I am looking into practice management software and want to know what is recommended and what is advised against, basically the good the bad and ugly of what is available. I am confused. There seems to be a lot of choices and I want to make the most informed decision I can. Cost, learning curve, features, and smoke and mirrors is what I am looking to get a feel for. Any help is appreciated. Thanks
That’s sort of like asking for advice on whom to marry. It all depends. If you are looking for a turnkey solution you will have to find a vendor whose product most closely matches your needs, or more specifically, a product which matches your present business model.
If you can not find an application that meets your needs you will have to either hire someone to create exactly what you need or upgrade your skill set so that you can do it yourself.
I don't want to marry, just have a nice relationship. I am looking for feedback from people who have or are currently using some kind of practice management software. I will decide what fits my needs based to some degree on the experience others have had using their particular software in their particular environment.
Last edited by AngryFish; 07-10-2007 at 08:43 PM. Reason: Refine comment
Perhaps if you could enumerate your needs other users could respond to them with their recommendations.
Dick, I am not trying to make this complicated or invite debate. It is a simple question. If you have had experience with any practice management software, I am eager for you to share. And as a wise and dear old friend once told me, "you don't know what you don't know." I am looking to better "know."
What do you want the program to do?
Do you want it to interface with Eyefinity? VisionWeb? or any other clearing house?
Do you want/need Electronic Medical Records to be stored on it?
How big of an office? Multiple locations?
Lab on premise?
How many computers do you see being connected to it?
Basically you can easily set up Quickbooks to be your system. I combine it with Customer Manager and it real easy to track things in the system... and it is fairly cheap.
However it doesn't have all the Bells and Whistles, so we recently went with My Vision Express. I haven't had the time to completely set it up, and so I am reserving my judgment till I have it completely set up and have been operating with it for a while..
I loved ExamMate ... Doc hated the multiple pop up boxes.. too cluttered for him... While we both were looking for the same thing our vision on the solution was different..
The best thing to do is the get some demos, try them.. and see what you and all key decision makers like/dislike.. If you have connections.. you may find it better to follow rbaker's advice and have someone create what you want...
Cassandra
"Some believe in destiny, and some believe in fate. But I believe that happiness is something we create."-Something More by Sugarland
I'm going to be writing a review of MyVision Express, that should be ready sometime around the end of September.
I need to get feedback from all of my offices that are using it, so I can be as fair as possible with the review. Also, I didn't want to review it until we've had an opportunity to use it for at least one year, which will be in Sept.
Hopefully, we can get reviews of other software as well...
Johns,
We are getting ready to go with MVE. It seems like the best solution for us.
I am going to start building my data base next week. Do you have any words of wisdom on what you did right, wrong or had to do over?
We are multi location. How did your optical staff adapt to the changes?
I would appreciate any info.
Thanks
I'll send you a PM.
AngryFish,Originally Posted by AngryFish
As the developer of the software solution Eyesistant, we always encourage people to explore their options when making such an important business decision. Since you're looking for software, I'm sure you have a pretty good idea of the functionality and benefits that you need. Be sure to articulate those needs to each vendor you speak with. Here are a couple other things you should look for:
·Features (Point of sale, inventory, recalls, accounting, etc.) - make sure the software has all of the core features you need to run your business. Worry about bells and whistles after.
·Ease-of-use - make sure the software is intuitive for you and your staff. Software should make things easier, not harder.
·Support - make sure you call the support number. Technical issues can arise; make sure there are people available to help resolve them.
·Try the demo - take the software for a test drive. Most software vendors give a trial period; so try processing actual visits to see how the software performs in a real life setting. If you are not sure how to do something then request a personalized product demonstration.
·References - request to talk with someone who uses the software. Despite being on a reference list, people are quite honest when it comes to what they like and what could be better about the software they're using.
·Price - get a quote on the total cost of having the software installed in your store. Are licenses sold per store or per computer? Are support and upgrades optional?
·Data ownership - a personal pet peeve, make sure that if you don’t extend your service agreement you’ll still have access to your data.
Good luck,
Fish,
I have been looking at software for a while.
Go to everybodys website and download a demo
and play with it. Enter some products, prices that are specific to your practise and enter patients, sales, returns, run reports. You will find that there are some
that have good things and bad. Then you have to
decide. One word of wisdom, my old computer had
windows 98, all of the demos require that you be in the 21st
century with at least windows xp.
Check out
Compulink
My Vision Express
Marchon Office mate/enterprize
and by now I would bet that you have gotten a couple of PM's
from software providers.
I can tell you what NOT to get - CompuLink. It's hardly ready to go out of the box, you need to create module after module and custom field after custom field to get it even moderately up and running. Oh...and BTW, they don't give you any direction or help in doing it yourself - but they will gladly do it for you, for a substantial fee. And the best part about CompuLink is that one hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing over there...honestly I could write a book about their software and how simply bad it is.
I second the no to compulink.
I agree with the compulink comment.
but it helped me figure out what i don't want.
expensive too.
So far I see a theme on the software that is new to me, it is overpriced and ugly. I have used two different software packages that weren’t proprietary, one was OfficeMate and the other was MaximEyes. OfficeMate does not seem to have advanced like what I expected since I last used it some ten plus years ago and my experience with MaximEyes was overwhelmingly not good. This experience was from six years ago when I was working with a practice that was purchasing about a dozen licenses for it. It was ridiculously expensive, rife with oversights and errors, including a Fundus image in the exam suite that only had ONE eye, not a left and a right eye just one. It was as though someone who knew a little about programming, very little, decided to read a book titled Optometry 101 and then concluded that they then knew what an optometrist did. It was based in File Maker Pro and seemed like it needed to load sixty tables before you could get any information to display. The font size in all the fields was between 6 and 8 point in what seemed like an attempt to cram as much information onto a page as possible so it was hard to read as well. We spent dozens of hours on the phone with them basically rewriting the program for them; it was ridiculous. There was a lot of talk about dropping the software but the thought was that too much money and time had been wasted to turn back and a panic had set in. There seems to be a fair amount of mom and pop looking stuff out there that is weak on graphical interface and I would imagine not too intuitive or user friendly. The thought that there is software out there that would deny you access to YOUR OWN information without a service agreement from the software developer is scary. I never even considered the loss of access to my data as a possibility. My focus is on the need for a paperless exam process, point of sale, inventory management, and scheduling with option to expand to lab processing and insurance filing. I am still looking over the information you have been providing thank you. It looks like this will take me months.
Last edited by AngryFish; 07-12-2007 at 10:25 PM. Reason: addition of the word "then" on line seven
CompuLink's story is very similar to your account - no one there knows a thing about Optics from any perspective. It's just horrid.
One package I'd asked my OD to check into was Practice Director - but he's too deep into CompLink to make a change. Another one that seems to get promoted around here is My Vision Express - but when I checked out the demo it really seemed lacking on the exam side of the equation and it didn't 'feel' like a complete management solution. Johns would be a better person to talk to about that since I believe he's installed it in all his locations.
My Vision Express has an Exam Module that it recently put into the program.. However, this is more of a file manager since you would still have to upload your own exam form, and use a tablet PC or point, click and use text (can create stamps to do this too) to fill out the appropriate forms. You can then upload pictures, etc to this area as well.
Not a great answer, however if you aren't using computerized exam/pretest equipment, and looking for something you can use with your existing or customized exam format.. it can work out well.
Cassandra
"Some believe in destiny, and some believe in fate. But I believe that happiness is something we create."-Something More by Sugarland
From what I have seen one thousand dollars and up is the price for admition plus plus plus. Is this the norm?
angry,
one thousand would be extremely bottom of the barrel. Add in emr (medical records) and you are probably closer to 10k plus yearly maintenance fees and upgrades. I've seen several closer to 20k, and for bigger ophthalmological practices with lots of surgery and multiple docs you are talking 30-50k, easily.
I agree, but for most of us smaller guys, a $159 version of Quikbooks Pro is all you need to at least start with something, plus, it's tried and true, adn you know you're not going to be some company's guinea pig.
Ophthalmic Optician, Society to Advance Opticianry
Whatever happened to the good 'ole paper and pencil management software?
That is a very good point. I was talking about the entire thing... emr, inventory, patient scheduling, prescription printing, etc.
Are you using quickbooks to keep your frame and lens inventory?
No, I've since bought an optical specific program, but ran Quickbooks for 14 years, and sometimes still miss it.
And yes, there are limitations, but for us small frys, it's a great way to inventory (I never have, and never will), invoice, make statments, and pull great reports from.
Ophthalmic Optician, Society to Advance Opticianry
I have both, but am not currently using either. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to integrate the two. Most recommend to have both.
AMEN!!!!!! I hate that software.... Our office used to have it... Long before I got here...and we still use it to check old records and for a time clock...and it just finally crashed... (THANK GOD).... I also used to use it at our old office....hated it then too..
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