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multiple practitioners and networking for differnet locations

We use Clinic Essentials (only available in Canada) and I am looking for something better and more cost effective. We pay over $350/month which I know is too much for scheduling software.

I do not have any recommendations but will share way i am looking for so any of you have advice please share.

-Multiple practitioners
-Multiple locations
-able to be networked
-scheduling and billing
-Different billing codes fro different treatments and product sales
-user friendly
-Cost less than $1500/ year (if updates are needed). Remember I am paying more than that for my two locations.

It does not need to be an accounting software. To be frank I would be skeptical as it is hard to have one that is great at both scheduling and billing as well as the accounting function.

What I see out there in the TCM world is software that helps you with TCM diagnosis and treatment. This does not interest me personally. My need lies in the points above. The software i use now is fairly good. It is not easy for reception to master however and it way over priced for what i use it for. So love to hear some suggestions.

Software

We use AcuBase by Trigram. The recent upgrades are much better then the old version. You can schedule several practioners and even rooms, it has many different reports and HCFA setting/printing made EASY or electronic billing. I don;t like how the scheudle shows up like lines across the screen instead of coloumns down the screen which would make each practioners schedule easier to view when there are mutliple practitioners. You can view one practitioner's schedule at a time though, but sometimes I need to see all and it takes a while to get used to how it is set up for that. You can easily set up repeating appointments for patients. It also handles inventory! I believe thier website will let yiu download a version to try out for like 30 days. Tech support is helpful and kind. If you are having a problem you can link with them online so they can see your screen and help out. They are very interested in how to improve thier software and come out with free updates regularly. we wait to dwonload these because sometimes they have bugs that need to be worked out sowe watit ot make sure everything is ok by asking tech support before we try it. There is a new cost program, I forget the intial cost then something like $250/year.

We used another program once that cost us $800 to buy and had free tech support out of California. The owner/tech support/acupuncturist with his own practice treated my staff awefully during the training and in subsequent tech support programs. We could not get our money back so I just stopped using it :( But it was just an aweful experience.

I hear that Ginko is also good but I have no experience with it and do not know if it good for multipractioner practices.

Sorry if there were mispellings and grammer errors i have a patient on the table...gotta run.

Be Well,
Juliette Aiyana
http://www.amazinghealing.com

Acubase

We use acubase pro because it used to be the only thing around and it works pretty well. I use the pro version, released in 2003 and it does not support exporting files. I understand that the new version does support this. (While you cannot export into excel, you can print labels to do mailings to your patients). I use it only for payments, I do my scheduling on Outlook so I can sync it with my palm and schedule patients when I am not in my clinic.

It is a little clunky, but it does what I need. I may upgrade soon to the new version. I am afraid that I will be stuck with Trigram forever, because I never want to re-enter all my patient data.

Jason Bussell
President - Illinois Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine

Program

We use Global Office from Great White North in Winnipeg. I have a large Massage Therapy clinic and it seems to work alright. It is web-based, so there are no problems with data loss if one of my computers goes down at the clinic. They are constantly adding things to it (for better of for worse). They have an inventory area of the program but I have not used it yet. The scheduling is good, the reports need to be added to, but they add them slowly as we ask for them.

I am a little frustrated with the program as I would really like online scheduling which has been in development for over a year.

It is $360.00 per license per year and there is a training fee which I forget how much.

There is multiple practitioner scheduling, which is viewable by practitioner, by room, by day, week and month. The scheduling is slow because it is web based and there is a lot of automatic refreshing done by the program.

If you have questions about it after looking at it on the net, contact me.

Paul

Possible Software

Hey everyone.

Thank you for your sharing!

Ginko's software does not allow more than one user on at the same time. At that point, I stopped investigating.

I am in talks to try demos of Acubase pro and Global Office.

So far I can say about both that their support system seems to be very efficient. They both replied to me (one actually called me!) within about an hour of my query, which I would say is very good. I will report my findings to all of you hopefully tomorrow.

We are still interested in anyone else's software info. good and bad for us to try out.

Thanks again everyone!

Melissa
www.acubalance.ca

Canadian Customers

Hello,

I am just wondering if your software changes at all for Canadian customers? For example state becomes Province. Or any other things. I am currently trying the demo and am finding a few things that could be customized for your Canadian clilents.

I appreciate your joining us for our discussion.

Melissa

Taoclinic Pro

Hello everyone.

My name is Yoav Berchik and I'm the CEO of Taomedic Ltd, the developer of Taoclinic Pro. I've received an email from Dr. Pentland inviting me to this forum. I've read the various posts in this thread and would like to add few words (and thank you for the kind comments about our product…)

As much as I can understand from the posts above, Taoclinic Pro is not the right tool for you and was built with different aims in mind. We concentrated on the patient's treatments and sessions handling, and created the best product we can for those purposes, with advanced technology for handling the patients' sessions, soap, medical questionnaire, medical database, diagnostic wizards, formula etc etc. We did also add various tools, one of which is the appointment calendar but it was not our goal to maximize its abilities.

Taoclinic is able to handle hundreds of practitioners simultaneously (and includes Canadian provinces) but is not a network (client/server) product. It cost a onetime payment of $399 no monthly/yearly fees. In case you would like to test it we will be happy to provide a demo. Just contact our sales at: sales@taomedic.com

As I see it there is a need for good scheduling software (from this thread and others), and since I personally would like our company to develop a full-scale scheduling product it might be a good time to have some serious thinking about it.

What I would like to suggest is for all those of you who are interested, to provide a wish-list of needed options, what such a product should provide in general, and/or specific features you would like to have.

I thinks this can be divided into three levels - features you do have in your current product and are very happy with, features you do have but are unsatisfied with - those you feel are incomplete, and features you really think are necessary but are missing from your current product/system.

I will have our entire staff gather and give it a *very* serious examination. At worst, we all lose little time (but will probably get more focused on our needs), and at best we might end up with a new first-rate billing-scheduling product. You can contact me directly on this matter at:
berchik@taomedic.com

Good luck in whatever choice you make,
Yoav.

TCM Pro

Hey ya'll,
I just purchased TCM Pro a few months ago (choosing it over Acubase because of their annual fee) and am really happy with it. I am a bit new to computers and was quit intimidated to learn a new program. They offer free support and the support is EXCELLENT. I have never had to wait for support and it has always been very kind, very helpful and patient. That has been very valuable to me. Also, I was able to make payments on the purchase which was very helpful. The program might not be as pretty as others but functionally- so far so good.
Cheers!

Outsourced scheduling

Webdoktor,

One idea that a lot of practitioners may want to consider is outsourcing their scheduling.

PatLive.com is a company I've used (but not for this scheduling feature), and they're very good. They're also much, much cheaper than a receptionist. If your scheduling system is web based and relatively simple, you can have an 800 number where people can call 24 hours a day to make appointments. The 800 number is answered by a live operator using a prewritten script that YOU wrote.

A cheaper option is to have it go to a menu system (e.g. "Hi, this is the XXXX clinic. If you would like to make an appointment, please press 1 for a live person. If you have treatment questions, please press 2 to leave a voice mail with your name, phone number and question, and we'll call you back.")

You could also have a mix, and when your receptionist isn't available, forward your calls to the 800 number.

You'd have to work out some instructions for initial consultations vs. follow-up treatments (meeting with one patient vs. treating several) but it's entirely doable. If I were running a software company, and had web scheduling available, I'd definitely talk to Pat Live about making it work with my system. I'd also try to get a special discount for people who choose this option. That's just me though.

Mac compatible

Hi,

I emailed your company several times to get an answer concerning if your software is Mac compatible. Could you or anyone please answer this... Thank you.

Clayton

Like the update

This looks like a great product. Please let me know directly when it is ready.

The software we use (available only in Canada) is OK, not the most user friendly but priced too high for how we use it. It does have some interesting beels and whistles. Check them out for some ideas http://www.clinicessentials.com/

Lorne
www.acubalance.ca
www.prodseminars.com

Demos

I concur re the demo process. With such mission-critical software, it´s essential to be sure you are comfortable with your investment. When people ask us how we´re different from ClientTracker, TaoMedic, TCM Windows, etc., our answer is always to download as many demos as possible, call for support, ask about frequency of updates, etc., and see how it all works out. We´ve sent many customers to our ´competition´with this answer, but 10 years in the biz has taught us that we´d much prefer to have happy customers than to sell to just anyone.

Good luck, y´all.

-Jason de Trigram

PS: I´m writing from a small town in Nicaragua , so I apologize for any issues with characters in this post. Strange keyboards and spotty internet here. But a good place to introduce acupuncture. Lots of Canadians here as well! If you need to get out of the rat race and practice in an environment of appreciation and respect, come on down...

multiple practitioners and networking for differnet locations

We use Clinic Essentials (only available in Canada) and I am looking for something better and more cost effective. We pay over $350/month which I know is too much for scheduling software.

I do not have any recommendations but will share way i am looking for so any of you have advice please share.

-Multiple practitioners

-Multiple locations

-able to be networked

-scheduling and billing

-Different billing codes fro different treatments and product sales

-user friendly

-Cost less than $1500/ year (if updates are needed). Remember I am paying more than that for my two locations.

It does not need to be an accounting software. To be frank I would be skeptical as it is hard to have one that is great at both scheduling and billing as well as the accounting function.

What I see out there in the TCM world is software that helps you with TCM diagnosis and treatment. This does not interest me personally. My need lies in the points above. The software i use now is fairly good. It is not easy for reception to master however and it way over priced for what i use it for. So love to hear some suggestions.

Free software

http://www.oemr.org/ is supposed to be decent, but the technical requirements may be a problem. I'm personally looking for a web based system just for scheduling. Patient records would be a bonus but not mandatory.

I haven't checked out these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open_source_healthcare_... but they look promising.

Free Scheduling Software

Hey Burton, if you don't care about other features and you just want online scheduling, why not use Google Calendar? Even though I use AcuBase, I also put my calendar online via Google and share it only with my office people so they can check in remotely and make reminder calls, etc.

-Jason

online scheduling software

www.mindbodyonline.com

We are about to move from our current scheduling software to mind body software online. We will use the reports generated and put them into quick books for accounting.

Anyone using this software? Any feedback?

Google Apps

Thanks for starting this thread and thanks to Burton for listing some software to test out.

I personally use Google Apps email and calendar/scheduling in our office (3 people) and it's been working great for our uses so far. The system is quite self-explanatory, although it may require more computer experience to set up than a typical computer user might have.

It would be nice to have an online scheduling option, though. And, if our practice involved more than one location, I'm not sure how well it would work. Google has recently added the ability to specify rooms with their calendar function, so it may not be an issue. I'm curious to check out Burton's previous suggestions and compare...

The big difficulty I see, and what's been mentioned before, is how to effectively combine the scheduling part with the accounting/business tracking part. I personally feel that Quick Books is overkill for an acupuncture/holistic healthcare practice. On the other hand, Quick Books doesn't have the ability to create useful billing forms without some major customizing/headaches. But, it's the best thing available that an accountant (in the States, at least) can work with. I've searched out OpenSource equivalents to Quick Books, but the headache in transferring data would kill me, and no accountant I know of uses any of them.

I have been putting off looking into Ginkgo's software, so I think I'll check it out and see what progress has been made since I last tried it. It may have progressed to a point where it's worthwhile.

Any updates to what other people have found useful since Burton's last post would be greatly appreciated!

GNUmed

I use GNUmed. It is Free software and build by the doctors who actually use it. Everybody is encouraged to help create and improve it. I think it really is in the spirit of the long history of Chinese Medicine, in which time and time again techniques and theories have been refined by many people. It is free of charge as well, and truly multi-platform, for Linux, Windows and Mac.

What is GNUmed?

GnuMed is a group of practising doctors, programmers and free software enthusiasts from around the world, committed to provide a superior, free software solution for community practice. Using tried-and-true technology, GNUmed software will start out having record-keeping, but will eventually cover all aspects of medical practice, and will interface well with third-party software. Technically speaking, it tries to do things "cleanly", but takes a pragmatic rather than purist approach. Currently, GNUmed's data is accessed via business objects implemented in Python which provide and govern direct access to the PostgreSQL RDBMS, but GNUmed will also be able access various types of data stores such as other RDBMS or LDAP.

GNUmed cleanly separates the medical aspects (record keeping) from the administrative aspects (billing, storage) of a medical practice. Thereby it allows GNUmed to be internationalized to different jurisdictions.

Who is GNUmed for?

GNUmed is suitable for any health care provider interested in keeping a sound and comprehensive medical record. It is currently in use with GPs and physical therapists. GNUmed safely operates on networks of a few to many users, and supports secure, remote access. It does also operate on a single computer, which makes it possible to initially examine the software, and may suit doctors or nurse clinicians serving rural or disadvantaged areas with limited infrastructure.

Clinic billing software

I've been in practice 20 years and have used several billing software programs, inlcuding Lytec and Raintree. We have been using Quixote now for 4 years and love it. Orginally designed with chiropractors in mind, but very adaptable to our medicine. We are a multi-specialty clinic with two LAc's. Quixote manages all our SOAP notes, scheduling, billing, insurance tracers, etc for all providers. We are truly paperless now. check it out at www.quixotesoftware.net

Office Ally Practice Management Software

For people who bill insurance: I have been using Office Ally's free Practice Management Software (Practice Mate) for a few years. (officeally.com) They're a web-based insurance billing clearinghouse in the US. They offer free start-up and support. You can manage patient scheduling, payments and all phases of insurance billing online. You can export data to excel or pdf files. If you want to use your own Practice Management Software, you can simply upload your data for processing claims. Overall, Practice Mate has worked really well for me. When I switched from Acubase a few years ago (when Trigram raised their prices significantly), I was relieved to find Office Ally's software so complete and easy to use.

On the down side:

It's not a reference for CM-specific information. I don't think it has much of an inventory capability.

Creating "superbills" or just statements for patients is adequate but not great. It would work better to export the data to a program that creates a clearer statement.

Another thing that does not work well with Practice Mate is when I've received payments for awhile from a patient and then have to amend those records. It happens when the insurance deductible is met or insurance pays a different amount than expected, for instance. I have to create a separate spreadsheet to tease apart all the payments and credits. There must be an easier way! Probably an accounting program would work well but I don't know which one or how it would interface with Practice Mate. I've thought of Quickbooks for a long time for the business side of my practice but don't know how it would work for patients' accounts.

Great discussion! Thanks everyone!