October 14, 2005 to November 23, 2005
Wishing You, Your Office Staff and all family members a Happy Thanksgiving from Lighthouse!

Enjoy the long holiday weekend with your loved ones - eat too much food - get in a little early Christmas shopping - catch some games on the tube - and just have a great relaxing weekend (this is very important to us - because that is what we will be doing and we don't want any body to feel ignored!).

When you come back from the holidays, consider taking a look at what you currently use in your practice regarding PracticeWorks capabilities and how you would like things to work in the new year. Now is the time review your "wish list" and start to download and implement the "must have" capabilities like:

  • Email Enable your office communications
  • Year End Benefits Letters & Reports
  • Simple Recall System
  • Simple Appointment Confirmation
  • Simple Treatment Tracking
and numerous other "turn-key" Lighthouse systems.

We are pleased to announce the availability of Shari Walker to assist club members with the installation and modification of the above or anything else an office desires. Shari has 10 years of experience with PracticeWorks including a lead position in the development team. Brian, Allen and Shari are ready to help your office truly USE the power of both PracticeWorks and Club Lighthouse. Call 888-427-5454 x 1 to see how we can be of service.

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 or updated downloads
Interesting posts
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

Pending Page Management
A series of custom Contact Experts designed to help better manage your pending page. These Contact Experts are covered in detail in the article titled A better way to manage the pending page.

LH Mass Mailing System
Version: 07-29-2005
A Contact Expert that lets you find all your active patients, and even your most valuable patients (by showing total production and collection), during a period of time. Used primarily to generate some kind of mass mailing to them all. (Updated 7/29/2005 to exclude inactive RP's.) 5 different "Mass mail" documents: letterhead, plain paper, postcard, mailing label and field export. For detailed instructions on installing and using this sytem, see the article Mailing Something to Everyone.

Insurance Claims Management
Version: 1.1
Outstanding insurance claim management contact expert that offers greater flexibility and better time management than the standard contact expert that comes with PracticeWorks. After running, click on the AGE column followed by your HOME key and your list will be sorted by the oldest claim outstanding. If this insurance company is going to be contacted, click on the Insurance Company column and now you can discuss this old claim as well as every other outstanding claim with that company. Document all contacts in the contacted area for appropriate follow-up

HIPAA Acknowledgement Management
Version: 3.1
<< Now Prints ONCE per Day and Form Choices re-arranged >> <<<>>>>>> This pack contains the necessary document, autolinks, and forms to manage the printing and filing of patient acknowledgement of privacy policies. For information on use of this system, see the associated article by clicking here

Misc. Document Merge Variables
Version: 10-14-2004
UPDATED 10/14/2004: Added "Patient internal ID number" UPDATED 10/13/03: Added "Patient age in whole years." FIXED 8/25/03 (The SSN's added on 6/6 were added so they were visible only if the document was "based on" appointment info. Now they're available from ANY "based on" type. Just re-install the entire package.) UPDATED 6/6/03 (Added SSN for every person type, and marital status for patient.) If you write many letters, you're gonna love this one! It's a collection of user-defined merge variables for the most common combinations of system-defined merge variables. Just one example: "Patient full name". This takes ALL of the following into account to build the appropriate full name for a patient (and there are versions for Responsible Party, Lives With, Referral Source, Primary and Secondary Insured Parties): Title, Legal name/First name, Middle initial, Last name, and Jr/Sr. So one merge variable will give you any of the following: Mr. Joseph A. Blow, Jr. Mr. Joe A. Blow, Jr. Mr. Joe Blow, Jr. Mr. Joe Blow Joe Blow and any other combination of these fields. Other examples include Address1+Address2, CityStateZIP, and Greeting. Also, there are a bunch of male/female pronoun combinations that let you use, for example, "he" or "she" in a document. And there are all the Primary and Secondary insurance merge variables you're likely to need, for the Insured Party, the Employer/Plan, and Insurance Company. Do a "custom" installation of the Exchange Pack, but just to see what all is in it. Once it comes up in the Expert Exchange window, drag and drop the entire "Misc merge variables" folder from the right side to the left side.

LH Referred Out Tracking System
Version: 11-22-2004
A complete system for tracking your referrals to specialists. The main part of the system is a set of Forms for recording each referral, and a Contact Expert for finding any "AWOL" patients (referred out and not seen again). There's an optional sub-system for printing the specialist referral documents, and another optional sub-system for recording and tracking any communications received from the specialist after the initial referral. 5/4/2003: UPDATED: A new version of the "Referred to " document has been added for each speciality; it lists all the specialists you refer to, and lets the patient select the one they see. 11/22/04: UPDATED: Added an AutoLink that displays the history of ReferOut Forms at patient seating if the patient has an incomplete "F/U" (follow-up) Form. To read the Article "The Lighthouse Referred Out Tracking System" for details on installation, configuration and usage, click here.

Lab cases outstanding CE
Version: 6-1-2003
A Contact Expert that shows all future appointments that have pending lab cases, not just for the next 30 days (which is all the system-defined lab tracking CE shows).

Birthday Contact Experts and card
Version: 06-18-2003
Two Contact Experts for finding people with birthdays coming up, and a "generic" birthday postcard.

LH99 Birthdays for one week (everyone with a birthday in the week that begins two weeks in the future) (This is the one we suggest you use - it's consistent with sending Recall and Appt Reminder postcards every week, and works the same way.)

LH99 Birthdays for a date range (everyone with a birthday in a date range that you're prompted for each time you run it)

This is the download that corresponds with the Lighthouse Article Sending birthday cards

The Rx Farm
Version: 8-15-2005
A collection of Rx's that aren't in the PW Plus Pack. These simply add to your list of Rx's when you write a new one. (We've also updated the PW Plus Pack Rx's to add the "Phoned in" option that's on all the LH Rx's. To download them, click here.) See the article that describes how to install and use them. 5/4/2005 UPDATE: Added a question for every brand-name drug asking if it's OK to dispense a generic, or "dispense as written." NOTE: If you have already installed any of these Rx's, and you now install the updated version, any changes you might have made to the Form or the Document (such as your practice name in the header) will be overwritten. So update with caution!

LH Informed Consent Documents
Version: 1.0
12 Informed Consent "sample" documents and the autolink to have the list displayed upon entering charting. These can be modified to fit your office or new ones added as needed. Be sure to read the associated article Informed Consents before using this pack.

LH Supplemental Recall System
Version: 8-28-2003
A Contact Expert that finds patients 18 months, 24 months, 30 months and 36 months past due for recall. Works just like the "LH Simple Recall Reminder System" (run it every Monday, etc.) See the accompanying article for details.

Recall Cleanup
Version: 1.0
This Contact Expert lists all patients who are marked as being on recall, yet who have not had a recall visit in the last 180 days. Use this to by simply clearing the "on recall" checkbox right on the Contact Expert. i.e., you don't even need to open the patient's Clipboard.

LH Inactivation Tracking
Version: 1.0
There are many reasons that a clipboard may be inactivated as well as many reasons for wanting to know "WHY" it was inactivated. By installing this system, you will be prompted to complete a form detailing the reason whenever you mark a clipboard as inactive. The associated contact expert will allow you to retrieve and sort this information to better monitor your practice.

Tx Plan Clean up
Version: 1.0
A Contact Expert to list tx plans that have not been accepted. Can be used as a starting point for cleaning-up old tx plans. This is for a member request. See this post for details.

New Patient Marketing Letter
Version: 1.0
A sample letter to be sent to new home owners in the area. This letter is used at Allen's office for prospecting purposes. Actually using this letter will require you modify the contents to match your office specifics.

For details on using this document, see this post.

Production and Collection Analysis Experts
Version: 05-11-2004
Three Analysis Experts related to Production and Collection: Production by Day of Month;Collection by Day of Month, and 12 Month's Monitors. These have previously been packaged in the "Various Analysis Experts" Exchange Pack.

RPs who have statements turned off
Version: 2-8-2004
A Contact Expert of all Responsible Parties who have had statement printing turned off. Created at the request of Club Member Jack Kall.

LH Zip Code Patient Analysis
Version: 1.0
This Analysis Expert will give a detailed account of a practice's patient distribution according to Zip Code distribution. This expert can be "pre-seeded" with the zip codes your office is most interested in. Use this in place of the built in report provided by PW "out of the box".

LH No Appt in X Months
Version: 1.0
All patients that have not visited the practice in X months (to be entered when running the contact expert 60 months = 5 years). This list will show when the patient LAST visited, when they FIRST visited and their ledger balance if any. An additional enhancement is to add the DISPLAY FAMILY INQUIRY to the ACTIONS button to allow you to see all family members at one time.

LH Treatment Tracking System
Version: 1.2
PLEASE READ the associated article prior to downloading and installing. This system will find all patients that have recently been seen, with an active treatment plan, and do not have a non-recall appointment. It will age and escalate their contact through a series of emails, postcards, and letters, resulting in a final CALL list for staff to contact. *** Updated to include MORE patients for contacting. Read article for details. ***

Referral Thank You Gift Tracking System
Version: 03/24/04
This system includes a Form for tracking which letters or gifts you have sent to your referral sources, a User Defined Contact Expert to show all the referral sources since a specified date and a document which will print to remind you that you need to send a letter or a gift (and will describe which one is appropriate to send). Click HERE to read the article associated with this download.

Monitors for 1 month, for Dr. Neumeister
Version: 05-01-2004
Production, Collection (both gross and net), new patient count, hygiene production - all by doctor, and all for one calendar month. Requested by Dr. Neumeister's office.

Treatment Proposal Tracking System
Version: 10-04-2004
A system for preparing a very nice looking treatment proposal for patients, and for tracking case presentation and acceptance. Consists of a Form, a Document, a Contact Expert, an Analysis Expert and several AutoLinks. 9/30/2004 UPDATE: Another version of the Form and Document were added. Treatment is presented as Immediate, Anticipated and Cosmetic/Elective phases. Just another way to present a significant case w/o using the PW Tx Proposal. See the article that describes the system by clicking here.

LH99 Production for new patients
A contact expert that lists all patients who were first seen within a specified time period, and the total production generated by those patients within a separate (or possibly the same) time period.

This was created in response to this post from a Club member

LH Emergency Visit No Return
Version: 1.0
Every office has emergency patients that seem to fall through the cracks. This system will create a follow-up letter for every new patient emergency as well as give a contact expert for further follow-up.

Clean Up Duplicate Companies
Version: 7-14-2004
A pair of Contact Experts that you can use to eliminate duplicate insurance companies and employer/plans.

An AutoLink that will alert you if you're checking in a patient whose insurance company or employer/plan is inactive (first two characters of the name are ZZ).

See the article that describes the whole process for cleaning up duplicates.

NP, Financial Policy and CC on File
Version: 04-21-2005
New patient letters, a financial policy that fully embraces "CC on file" and all the "CC on file" components, plus the AutoLinks to make this all work. You MUST read the associated article, or this system won't work - all of the AutoLinks are installed as "inactive" and won't do anything until you activate them. The article tells you how.

LH Vital Sign
Version: .9
Form to collect and document patient vital signs at the beginning of the appointment to make a permanent entry in the clinical record and possibly refer the patient to physician prior to treatment.

Late for Appointment System
Version: 6-5-2005
A system for tracking patients who are habitually late for appointments, and also for simply reminding the front desk team members to get approval from the clinical team members before 'accepting' a patient who is more than 15 minutes late for an appointment. Click here to read the article that describes how to install and use the system.

Chart Retirement
Version: 10-20-2005
A Contact Expert (LH01 Chart Pull) that tells you which of your patients on a specified day have a chart to pull. Excludes all patients who were new to your practice after the day you stopped making charts for new patients. (You must modify the Expert so it knows this date for your office!) Excludes anyone with "RET" or "BOX" as the first 3 characters of their Chart Number field. See the Article Chart Retirement Protocol and Checklist for a detailed description of the chart retirement process.

Custom Analysis for Gary Login
An Analysis Expert created for Gary Login that we do not recommend anyone (even Gary!) use or rely on as accurate.



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 Kudzu Project

General Discussion (Kudzu)


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 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