November 24, 2005 to January 24, 2006
IMPORTANT NEWS ABOUT YOUR PARTICIPATION IN KUDZU DEVELOPMENT!

Hello and Happy New Year!

We hope everyone had a great holiday season (we sure did)! With the new year, comes new work, and we're sure getting a lot done!

Ever wonder what's going on with the Kudzu project? Many members have, and Joel and Brian have both filed a "state of Kudzu" report. If you haven't read them yet, they are in the new articles section (see below). We're sure you'll be interested in what has happened in the project, and where it is going.

One of the more important developments has been that the Kudzu project has started its next phase, and your ideas and input is more important than ever. Very important discussions regarding "Kudzu Use Cases" has started, and a lot of activity has resulted. If you are interested in actively shaping the development of our next generation dental software package, you need to be reading and participating in the "Kudzu Use Cases" forum! To get started, read the "Working with Use Cases" article (again, see below). That will get you pointed in the right direction.

Also of note - we've published our seminar schedule for 2006 (once again, see below). We are only doing TWO seminars this year - one of each. So, if you've ever wanted to attend one, be sure to check our schedule with yours.

To properly use this newsletter, you should first log into the Club web site directly from this newsletter. Once you are logged in, you can click on any of the links in this newsletter to jump directly to the article or download of interest. To start your web browser now and log into Club Lighthouse, click here! That will open up a browser window on your computer. You can then Alt-Tab back to this e-mail and select any link in this email. Clicking on the link in this email will cause that article or forum post to appear in the browser window (you will have to Alt-Tab BACK to that browser window to see it).

If you forgot your user name and/or password, send an email to joel@lighthouse-pmg.com



In This Issue
New Articles
New or updated downloads
Interesting posts
Seminar schedule


New Articles
The Kudzu Project - My First Year in the Dungeon

It’s no secret that my conspicuous absence from Club Lighthouse for the last year is due to my re-assignment to full time Kudzu development. But what have I been doing all that time? When will the program be finished? Good questions! This article will at least attempt to answer those questions...

 

Working with Use Cases
Use Cases are text documents that describe what a computer system is supposed to do. We are using Use Cases in the development of Kudzu to insure we have identified all of the issues before development on a particular area begins. For those of you who want to participate in the early development of Kudzu, this article describes how to work with the Use Cases we are creating.

 

The Kudzu Project - One Year Later

One year ago (December 23, 2004), we announced the beginning of The Kudzu Project, our "new from scratch" dental practice management program. (Read that announcement by clicking here.) We thought it appropriate to give you a "state of the project" report today, to answer some of your questions, to satisfy your desire to get a glimpse at what's coming, and more than anything, to give you some assurance that Kudzu is going to be everything you've been hoping for, and more.

 

New or updated downloads
The following is a list of recent additions to the Club Lighthouse download area. It is important to remember that most downloads have a corresponding article or forum post associated with them. If they do, please read the article or post first before downloading the file. Also, for complete instructions on how download and install the files listed here, be sure to read the article on Installing from an Exchange Pack

Miscellaneous Contact Experts
Version: 12-08-2004
A collection of various Contact Experts for a number of different things: **LH99 Person lookup by phone number (find anyone in PW if you know a home or work phone number) **LH99 Ptn/IP's w/ a selected InsCo (Find all patients who are also their own Insured Party, and who have an Insurance Company you select at runtime. Useful for doing a mailing to IP's w/ that Insurance Company.) **LH99 Birthdays for one week (All patients w/ a birthday in a one week period beginning two weeks from this Monday.)

Account Balance with no Ins Claims
Version: 1.0
Install the "LH Account Balance with No Claims" contact expert to enable management of accounts that have received statments but have not paid the balance off within a user specified date.

Monthly Production Status
Version: 1.01
A view of monthly production figures, in calendar format. This Analysis Expert will display, for each day of the month, doctor and hygiene figures, as well as Month to Date doctor and hygiene figures. If run for a month in the past, figures are based on actual data posted to the ledger. If run for dates in the future, production figures are forecasted based on schedule appointment data. Running for the current month displays a mixtures.

Details on this Analysis Expert can be found in a post in the "Expert Request" forum. Click here to see it.

Insurance submission report
Contact Expert that promts for a date range of claims, and an ADA code, and an insurance company, to find all claims in that range submitted to that insurance company, that had that ADA code on the claim. If you leave the ADA code field blank, it will find all claims for that carrier in that time period.

Appts w/ XXXX scheduled
Version: 12-12-2003
A Contact Expert of all future appointments with the code XXXX scheduled. XXXX can be an ADA code number (3 or 4 digits) or an abbreviation, such as PFMCRN. It finds ALL future appointments for any patient who has ANY appointment with XXXX scheduled - no way around that. So if Joe Schmoe has two future appointments, and one of them contains XXXX, you'll see both appointments, and you'll have to determine which one has XXXX.

Two Hygiene Analysis Experts
Version: 04-20-2005
Two Analysis Experts pertaining to hygiene. LH03 Recall Analysis Expert - calculates a theoretical figure for the monthly hygiene potential and compares your actual to it; calculates the percentage of hygiene patients who are pre-appointed (scheduled for their next hygiene appointment at the end of each hygiene appt). Click here to read the associated Article. LH03 Hygiene Production Analysis - calculates a more realistic figure for annual hygiene potential (number of appointments); shows actual hygiene production for any period of time, broken down a lot of different ways, including by hour and by day; shows a count of various hygiene/perio procededures.

Production Analysis by Code
Version: 4/21/04
An analysis expert that totals production by code for any date range. Production is based on the entire office and is NOT broken down by producer. Here's the post that prompted this analysis expert: click here

Explore Patient Documents
Version: 09-24-04
An Exchange Pack that adds a "Patient Document Explorer" option to the ACTIONS button on the Clipboard (and any other place you would like to put it). This allows you to keep track of external files (PDFs, Word documents, etc.) that are associated with individual patients. This is the system described in this post and this Article. Also, this system requires the services of the "Lighthouse Program Launcher" (downloaded here).

LH Patient Information - Fact Sheets
Version: 1.0
While a detailed treatment plan is vital to a smooth running office and elimination of surprises (both patient and office) - sometimes we take for granted what all of the codes mean. This pack contains 22 "fact sheets" that can be selected during the Tx Planning process or via a charting button to print out along with the treatment plan. By providing the patient with as much information as possible, needed treatment can be completed with full understanding and minimal interaction. Use of this pack is discussed in this post

New Patients in Future
Version: 07-15-04
Contact expert to show all new patients that are scheduled in the future. Columns broken down into Name, Referral Source, Home Phone and Work Phone.

LH99 Payments Applied by date and amount
Version: 1.0
Contact expert that will help find checks (mis-applied or otherwise). Prompts for start date and end date range as well as low amount and high amount. Returns a list of accounts that received payments in the date range and amount range specified.

Cordova Dental Monthly Analysis Expert
Version: 06-02-2005
An Analysis Expert for one month, created for Cordova Dental. (It doesn't do anything unique for them, so it could be useful to anyone.)

Not Recall Warning
Version: 1.0
Autolink added to the Schedule / Finish appointment event that will warn the user if they are dropping an appointment more than 90 days out that is NOT marked as a recall appointment. This will help catch people making appointments for hygiene that are not correctly marked - thereby causing other Lighthouse or built in PW systems to contact people to make appointments that are already made.

Perio surgery notes
Version: 12-01-2005
A set of completed tx notes developed for a perio office (but useful to some other offices, too). Includes notes for the following procedures/visits: Crown lengthening Osseous surgery Free gingival graft Connective tissue graft Implant(s) placed Expose implant(s) Sinus elevation (lift) Surgical extraction(s) Cuspid exposure Frenectomy Ridge split Post-op visit

Use Case K1 - Patient interacts with practice
Version: 01-08-2006
The high level document that describes how a patient interacts with a practice. To discuss this use case, see this forum topic. In Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format.

Kudzu In/Out List
Version: 1-12-2006
The In/Out List documents what "big picture" issues are in and out of the scope of the Kudzu Use Case Set. Discussion of these issues is done in this Forum Topic.

NP Recall Analysis
Version: 1-15-2006
An Analysis Expert that analyzes NP's during a user-specificed time period to see if they've had a comprehensive exam, at least one prophy, and then how many more prophies. Basically, the success or failure of converting NP's to long-term hygiene patients.

Hygiene Frequency Check Automation
Version: 1.0
This pack will install an autolink on the Schedule / Finish event to check for all patients that have insurance if the recall being scheduled is closer than 12 months since their next to last cleaning. If it is, then a message will display alerting the scheduler of this fact.



Interesting posts

The following list represents topics on the Club site that either have had a lot of posts made, or have been read by a large number of Club members.

PracticeWorks

General discussion (PracticeWorks)

Expert Creation Requests

Automation and PracticeScript

The Business side of things (not PracticeWorks related)

General discussion (Office Admin)

Hot Deals!

Computers and Technology

The Clinical side of things (not PracticeWorks related)

Clinical technologies

Going chartless

Club Lighthouse

General discussion (Lighthouse)

The Suggestion Box

The Kudzu Project

General Discussion (Kudzu)

Use Cases



Seminar schedule

2006 Seminar Dates Announced! Mark your calendar now!!

Paperless Charting

At Club Lighthouse, we are all about maximizing the efficiency of your computer system. There is no better way to do that than to rid your office of the most significant time drag most of you still have: your paper charts.

Learn to rid your office of paper charts once and for all. Click here for more information, as well as dates and locations.

On-line seminar registration now available


Turbo charging your practice with PracticeWorks

Back by popular demand, this two day seminar is sure to improve your understanding of PracticeWorks, as well as give you a better understanding of what we are trying to accomplish here on Club Lighthouse. Don't forget: Club members get a 10% discount off of the registration fee!

To see dates and locations, or to register on-line, click here.


We hope you found this newsletter informative and helpful. Remember, its our job to make your job easier! If you have ANY question, be sure to either post a question on the Club, or if you are uncomfortable posting your question in public, please feel free to contact one of us directly using email.

Thanks again, and see you on the Club!

Allen Jorgensen: allen@lighthouse-pmg.com
Brian Smith: brian@lighthouse-pmg.com
Joel Kozikowski: joel@lighthouse-pmg.com

© 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Lighthouse Practice Management Group
"PracticeWorks" is a registered trademark of PracticeWorks, Inc.
Lighthouse Practice Management Group and its principals are not affiliated with PracticeWorks, Inc. in any way