July 9, 2004 to September 2, 2004

Hello!

It's time again to update you on all the cool things happening on Club Lighthouse! This newsletter represents a summary of the best of what's going on at the web site.

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
Clean Up Duplicate Companies
Almost every practice has duplicate insurance companies and employer/plans that shouldn't be there, and they not only cause confusion, they almost certainly result in problems with insurance estimating, because you just can't keep them all current. This article describes the process of cleaning up the duplicates, using a pair of Lighthouse Contact Expert specifically created for the job.

 

Preventing New Emergency Patients From Becoming Painful For YOU
One of the most frequent sources of problem accounts is the new patient emergency - they call, you squeeze them into your schedule, get them out of pain, somehow they leave without paying their entire balance, and then the fun begins. Statements, calls, letters, and eventually sending them to collections. The other side of the coin is that a new patient who comes to you in pain can become a good patient, with a lot of dental needs and the ability and willingness to pay for it. Your challenge is figuring out what kind of NPE (New Patient - Emergency) you're dealing with, in about a minute, on the phone.

Allen and Bridgett were faced with this dilemma years ago, when the practice was young and they were very eager to get lots of new patients. But Allen, being the astute business manager that he is, actually wanted to make sure they got paid for all the work Bridgett did. (What a concept!) Here's what they started doing, and it has worked wonderfully for them, and we're sure it will work for you, too.

 

Using the Expert Exchange with PW 5.0.3
Version 5.0.3 of PW replaces the old, reliable, useful Expert Exchange program with one that, as far as we can tell, does absolutely nothing other than cause trouble. What kind of trouble? Well, it's not "backward compatible" with previously created Exchange Packs, so it won't work with anything created by Lighthouse.

Fortunately, there's a pretty simple solution; just reinstall the old one. This article tells you how.

 

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

LH Simple Recall System
Version: 7-25-2004
A Contact Expert, documents and "smart" AutoLinks that make it simple to send a series of recall reminder cards, and to do it once a week. See the Article "A Simple Recall System" for all the details. There are two versions of the Contact Expert - one to use if you don't do any calling of patients for recall, and another if you do want to call patients (in addition to sending the e-mails, postcards and letters). There are also some other "specific-use" Recall Contact Experts, including one just for kids, to be used when you're coming up on a school break. 6-1-2004: Minor update - changed the two "coming due" documents to use which takes a forced recall date into account, unlike the system-defined . 7-22-2004: Major update - added 4 letters to send to perio patients (anyone who's ever had a scaling/root planing or a perio maintenance visit) instead of the e-mails and postcards. The tone of them is much more serious, dealing with "periodontal disease" and keeping treatment costs under control, etc.

Completed treatment notes
Version: 7-19-2004
A set of notes to document completed treatment. Read the associated Article entitled "Going Chartless Part 4: Completed Treatment Note Templates" for details on installation and use.

Now available in version 5 format!!

Medical / dental history
Version: 07-19-04
All the components needed to gather, store, update and review patients' medical and dental history. This is the download companion to the Going Chartless article on collecting Medical/Dental History.

UPDATED 01-20-04 to add a version of the Patient Info Update document that will print correctly from the patient Clipboard. Also added a few more of the fields from the Medical / Personal History Form to the Patient Info Update document, so patients have even less to hand write on an update. FIXED 1-23-04: One of the document merge variables couldn't be edited by users. Fixed. UPDATED 2-3-2004: Added a checkbox "Review this Form when writing Rx's" to the Medical/Personal History Form. Allows you to "integrate" with the Rx System (pop up this Form every time you look at a patient's Rx History, from the [Rx History] button in Charting). UPDATED: 2-23-2004: The "Last " merge variables at the bottom of the Patient Info Update documents now look at the "Outside x-rays received" Form, in addition to the ledger, to get the most accurate information.

PW Plus Pack Updated Rxs
Version: 07-19-2004
All the Rx's in the PW Plus Pack that ships w/ PW, updated as follows: -Added "Phoned in" question -Added "Pharmacy name and number" question -Reorganized them so they're simple to install. -Made AutoLink that prints the document not print if the "Phoned in" checkbox is checked NOTE: These AutoLinks to DO NOT overwrite the existing AutoLinks, so if you're re-installing any of these Rx's, you'll end up with TWO AutoLinks. To delete the one you don't want: 1. Edit the Rx Form (Experts _ Automation Expert _ Responses _ Forms). 2. Click the [AutoLinks] button. 3. If there are two, remove the first one. If there is only one, do nothing. 4. Do this for each Rx that you install from this Exchange Pack. If you don't, the Rx document will print even if you check the "Phoned in" checkbox.

For Gary Login
Version: 8-13-2004
2 custom Contact Experts Patients who have had a CEMENT in the past few days. Patients who have had a document in a selected category within a prompted date range.

LH Treatment Tracking System
Version: 1.1
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.

Treatment Proposal Tracking System
Version: 07-23-2004
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. See the article that describes the system by clicking 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

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.

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.

Active patients with and without appt
Version: 7-28-2004
An AE that counts all active patients (those not "Inactive" as well as those not seen in X months), and divides them into those w/ appointments and those w/o. For Stan Kass - a one-time only need.

LH Temporary Restoration
Version: 1.0
Form and Contact Expert to track outstanding temporary restorations especially for future appointments.

INI entry writer
Version: 1.0
A program that writes command line parameters to a Windows .INI file in the specified section. Used as an experiment to launch TigerView via the Automation Expert. Use of this utility was described in this post.

PW Expert Exchange version 5.0.1
Version: 5.0.1
This is the Expert Exchange program from PW version 5.0.1, which has to be used instead of the one that comes with version 5.0.3. Read this article for a detailed explanation of how to install it.



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

Analysis Expert Cell Farm

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

Club Lighthouse

General discussion (Lighthouse)

The Suggestion Box



Seminar schedule


Lighthouse Cruise!
The "We love our members" Valentine's Cruise (Feb 6-13, 2005)

We are so pleased to announce the first (of many, we hope) Club Lighthouse Illumination Seminars on a boat - a really big boat - Royal Caribbean's "Rhapsody of the Seas"! There will be seminars where you'll learn things you can't get from any other Lightouse seminar, there will be lots of opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with fellow PracticeWorks users, and a whole lotta fun!

For more information, click here!


New Seminar - 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
Six new dates added!

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 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