5 ms·

We had a patient with a single letter as surname. Didn't go well with our patient web portal. She'll probably never be able to see her MRIs online since devel

We had a patient with a single letter as surname. Didn't go well with our patient web portal. She'll probably never be able to see her MRIs online since development is slow, and it seems to be an edge case.

caseyohara 2y ago
Why would the length of the surname matter?
- tiltowait 2y ago
  At a guess, the system mandates a minimum length.
  - dylan604 2y ago
    O-muhgawdthisisstupid would be my next attempt
    - quantified 2y ago
      Well, challenge question "secret answers" also have similar stupids. Mandating five-letter answers mean that first pet Fido, favorite teacher Zak, honeymoon destination Fiji, etc all cannot be used. Though honest answers to those questions are the worst idea.
throwway120385 2y ago
This is a really good example of how limits on name fields are entirely arbitrary.
not2b 2y ago
Is the name "O"? That's a common Korean surname, though many Korean Americans spell it "Oh" to avoid the problems computers and bureaucrats have with it.
- juliendorra 2y ago
  We had a minister of digital affairs in France who is named O (Cédric O, early investor in Mistral too)
julian_t 2y ago
I have several Indian coworkers who have a single name. Our company systems insist on first and last names, so they either end up with '.' as a last name, or the same name twice.
- the_real_cher 2y ago
  would just make one up at that point.
  - aaplok 2y ago
    This works until someone asks you to produce identity documents matching the computer records. I've seen people put a single period (".") instead of a last name.
briffle 2y ago
first real job was at a 2-year rural college. We had 2 systems, one for students, one for staff. Sometimes people would forget to properly reference the 'other' account when a teacher took a class, or a student taught a community education class, etc. We were in the process of consolidating into a single DB, and didn't want a bunch of duplicates. We had a person Leslie that kept getting duplicated in the systems. Same address same age, same birthdate. Only difference was different gender, and last 2 digits of social was 21 instead of 12. So our dba deleted one, and linked them. Month later, same thing. So our DBA fixed it. Shaking his head at the people up front not following data entry procedures. Next week, both Leslie's were in our office. They were born on same day, but hospitals in nearby towns. Back then socials were handed out sequentially by region. They had different last names until they married 40 years before. They were laughing and said this happens more often then most people would think.
OptionOfT 2y ago
I lived in a 2 letter town. For the longest time I couldn't order stuff off of websites as they required a 3 letter city. Ah-well, I saved some money because of this.

caseyohara 2y ago

Why would the length of the surname matter?

tiltowait 2y ago
At a guess, the system mandates a minimum length.
- dylan604 2y ago
  O-muhgawdthisisstupid would be my next attempt
  - quantified 2y ago
    Well, challenge question "secret answers" also have similar stupids. Mandating five-letter answers mean that first pet Fido, favorite teacher Zak, honeymoon destination Fiji, etc all cannot be used. Though honest answers to those questions are the worst idea.

throwway120385 2y ago

This is a really good example of how limits on name fields are entirely arbitrary.

not2b 2y ago

Is the name "O"? That's a common Korean surname, though many Korean Americans spell it "Oh" to avoid the problems computers and bureaucrats have with it.

juliendorra 2y ago
We had a minister of digital affairs in France who is named O (Cédric O, early investor in Mistral too)

julian_t 2y ago

I have several Indian coworkers who have a single name. Our company systems insist on first and last names, so they either end up with '.' as a last name, or the same name twice.

the_real_cher 2y ago
would just make one up at that point.
- aaplok 2y ago
  This works until someone asks you to produce identity documents matching the computer records. I've seen people put a single period (".") instead of a last name.

briffle 2y ago

first real job was at a 2-year rural college. We had 2 systems, one for students, one for staff. Sometimes people would forget to properly reference the 'other' account when a teacher took a class, or a student taught a community education class, etc. We were in the process of consolidating into a single DB, and didn't want a bunch of duplicates. We had a person Leslie that kept getting duplicated in the systems. Same address same age, same birthdate. Only difference was different gender, and last 2 digits of social was 21 instead of 12. So our dba deleted one, and linked them. Month later, same thing. So our DBA fixed it. Shaking his head at the people up front not following data entry procedures. Next week, both Leslie's were in our office. They were born on same day, but hospitals in nearby towns. Back then socials were handed out sequentially by region. They had different last names until they married 40 years before. They were laughing and said this happens more often then most people would think.

OptionOfT 2y ago

I lived in a 2 letter town. For the longest time I couldn't order stuff off of websites as they required a 3 letter city. Ah-well, I saved some money because of this.