Small office Practice Management software

[William Walker]

What are the small private offices out there using these days? In the past 4 years, my office went from a paper system, to a system that we beta tested (thumbs down is an understatement), to MaximEyes by First Insight (that we also have had nothing but problems with).

I'm going to start tinkering with writing my own, simple but very me-specific program to do orders, and superbills, but if that doesn't work out, when I open my Opticianry office (hopefully in mid 2007) I'm going back to the paper system!

[Spexvet]

try My Vision Express

http://myvisionexpress.com/

I do not work for my vision express.

[Snitgirl]

Currently using Eyecom2
http://www.eyecom2.com

What are the small private offices out there using these days? In the past 4 years, my office went from a paper system, to a system that we beta tested (thumbs down is an understatement), to MaximEyes by First Insight (that we also have had nothing but problems with).

I'm going to start tinkering with writing my own, simple but very me-specific program to do orders, and superbills, but if that doesn't work out, when I open my Opticianry office (hopefully in mid 2007) I'm going back to the paper system!

[shellrob]

What kind of problems are you ahving with maximeyes? Just curious as that's the software I use.

[Doug in Hutch]

The two big problems I see with every practice management system I have looked into are bloat and price.

They are all packed too many "features" that I do not need and do not want. Appointment scheduling, exam records, recall letters, welcome letters, email, accounts payable, billing, word processing, demographics, referrals--all things that either don't apply to the shop I work in or are already handled by other applications. My previous employer used a system that had minor "updates" about twice a year and major "updates" about every other year. Each update would take us offline for most of a day and then a week or two of new error messages and updates to the updates until the new bugs were under control. And for what? When the smoke finally cleared the software worked exactly the same as it did before.

Which brings us to price. Most of the practice management systems cost more than a new PC, and have yearly maintenance fees that are nearly as much as a new copy of Microsoft Office. Then their system requirements are sometimes outrageous. At least one package requires a minimum of 64k colors on your system. For what is basically a database application. One package requires a minimum 40 gigabytes of disk space. If they used 2k for each patient record (which would be a pretty big record) it would take 20 million records to use that much space.

I would love to find a package that just does patient orders and inventory, and be able to print a few basic sales and inventory reports, with a reasonable price, a user's manual that explains clearly how to do everything, and no maintenance fees. Integration with Frames CD would be nice, but not absolutely necesary.

[ilanh]

Well put, Doug. I have been looking for exactly the same thing for a long time now. I feel exactly the same way about the bloat and excesses in these packages. I would like something that I can put in patient prescriptions, orders, inventory bar coding etc. I actually don't need any billing or recall capabilities since I do that with my main office software system. There seems to be a simple software company called IFCI file (or something like that) that sells a complete package for $1500. I don't know how good it is though. I think that integration with frames and possibly with the eyefinity website would be very useful.


ilan

[jtart2]

If you are willling to take the time to learn...try Microsoft Access. It is what I designed and use in 2 of my offices. I'm an optometrist, by the way. I use Access to do everything except accounting (I use Quickbooks Pro for that).

Access is very easy to learn to use and set up. If your database gets big enough, you may want to consider switching to SQL Server 2000. That's what I've done. It is pretty easy to upgrade too, since they are both Microsoft products.

This software is completely customizable and you'd be amazed at the powerful things it can do if you just take a little time to lean to use it. I have, and have saved myself thousands of dollars!!!

Good Luck!:bbg:

[William Walker]

Shellrob,

The biggest problem we've had is that MaximEyes does not do all that we were promised it would do. It is offered as a paperless system, yet there has been no way to get out of printing a paper welcome form for every patient coming in, and then letting that form be the way we track where a patient is in the office.
It is also not HIPAA compliant. As the optician, I should not be allowed acces to the patient's medical history, medications they take, etc..., yet there are no password protected sections of the program, just a single username/password to keep patients from accessing a computer.
The support has been our biggest concern. Right now, our linking to paradise.com to transmit orders electronically, has not worked in over a month, and First Insight has refused to help us anymore. We can no longer transmit medical claims through the system, and although we paid for 7 licenses, we are only able to use 6. It sounds like it would be an easy program to fix, but with tech support saying they won't help us at all, I don't know how to fix it myself.
The other thing that we just didn't realize, was how long it would take to enter all the fee schedule items. What we asked, and was told it would do, is when the superbill information was transferred, the patient's insurance information would automatically calculate what the patient's out of pocket was. Sounded great, until we found out that we'd have to input a fee schedule, with prices for every exam, contact, frame, and lens service for not only every type of insurance, but every subgroup within an insurance. We calculated that to be around 150 different full fee schedules, each one prints out (with small font) to about 18 pages long.

There's been tons of other, more minor complaints with the system, but I'm interested: How do you use MaximEyes? For the entire office, exams, orders, insurance billings, scheduling, etc...?

Thanks

[William Walker]

jtart2,

I just purchased Access 2003 last night, and started designing my patient info page. Would you mind if I picked your brain about some layouts? I am very excited, and am hoping to do what you have done, just specific to my needs in my office.

Thanks for the reply, I'm glad going the Access route has worked for others before me!

[jtart2]

Hey William Walker,

if you send me an email to jtart2@nc.rr.com, I'll send you a "sample" copy of one of my databases. It includes a switchboard page, patient information, exams, spectacle orders, contact lens exams, contact lens orders, and a few other things. You can use what I made if you'd like, just re-arrange a few things to make it your own.

I would reccommend you purchase a book and learn how to use Access. You'd be amazed at what you can do! Before you start using your own system, make sure you have it set up exactly the way you want it, it's a pain to do things over because you didn't set it up right the first time. One good thing about Access is that you can change it "on the fly"!!!

Good luck with Access!

PS, I liked your website. Did you pay someone to do it for you or did you do it yourself?

Joe

[spartus]

I came from an office that went through the Maximeyes install shortly before I left, and really was the one doing 80% of the data entry. It is bloated--massively so--but I think they're going for the "all things for all people" angle, which is...okay.

Being geeky enough to be interested in the guts of it, I was pretty impressed with the scale of it and the ambition involved, but it isn't quite at the "it just works" stage yet. It is, for those of you who haven't used it, just a Filemaker Pro (database program much like Access) backend with First Insight's frontend. It's very customizable--almost too much so, and, if you've got a pretty good concept of the way databases function, fairly easy to figure out.

It's got some really nice features, some incredibly irritating features (like redrawing the entire appointment book any time you scroll up or down or refresh the page for any reason), but lots of potential. I was told the next version is going to be written in SQL, which means a ground-up rewrite, but it could be interesting.

As far as ditching the welcome forms for new patients, the only way that anyone associated with First Insight suggested was having a limited copy of Maximeyes running so people can enter it into the computer themselves. This, of course, involves selling another license, but you'd save the paper...

That said, my present office uses Compulink's Eyecare Advantage, which is pretty good.

[ilanh]

Hi Jtart2,
I tried to pm you but am not sure that you got my message. I am quite interested in finding out more about the optical shop program that you wrote on access. This is obviously a huge project and I would love to not have to do it myself from scratch. Therefore, if you have some files or templates to share with me I would be most grateful. Please let me know if that's possible. I bet that a few of us could get together and write a killer optical program on Access (incidentally, does it do inventory as well?) Thanks

Ilan Hartstein, M.D

[mpowers]

William,

I am located in Jacksonville, FL as well. We bought OfficeMate a couple years ago and have been pleased with it. We have a consultant that knows the ins and outs of Officemate and helped us tremondously. Many offices do not take the time to understand the advanced features of Officemate, but it really can do most functions of the more expensive management programs. It is very affordable, easy to use, and they do not charge per station. We currently have it networked on 5 stations. We have not gone paperless yet, but plan to by the end of the year. If you have any questions please feel free to call me at the office at 725-9090 or email (mikepowers@bellsouth.net). Many of the complaints that you mentioned with Maximize we have not had trouble with.

Mike Powers, OD
Advanced Eyecare
Jacksonville, FL

[Doug in Hutch]

It seems that nearly everyone who is happy with the currently available software is in a OD or MD practice. The thing is, in an independant optical, or, as is my current situation, a shop in a clinic where we don't directly work with the drs., 90% of their features just don't apply to us. Even in an OD's office with a dispensary, the optical staff has no legitimate need for access to appointment or exam info, and those functions should be handled completely seperately. Bundling everything into one huge program means less security and more opportunity for bugs.

I'm going to be moving to another town soon, and I'm considering trying to develop a small stand-alone program that would be appropriate for a small optical shop. I've got nearly 15 years experience in optical and a background in computer programming. Plus, my wife doesn't want me to work full-time for a while, because she'll be married to her new job (teaching speech and drama), and wants me home with the kids more.

[Stopper]

Even in an OD's office with a dispensary, the optical staff has no legitimate need for access to appointment or exam info,

Doug I'm going to disagree with this statement.(respectfully). I like having my optical staff to have access to the patient record. The can see the DX and make recommendations that may help the patient i.e. a special tint for a macular degeneration patient. The history may also have some lifestyle info that can be helpful and they may also need to see when the patients last exam was done or that they are wearing CLs or monovision and recommend other products that may be helpful etc. That's just my opinion and I respect that yours may be different than mine.
Cheers

[Doug in Hutch]

Doug I'm going to disagree with this statement.(respectfully). I like having my optical staff to have access to the patient record. The can see the DX and make recommendations that may help the patient i.e. a special tint for a macular degeneration patient. The history may also have some lifestyle info that can be helpful and they may also need to see when the patients last exam was done or that they are wearing CLs or monovision and recommend other products that may be helpful etc. That's just my opinion and I respect that yours may be different than mine.
Cheers

Your patient may get the Rx filled in your dispensary, or may decide to go elsewhere. (Or both for that matter.) Conditions like macular degeneration, etc. need to be noted on the patient's spectacle Rx. Exam date is required by law. (At least in my state.) The optician should be discussing any lifestyle considerations with the patient. Optical staff doesn't need any patient info that you wouldn't provide to another optical dispensary.

[drk]

What kind of problems are you ahving with maximeyes? Just curious as that's the software I use.

Shellrob,
You are using Maximeyes, too? So do I! This is getting weird. PM me, if you will.

As to Maximeyes, I am no fan of the company. First Insight shafted me for a nice chunk when VSP dis-integrated with Maximeyes. Double data entry, now, into Eyefinity for us.

The software itself is a bulky fiasco, but it is quite powerful, and has been stable in our office for about 5 years, now. It has a very workable electronic medical records section, excellent inventory control, a good scheduler. I am not currently doing financial stuff on it (even after 5 yrs:hammer: ) but it looks workable. Even with the crazy insurance problems aforementioned, I think this was the most powerful one on the market when I bought it, so I think it can be worked out. I wouldn't give up on it, yet.

[drillmountmaster]

We use Optimeyes

[Stopper]

Your patient may get the Rx filled in your dispensary, or may decide to go elsewhere. (Or both for that matter.) Conditions like macular degeneration, etc. need to be noted on the patient's spectacle Rx. Exam date is required by law. (At least in my state.) The optician should be discussing any lifestyle considerations with the patient. Optical staff doesn't need any patient info that you wouldn't provide to another optical dispensary.

I don't know of too many docs who put a Dx on the rx but i imagine some do. exam date is not required in all states but we do put an expiration date on each RX. But a patient who returns to our office with out the RX in hand can be looked up in the record by the optical staff. No need to interupt other staff to get that information. It's more efficient. We both agree that the optician should be discussing lifestyle considerations with the patient but if much of that info is in the record the optician can have a more focused approach and the patient doesn't need to repeat it all again. If he/she goes to a different optical then of course it will need to be repeated and as you said my optical doesn't need anymore info than another optical but it is more efficient if the optician can access it from the record. It works for us and it does no harm to the patient. I guuess we will have to agree to disagree.
Cheers

[Stopper]

Shellrob,
You are using Maximeyes, too? So do I! This is getting weird. PM me, if you will.

As to Maximeyes, I am no fan of the company. First Insight shafted me for a nice chunk when VSP dis-integrated with Maximeyes. Double data entry, now, into Eyefinity for us.

The software itself is a bulky fiasco, but it is quite powerful, and has been stable in our office for about 5 years, now. It has a very workable electronic medical records section, excellent inventory control, a good scheduler. I am not currently doing financial stuff on it (even after 5 yrs:hammer: ) but it looks workable. Even with the crazy insurance problems aforementioned, I think this was the most powerful one on the market when I bought it, so I think it can be worked out. I wouldn't give up on it, yet.

We use maximeyes too. I don't think the dis-inergration with VSP/eyefinity was first insights fault, i think it was on VSPs end. I think First in Sight had to sue to get it back and it will be in the new update. Don't feel bad about not using the financial stuff. It is probably the weakest part of the program. The info is in there but you have to work at it to get it out and make it useful.
Cheers

[shellrob]

I don't see any reason why the staff cannot see the exam info. Alot of times, I am able to answer some questions that they have after their exam that either they forgot to ask the doctor or they cannot remember what they were told. Big deal, I don't get it. How many times has a patient asked you what their visual acuity with that question or just look into the exam info yourselfI don't understand the hot topic about this I guess.

[Doug in Hutch]

I don't see any reason why the staff cannot see the exam info. Alot of times, I am able to answer some questions that they have after their exam that either they forgot to ask the doctor or they cannot remember what they were told. Big deal, I don't get it. How many times has a patient asked you what their visual acuity with that question or just look into the exam info yourselfI don't understand the hot topic about this I guess.

I 'm not saying optical staff shouldn't be able to see exam info (although looking back I can see where I gave that impression). My concern is with the fact that all available optical software ties optical functions together with nearly every office function an optometric practice would have, even though there is really no need for spectacle records to be linked to exam records. These systems can work well for a small optometric practice, but in an independant optical you're just paying for a lot of bloat.

[Stopper]

These systems can work well for a small optometric practice, but in an independant optical you're just paying for a lot of bloat.

THat I can agree with
Cheers

[Johns]

We use Eyebase. It's cheap, easy to use, and extremely effective for patient data & scheduling. The financial reporting was weak, so we use another off the shelf financial program alongside it. I've tried the big heavies, but this one was what we stuck with.

[rbaker]

This thread illustrates why many of the existing practice management applications have so many features and are so costly. If you sit three eye care providers down and try to get them to all agree on a single set of design specifications you will be in for a long wait. And, if they were to ever come to a consensus someone would, at a later date, have an additional feature that they would want added. So what is a programmer/developer to do? You have to add all and support all of the features. You end up with a large, expensive application.

This consensus reaches a point of ridiculous when you can’t decide on the name for a person you provide services for. Do we call them Patients, Clients or Customers? Or, shall we incorporate a bookkeeping/accounting function? Should it be double entry? And, on and on. Security issues vary greatly from small, single practitioners to large multi store operations. And, the along comes HIPAA and everything goes down the crapper.

Finding the right software application is like finding the right woman. You have to look around and find the right one because you can’t change them and if you make a mistake you are in for a lifetime of Hell.