Remote Tracing Systems

[NXTwoThou]

After following the Trace and Transmit topic, thought I'd get the ball rolling on a new topic.

What's everyones experiences(office and lab) with the various remote tracing solutions out there?

Good/bad/indifferent? And from the vendors, what makes yours unique?(and if possible, answer any limitations that people bring up in here).

(crawls back under his rock)

[Jim G]

I'm surprised that you haven't received more replies as this could be the wave of the future.

We've tested several and have numerous customers using the DVI "Remo" system. Our experience is that most (all?) do an excellent job tracing and transmitting info. If there is a problem, it's in the decipline/adeptness of the person doing the tracing. When it doesn't come out correct, there's a lot of finger pointing.

[ziggy]

A few years ago we tested a remote system the quality was ok, but here in KY, most of the phone lines are NOT fiber-optics, this tends to introduce some errors. Also the opperator of the remo tracer MUST be a quality tech. Paul

[Jerry Thornhill]

We have been doing remote site tracing for the past 5 years. The results have been very good. I agree the results depend on who is tracing and how much care and attention is put in to it.
It is always easy to tell when someone new is doing the traces.
Jerry

[NXTwoThou]

As for new people using it..

We've experienced that people will be very careful with their first few orders, then get very lax later on when it comes to prescription information and so forth(which in, itself, isn't a complete nightmare, just means a little more work on this end)

Not to mention the whole, "I'm going on vacation, you get to do this" syndrome where someone gets no training on one is forced to use it(love the ones that have never touched a computer before too). Ugh.

But all in all, e.lens has made our lives a lot easier. Even though we still have some customers that just don't like computers, so we're stuck trying to decipher fax-distorted-chicken-scratch. 90% of the time, have to call them to verify the order for fear of a redo from inability to read the faxes. Its incredible how the redo rate seems to drop to next to nothing on remote tracing clients. The data entry error checking in the software helps the person using it get the proper prescription(rather than calling in one and asking if its doable or not). And I'll take a crisp-clear printout over handwriting anyday(I know mines awful...heh)

We've got a lot of people using the optical scanners, a few using the "uncuts only"(well, order only, most use it for frame-to-comes), and just started out with the new elensorder.com webpage ordering that came out last week for people who don't want to install any software on their computers or aren't using Win95/98/Me(have one doctor using it and he loves it, probably going to add it to our advertising soon).

Remote tracing creates a whole new bargining chip for the business. There's something about a sales person coming up to a doctor that's using a different lab, saying, "here, we'll install this high tech stuff for you free of charge if you guarentee us a certain level of business". Its that overwhelming "wow" power of computer stuff. Now if only more doctors knew about it and asked for it.

The only disadvantage I really see is on the doctors end. They always ask if they are going to get discounts for using it, due to having to enter the information themselves. Even if its less time consuming and more accurate than writing out by hand or calling. And your right, everythings up to the dutifulness of the person doing the tracing. When you choose your lab employees, you pick out people who know their stuff and are incredibly good at their job. When you put remote tracing into a doctors office, you've got an unknown quanity there. Its usualy the doctor that decides to get the systems, but its 99% likely its someone completely acutaly _using_ it. How resistant are they to it?

How many people are guilty of getting a new fancy-schmancy word processor, but still pulling out the old one, because its so much more comfortable because you've used it for years? (looks fondly at his Word Perfect icon on his desktop)

Okay, now I'm babbling..heh.. Anyone else have any experiences(good/bad) with customers using remote tracing? Any vendors wanna compare your stuff with others?(really, that's why I started this, the other topic wasn't about any product, just the one system...I'm interested to know what's the subjective "best". :) I know I'm proud of what we run here)

Recession my *** , we're looking to have to hire more people and equipment just to keep up with the demand.

[karen]

Originally posted by Jerry Thornhill:
We have been doing remote site tracing for the past 5 years. The results have been very good. I agree the results depend on who is tracing and how much care and attention is put in to it.
It is always easy to tell when someone new is doing the traces.
Jerry

I used to work in one of the locations that Jerry is talking about and the only problem we ever had was if someone was too hung over to calibrate it correctly. Otherwise in almost every case the lens fit perfectly. Unfortunately one or the other of us could always be counted on to be hung over (myself included!!!). We learned to double check the circumference and then we could just drink all day! :)

That being said, the lab I work for has been testing a remote tracer for several months and we are about to jump on the bandwagon and put these into accounts and the results we have had so far have been amazing. We are getting about a 95% accuracy rate. I think it is the way to go although I have an account that uses one of these and doesn't have time to assemble jobs because they are so busy.

[This message has been edited by karen (edited 02-01-2001).]