Archive Process

The Fred Dispense Archive System is used to reduce the size of the script database by moving older scripts to an aged scripts database. Aged scripts can still be accessed for viewing and report printing purposes, but can no longer be edited. The archive system allows for scripts older than seven years to be deleted permanently.

Patients who have had no scripts in the last seven years can also be removed, depending on the amount of data that needs to be archived in your Fred Dispense software.

The archive process may take between 10 minutes up to 90 minutes to complete. It should be performed outside business hours.
If you would like a Fred Help Consultant to perform this for you outside of regular business hours (M-F 8:30am-5:00pm), a service charge will apply. Contact Fred Help on 1300 731 888 for more details and to book in your appointment.

In this topic:

Starting the Fred Dispense Archive System

Fred Dispense Archive System at a Glance

Script Aging and Script Removal

Patient Removal Process

Starting the Fred Dispense Archive System

Before running the Archive process

  • Close all computers running Fred Dispense and Fred Connect.
  • Perform a backup prior to running the Fred Dispense Archive Process.

To assist with data recovery, you must backup the entire Fredhealth folder on the main computer before proceeding.

Best practice

  • Perform the Fred Dispense Archive Process outside of business hours.
  • Perform the steps in the following order:
    1. Script Aging Process.
    2. Script Removal Process.
    3. Patient Removal Process.

Start the Fred Dispense Archive System

The Archive process can only run from the Main computer (that is, the PC/DRIVE that your Dispense Data is stored on), not just “your” desktop.

If the main computer is not accessible (for example, on a rental server), navigate to the location via the network.

  • From the main computer:

    1. From the bottom menu bar open File Explorer.

    2. Navigate to This PC > Local Disk (C:) and double-click to open the FredHealth folder, and then the Fred folder.

― OR ―

  • If the main computer is accessed via the network:
    1. On any terminal, near the bottom-left on the menu bar, in the Type here to search box, enter the path to the main computer (for example: \\<maincomputername>).
    2. Double-click the \fredhealth folder, then double-click the \fred folder.

    3. Re-check that Fred Dispense is closed on ALL computers and double-click to run Fredarchive9.exe.

    4. At the prompt, enter YES to start the archive.

Fred Dispense Archive System at a Glance

Refer to the information below the image for a description of each button or panel on the Fred Dispense Archive System screen.

  1. Script Aging Process This process moves any scripts older than 12 months to an “aged script” database. The number of months exempt from aging can be increased to a maximum of 99 months. The aged scripts can still be accessed for reporting purposes, but cannot be edited or changed in any way.
  2. Script Removal Process This process permanently deletes any script in the aged script database older than seven years. You can increase or decrease the number of years to be exempt from removal up to a maximum of 10 years.
  3. Patient Removal Process This process permanently deletes patients who have no script records in the script or aged script database – essentially, any patient who has not had a script dispensed in the last seven years. The last 1000 patients added to Fred Dispense will be excluded from this process. The number of patients to be excluded can be increased up to a maximum of 10000 patients.
  4. View Archive/Aging Log View the date range of the Archived Scripts Database.
  5. Main Rx File Displays the number of months of scripts exist in the current script database
  6. Aged RX File Displays the number of months of scripts exist in the aged script database.
  7. Patients Displays the amount of patients that exist in the patient database.
  8. Disk Space Displays the disk space available on the drive of the Fred Dispense Server.

Script Aging and Script Removal

Script Aging Process

  1. From the Fred Dispense Archive System screen, select Script Aging Process.

  2. At the confirmation message, click Yes.

    Fred Dispense begins moving aged scripts to the aged scripts database.

  3. When the process is complete, click OK.

Script Removal Process

  1. From the Fred Dispense Archive System screen, select Script Removal Tool.

  2. At the confirmation message, click Yes.

    Fred Dispense begins removing scripts older than 7 years from the Aged Scripts database.

  3. When the process is complete, click OK.

    For the purpose of these instructions, the image above displays 3 years.

Access Aged Script

  • From the Reports menu, select Aged Scripts, then Show Scripts.

Patient Removal Process

The Patient Removal process removes patients who do not have script records in the script database or the aged scripts database. The last 1000 patients added to Fred Dispense are excluded from this process.

For best results, run the Script Aging process and Script Removal (>7 years) process before performing the Patient Removal process.

To run the Patient Removal Process:

Before running this process, ensure that you have completed a backup of the Fred Dispense data and closed all Fred Dispense-related programs such as Fred Pak, etc

  1. From the Fred Dispense Archive System screen, select Patient Removal Process.

    Fred Dispense displays a confirmation message.

  2. Enter YES to confirm.

  3. In the next confirmation message, click Yes.

    Fred Dispense first backs up the patient database, then removes unused patients from the Patient database. When the Patient Removal Process is complete, the Unused Patient Removal report is displayed.

    Click the thumbnail below to see a larger image.

Print the Report

  • Click the Printer icon at the top of the report to print it.

This report may be quite long and could print to a number of pages.

Access the Patient Removal report

  • From the File menu, choose View Last Unused Patient Removal report .