Paperless Office

[VVC]

We are looking to open a new office and want to consider going paperless. Is there a system out there that everyone is happy with. We are looking to open up in a month and a half and would like to start it in our existing office first.

:cheers:

[For-Life]

Just a warning, there is no system out there that is completely paperless. We use the computer for our accounts, bookings, sales, inventory, and everything and we still have a lot of paper.

[chip anderson]

If you start out that way, as opposed to trying to catch up on an old paper system and back-up every day plus have some way of operating with paper when the computer goes down (they all do) you will probably be O.K.

But of course you must personally be able to operate the computer and the system, as even key employees quit, get sick, or whatever. Plus it's nice to be able to have some idea about what is going on and what the help is doing.

Chip

[VVC]

OK but who do you recomend

OK ... but which software do you recomend?

[rbaker]

You will find everything you need in Microsoft Office Small Business Edition. With Office and a little bit of talent you can do anything.

[RGC_man]

I remember promises of a paperless opticians when computers were being introduced. Now it seems you cannot sneeze without a piece of A4 being printed to record the fact.

[shellrob]

We use maximeyes.

[For-Life]

We uses EZ-Frame for our sales, Quick Books for our accounting, and Access for our appointments.

I am happy with Quick Books and Access, not really ecstatic about EZ-Frame. It is bulky, slow, sometimes difficult to keep up to date. The biggest problem these programs do is their hire some smart punk who thinks he or she knows everything about computers, and then instead of making the program easy, fast, useful, and ideal, they make it fancy, slow, big, and difficult to uses.

I remember the old Dos type program, that is the way all of these programs should look. I recently bought a laptop from Future Shop, and the fancy computer store did not have a fancy computer program. Instead it had a practical computer program to ring up the sale.

[rsandr]

We are looking to open a new office and want to consider going paperless. Is there a system out there that everyone is happy with. We are looking to open up in a month and a half and would like to start it in our existing office first.

:cheers:

Paperless sounds great on paper!:D
Pun intended.

But you could easily be in trouble if the computer crashes with irrecoverable data.

[For-Life]

Paperless sounds great on paper!:D
Pun intended.

But you could easily be in trouble if the computer crashes with irrecoverable data.

Well we have had computers since 1989. Have not had a problem like that; however, we back up daily.

[Audiyoda]

I could go on and on about CompuLink's Eycare Advantage - suffice it to say I don't like it.

[Framebender]

Marchon just bought it. . .

but we like RLI although we don't use the paperless feature. I agree with cjcarlen about Compulink. We tried it and it was a nightmare.

Good luck to you!!

[mlm]

VVC,

Just how far do you intend to go with a paperless system? Are you going to record your clinical notes on computer as well?

I ask because my initial experience with a paperless system was disastrous. We set everything up with the program vendor. The developer hmself come to Vancouver to train all the staff and set up our backup system. A couple of months later, our network crashed and all data was lost. The backup was totally useless, even though we followed his instructions daily. The company insisted it was our fault and we insisted it was their fault. They provided no help whatsoever, and all we could do was reconstruct the clinical data as best we could.

As well, for the first 2 years of using a paperless system, some of the staff were so uncomfortable with the idea of scheduling on the computer that there was a schedule book and the computer schedule going at the same time. I thought it was ridiculous; twice the work and twice the likelihood of double-booking by accident.

Other things to consider:
- Does the program and your equipment give you the flexibility to draw clinical findings?
- What will you do with reports coming in from GPs or OMDs? Ideally, your program will have a feature to scan those documents in.
- Do all your staff have enough basic computer knowledge to learn the system?
- What will you do if you do have a system crash? (Tip: Test your backup frequently to make sure it really works.)
- What kind of technical support will you get from the program vendor?
- Do you have a reliable computer technician locally to manage your hardware?
- From what I understand about HIPAA, if you have internet access at any computer in your network, you'll have to take precautions to make sure your data is secure.

I'm sure you've thought about these already. Just from an optometric assistant's view ... paperless seems like a great idea, but all of the glitches and problems and crashes will fall on the assistant to deal with. All the ODs I've worked for don't want to deal with computer issues. If something doesn't work, they don't care how it gets fixed as long as it's fixed. I'm not saying this is a bad thing (I figure it's part of being an assistant). I'm just saying be aware of what will happen.

My 2 cents (or I guess that's 2.25 Cdn. cents)
Myra

[rsandr]

Well we have had computers since 1989. Have not had a problem like that; however, we back up daily.

What do you back up onto, some type of 100% fail safe media?

[efsamuel]

We use My Vision Express. It is newer but the guy will work with you to get a system set up just how you want. There are draw and scan features as well. There is a learning curve to anything but the biggest thing is to make sure the employees are comfortable with it or it will not work.