what data structure to use

[eluser]rangana[/eluser]
Hi guys,

I'm doing a patient registration system to a hospital, here we have 1st time visits and 2nd time visits, 1st time visits is put to 2nd time category after doctor checks them and tell them to revisit, so until they are put to 2nd time visit table i need to keep 1st time visits in a temporary place to add them to the permanent table, if the patients are not visiting 2nd time they are discarded and not put to the table.

so i need to keep them in a temporary place while doctor checks them and tell the system that they are revisiting patients, what kind of data type, or methodology is suitable for this? or is it suitable to put another table as 1st time visits , 1st enter data to it and then after doctor checks and confirms they are revisiting remove them form 1st time table and put them to the permanent table?
(there are approximately 1500 patients visiting the hospital, and about 800-900 are new patients )

regards,
Rangana

[eluser]pbreit[/eluser]
I'd suggest one table with a status column. I don't see the need to move patients or visits to different tables.

[eluser]frist44[/eluser]
[quote author="pbreit" date="1281397981"]I'd suggest one table with a status column. I don't see the need to move patients or visits to different tables.[/quote]

Agreed. This will keep the table normalized.

Alternatively, you could have a visits table that references the patients table. You could check the visits table for each user and then do something based on how many records were found.