and OR logical operators. For example, how many Cesarean births occurred in high risk
patients OR in patients age 35 and older?
Visually, this query may be depicted like this:
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, Or written out, it may look something like this:
‘Birth outcome = Cesarean’ AND (‘Risk = High’ OR ‘Age at Time of Birth >= 35’)
The parentheses indicate the order it should be executed otherwise it may result in a
different answer. This is just like the order of operations in math!
In EHR Go, the group function is used to create a query with both logical operators. Any
time a query requires both an AND logical operator and an OR logical operator, the
group function is required. Important! In the EHR Go query tool, the group function,
when needed, must be added as the first step when building the query.
By adding a group, the AND logical operator can be used for one set of rules and the
OR logical operator can be used for another set of rules. This is also referred to as a nested
query. The image below shows how the group function would be used to build the
example query.
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