CAIRS Narrative Searches

The narrative searching capability on the new CAIRS is presently limited in scope. The Relational Database Management System used for the new CAIRS does not implement narrative searches in the same manner as that used on the old CAIRS. In order to achieve acceptable extended narrative search performance, implementation of a third party query or indexing tool will be necessary. Instead of holding up the release of CAIRS for this one feature, the decision was made to release the system with this limited narrative capability and provide the expanded capability as a future enhancement. In the meantime, please note that the new CAIRS contains extensive new search capabilities that are based on coded fields that are derived from the narrative information. These searches can effectively achieve much of the functionality that previously required the use of narrative searches.

Narrative search selections are formed by typing the desired search word into the edit box. When creating a narrative search, the following conventions apply.

1. Narrative searches can consist of single words only.

2. The word must be enclosed in double quotes.

3. A narrative search for "hammer" will recover "jackhammer," "waterhammer," "hammer," "hammers," "hammered," etc. To search for an absolute word, put a space before and after the word (i.e., " hammer ").

In order to ensure correct search results, be sure to use the double quotes. If you do not put the quotation marks around the search word, CAIRS interprets the search as looking for those records which contain only a single word, which matches the search word, in an entire narrative field. Therefore, the search may actually retrieve a small number of records, and it may not be obvious from the search results that you entered your search incorrectly.

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