Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Remote Office Sites

Our situation is this: we are looking to expand our business from one office to multiple offices, something I’m sure many of you have dealt with before.

What I wanted to posit - What the best approach to work with Amazing Charts from a remote site? Certainly things like GoToMyPC are available for remote access but I wanted to go a step further than that. If there is a way for our office to be able to access Amazing Charts to do things like scan and attach files and actually process the chart and the paperwork while the patient is there in the office? If you happen to have any knowhow or any solutions as far as working with Amazing Charts remotely, I would love to hear your thoughts on this matter.

I don't know about GoToMyPC but LogMeIn (even the paid version) cannot interact with scanners or hardware other than printers that are located off-site (as in where the remote person is working). One way to get around this is to use an email client on the computer at the office, set up a dummy account that always automatically downloads email, and scan the items and email the resulting files to that account. Import the files in Amazing Charts after opening and saving the files by clicking Import> Import File(s) . That is the fastest workaround I can come up with on this Monday.

Either take a portable scanner or copier and copy and shred what needs to be copied away from the main site.

Use Logmein for remote access if you are not doing it a lot. If you are, consider a separate database.

As always with these questions, which ultimately result in the same answers including this one. If I wanted a ROBUST off site network to do what you are talking about. GoToMyPC and LogMeIn wouldn't even be in the conversation.

I would hire an IT person and look at the different possibilities including VPN, T1s, etc. Just a thought.

Agree with Bert. GTMPC and logmein are fine in only limited situations, which I do use effectively. Before selling out, owned a genetic lab with clinical offices in muliple sites. For multiple offices and remote access for the docs to work on labs, I had a VPN put in so work transfers over the "pipe" to the databases we had stored on the multiple servers we had. FYI, that means all offices will have their data on the same servers which has good and bad parts to think about. Staff had to get their heads around what a VPN is, but it became seamless after a period. You can do it VPN's yourself but suggest using an IT person, expecially if expanding into many offices. Security hardening, backup plans, custom software, and the headaches of users will need support that is beyond most office staff. Our outside IT staff became part of the family and were invited to Xmas parties - they are that important.

As patients come to us, go to a IT person or group for support. A good IT person or group is worth it in the long run.

Mike
Medical Genetics
Virtual Medical Practice
Atlanta, GA

Mike makes a valid point.

A lot of things depend on the volume the satellite office will have. If you have significant volume, I would whole heartedly agree that a VPN makes sense. I would also agree that having an IT person to install and maintain would also make sense.

For small volumes, I would use a "virtual VPN" like logmein.