Integrating PDF Forms and Access Databases

Hi there. I am currently contracting for a PI company that does medical background investigations. For quite some time they have been using triplicate paper forms to report and file the results of the investigations they perform. The business process they use is horribly inefficient, and goes something like this:

One of their clients sends a FAX containing the data the investigator needs to complete the investigation (i.e. Name / Address / Location(s) to Search / Dates to Search / etc.). Next, a clerk takes this FAX and enters the data into an Access database. This same clerk then uses a typewriter to transcribe the search parameters onto the top of the aforementioned triplicate form. The form is then handed over to the investigator who completes the search and logs the results into the bottom half of the triplicate form, by hand. The form is then handed back to the clerk who enters the cost of the investigation into the Access database and marks it as completed. Bi-monthly, a secretary runs a billing report based on data in the Access database. It is then printed and bound together with the completed triplicate forms. The binder is then mailed to their client.

Well, their client recently asked them to eliminate all the paper and send the documents in PDF format. The short term solution I have had to employ is to scan all the forms, then use Acrobat to combine the scanned forms and the billing report. I then attach them to a custom security envelope and send it over to the client. What I am working on now is eliminating the paper form altogether and restructuring the entire process to be more efficient.

I figured that the first thing I should do was recreate the form in PDF format. Instead of scanning it into Acrobat and adding the form fields, I decided to use Designer to recreate the form from scratch. I want their client to be able to use the top half of the form to enter the data they normally FAX over to us (the section containing the search information). After I finished creating the form in Designer I used Acrobat to enable usage rights in Adobe Reader.

One of the things I am now debating is how best to offer the form to their client for the initial data entry. I suppose I could post the blank form to our website - they could navigate to the form, enter the search info in the upper section, then click the email button above the form to send it to the investigator. I could also try to use the distribute forms function in Acrobat to email the form to the client, allowing the investigator to take advantage of the forms tracking feature of Acrobat to manage his workload. I have no experience with Acrobat.com, but I have heard that is another option. Any input in this area would be greatly appreciated, but this is not the biggest snag I am encountering.

After the PDF form is filled out, I am still going to have to have the clerk manually enter the data into the Access database for billing and logging. The second page of the old paper triplicate had a place for the investigator to enter the cost of the search, and this cost was logged into the Access database for billing (this is the page we keep for our records; the cost was not present on the form we send to the client). Anyhow, I need to figure out how to dump the data from the completed forms into the Access database, and the more I think about the situation the more I think I got the cart before the horse.

Is there a way to create an Access database from the fields on the PDF form I created, then populate the database with a series of completed PDF forms?

Should I have created a table in Access, then an Access form for data entry, then populated the PDF form with data from the database?

Am I way off the mark on how something like this should be done?

I have no idea how to link the designer PDF form to the Access database. I have never worked with data connections before, and I am not a programmer. Any thoughts, input, directions or ideas on how to best get this done would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for taking the time to help me.