Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Startup question

I am new to AC and have been "hovering" for a few months. I am 1 month away from my startup opening day for my ob/gyn practice. I have reviewed every other major competitor and have not found them worth the expense! Although everyone seems to be asking me to choose someone else (ie. billing people etc...)
I am wondering if I can install AC on my main computer and possibly another computer and start making templates and appointments. The reason I ask this is that I will be using a server and multiple computers running off the server once I start and I don't want to have to start over on the templates and appointments when I reset to that system. Can I get some advice on this please.
Thanks in advance,
Jack

Welcome to the AC family.

Yes, you have, I think, 89 days from when you load the program until it has to be registered. Once you register, even if there is a lapse, your data, schedule and templates are saved. You can network without charge.

So the simple answer is that in the next couple weeks you can set up and trouble shoot the entire process, spend a week or so to see if you like it and still have time before you go live. You will still have 60 days before you have to register. IT IS FULLY FUNCTIONAL.

Do you have version 3 or 4? Rather than having to upgrade, I would make sure you are using the latest version (4.0.6.2b), rather than having to upgrade a couple months down the road. Version 4 can be somewhat more difficult to instill on a true server, but give it a try. I believe tech support will help you install if you need help. Upgrading versions in the 4 family should be fairly straight forward.

I agree - download the latest version and play with it all you want. I would go one further - download on your server and all your other computers - also download on one laptop and use it just to play so you won't have fake pt. on your real program or just choose one fake pt (named whatever) and play with it.

Am I mistaken or doesn't he have 90 days beginning WHEN HE EXCEEDS 10 PATIENTS. I don't think the clock even starts until you have 10 real patients (or 10 imaginary ones) in the system.
I think you are gonna love it.

It might be best to get a real note and try to enter it in AC. That might be the most realistic manner to discover the templates you need. I think you will get the most useful templates after you start seeing patients. I use very few of my original templates and have made a majority of them in real time as I was seeing the patients. (That is not to imply that I have not invested a bunch of weekends also!)
Martin

Good luck with your new practice.

Well, the way it used to work was that you had 90 days from when you downloaded/installed it. But, I think the program didn't check to see if you had gone past the limit unless you had 10 or more patients in the system. I guess the assumption was if you didnt have 10 patients input then you weren't using the program but still only checking it out.

Thanks for the advice guys, but I guess it won't be too much of headache to transfer templates and database to server when I am ready?

Also, just had a meeting with Medical Mastermind billing software, anyone use this and advice on EZ claims versus no billing software?

Templates can be both exported or do a backup/restore to move them from one place to another.

Database, I believe needs a backup restore, that will do both anyway.

I used EZ claims for a short time. Didn't work that well but I was using Office Ally for a clearing house, since they are free, and records were not being transferred. I could never find out who'se problem it was. I gave up and went with MTBC.

I don't know anything about Medical Mastermind.

I had problems between EZClaim and Availity. We have since turned billing over to a 3rd party company and things seem better.

I started AC slightly less than a month ago (solo GYN only)and decided to "go for it". I purchased it after about a week, set it up on my server and started using it. At first I would enter the visits in at the end of the day ( like I used to dictate my notes at the end of the day). But, it quickly became easier and faster, by the second week I was able to take my tablet into the exam room and started doing the notes "real-time". About 75% of the visits are finished by the time the patient is dressed and heading to checkout. The time I spend at the end of the day is MUCH less. It also seems like it has speeded me up, Perhaps because it forces me to be a little more structured. I also bought and set up X-linkto connect to AdvancedMD for EPM, signed up with the lab interface ( not functioning just yet) signed up for e-prescribe, got a document scanner (Kodak)and could not be happier. I took me very little time to set up my templates ( which I would be happy to share ). What problems I have had resolved without much trouble ( not to say that I don't still run into something to solve nearly every day). My office staff were initially polite about the changes that I wanted to make but are now very cheerful, it has not been as difficult as they anticipated. When I first started I would look on the users forum for "beginners advice" but didn't find a group of newbies, I have just been reading and reluctant to ask any questions. Good for you! I would still like to talk to or have a "mentor" who could be a resource for advice and practical issues. I am not a computer-competent person and there is a lot that I still don't understand.

I think you have come to the right place. I believe a great many of us on the forum are really quite technologically challenged, and as such we keep quiet when a query is posted that seeks specific advice. There are a few on the forum who stand among the immortals in our eyes, and for fear of chasing them off the forum we don't say, "PM Bert he can help" every SINGLE time a question comes up. But Thank God, those stalwarts hang in here and continue to lead us into the silicon light.

Amazing Charts development team were here in Anaheim Calif. this past weekend and I had the privilege of talking with them and the subject of a web based system came up. I have always opposed this as I fear the loss of control over my database and the risk of interruption of service if the internet is down. The opportunity to provide a functioning system to anyone who can just get hooked onto the internet would solve a vast number of functional problems and make it MUCH easy for shoppers to test drive Amazing Charts. Luddites like myself could be appeased if we, 1- Continue to have our server based version, 2- Had the option to 'reverse backup', causing our data base to download onto our own server every night if we so chose.

That structure makes a lot of sense and financial success for AC means a bigger budget for development to bring on the features in AC that we all want.

I was VERY encouraged and excited by what I saw and heard in Anaheim this weekend. I have had a hard time being patient, but it feels like it will be paying off in spades.