PCAG had originally hoped that practices would use Winzip to pack all the Miquest audit response files into one file to email to PCAG as an attachment for analysis. This has not really taken off despite the obvious advantages of not having to snail-mail us a floppy disc with the files on instead. This is probably down to lack of experience with Winzip and the cost of licenses.
So we have come up with a Word Macro in the file "Packtosend" (available to download above) which will do the job for you without having to use Winzip. To use it you have to have Word 97 or later, be able to open a Word document and hit a button on a dialogue box. The Macro takes the response files off the floppy, packs them into one file and checks youre not trying to send us Recall or Housekeeping results by mistake (to protect patient confidentiality). Then it shrinks the file down (to make mailing it quicker), saves it on your hard drive in C:\PCAG\Filestosend and tells you its name. You are then offered the option of emailing it there & then. This uses Word/Outlook integration to create an email with your newly created file already attached. You only need to select the PCAG address off your address book (or enter [email protected] manually) and hit send. When we get the file well analyse your results and send them back in the usual Excel spreadsheet.
This handy piece of kit is here as a self-extracting file that will create the directories you need on your hard drive when you unzip it and automatically open Packtosend from C:\PCAG ready for you to send your first results. So have your floppy with your audit response files ready! Remember to unzip it to the computer you usually use for email & handling housekeeping/recall data so all your PCAG files end up in one place. When you need to send us another lot of audit results just open Packtosend and you are off.