optoblog.com

So I have OfficeMate in my practice. I started using them in 2006 with release 7.x, and I currently have 8.x. It uses an access database which never really needed a server because it’s just a file that you could put on one computer and share it peer to peer. At the time I went ahead and bought an expensive Windows/Dell server because they recommended it, but I found out later from working with it that I could have just put the OM db file on cheaper network attached storage.

Anyway, along comes progress. OM with release 9 has implemented the famous, awesome SQL database. What makes it famous and awesome is that SQL is opened source and cross platform. So of course OM implements a Microsoft only version of SQL. The Windows Server Small Business that I’ve been using isn’t supported, so now I am faced with paying a whole bunch of money for a new edition of Windows Server standard. If I upgrade to that, I might as well update my client machines to Windows7. If I do that, my current video cards don’t support it, so I’ll have to either buy new video cards or just a new box.

So now, with all that plus the yearly, over $1K fee for OM, I’m wondering if I shouldn’t start over with some other solution. To tell you the truth, the only thing I use OM for is electronic billing. I just scan my paper charts with my awesome and fast Fujitsu Fi-6130 document scanner.

I really wish OfficeMate would have implemented a cross platform implementation of an SQL db. I could have just used a free Linux server to host the db.

Officemate ExamWriter now comes with the long awaited “feature” of allowing you to scroll up and down with a mouse wheel.

Thank You!!!!

Glass-is-half-full thinking would make me want to curse you for making me mouse-click scroll for the last year and a half, but I’m going to try to stay positive.

At my round of golf after some CE a couple weeks ago, the topic of conversation drifted to what practice management software was everyone using. Of course, for years we have been inundated with PIM/EHR software ads in industry magazines and booths at conferences and conventions. I still haven’t seen an appreciable improvement in the EHR part of the package. Sure, the PIM helps me track the money, but the EHR still slows me done. It would be faster to draft a paper chart and then scan it under the patient’s name in the PIM.

The whole reason to utilize a database for EHR would be to track numbers over time. For example, OfficeMate has this feature in the fields of IOP and C/D ratio. BUT THE WHOLE CHART SHOULD BE THIS WAY! And it would be great to have the functionality to analyze binocular testing data according to OEP, graphical, and normative analysis.

Anyway, if your EMR is just basically storing text for you instead of inserting data into searchable/analyzable database fields, I think it’s faster to scan your paper copy and link it into the PIM instead. Plus it will save you money on buying a separate EMR module.

Here were EHR wants number one and two.