NZPPA (New Zealand Private Physiotherapists Association) recently interviewed Houston Medical and asked some questions of our Physiotherapy Software. We have reproduced the article here:

Featured in the December issue of Physio Focus Magazine.

Getting the Best out of your Practice Management System

How much do you know about your business on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis? Are you waiting for your accountant to do your annual reports, before you know how well you did last year, or are you confident that the decisions you make in your business are based on good information systems and an ability to predict what your business challenges are going to be now and in the future? Are you basing your business decisions such as marketing, employing an extra staff member, purchasing of equipment etc on sound financial data and service delivery?

The recent “Independent Review of ACC Funding the Physiotherapy Service”, highlighted the lack of data provided by the physiotherapy sector as bases for decision making. It was not that the data received wasn’t sound, but that because it came from a small group it could be easily manipulated to provide information one way or another. Why have we not provided this information? Is it by choice or is it because it is too difficult?

As business owners are you getting the best out of your computer software? What is physio software being used for: - appointment books, patient notes -or is there more? We asked software Providers’ Houston what their practice management system is capable of?

Questions

1. Reporting systems: How easy is it for users to extract information through reporting? Are reports easy to design? Will they know what they look like? How reliable is the information, what is used to qualify the data? Is there help readily accessible to assist if they are not sure and is there a cost for the help?

Software Providers’ Response

Houston says, “Houston VIP has an excellent fully customizable report-writer system as part of the package. This is in addition to the many reports that are already included with any installation. “If you put it in, you can get it out!” but you must put it in! Once made, reports can be saved for future use and can be exported/imported to share between practices or downloaded off the Houston Web.

If you require more in-depth reporting, or use external parties such as Accountants or Consultants, VIP can export all the reports to an Excel Spreadsheet format.

User Defined Forms: VIP includes customizable pages. You can create your own screens, including any type of fields, drop down menus, checkboxes and more. These screens are limitless in their depth, and many screens can link together – both in the Demographics areas of the program, and the Clinical area. VIP users can collect much more information from clients than the standard name/address/claim info, and build a much better profile. As would be expected, the ability to generate reports from ANY of the User Defined Forms is all included, and simple to access.”

Extracting data for external stakeholders: How easy is it to extract information for external stakeholders such as ACC? Can the information be integrated into accounting packages such as the one accountants use to produce annual reports?

Software Providers’ Response

Houston says, “All User- defined and some Pre-Defined Reports can be exported to Excel. Many of our clients send regular financial reports to Accountants and Consultants, and clinical or claim information for ACC or insurance companies. If the accounting package can import a CSV file created in Excel there should be no difficulty in integration but because Houston completely manages debtors this may not be necessary.”

Accounting: Can physiotherapy practices do GST and PAYE returns, through their practice management system? Can physiotherapy practices run their bank account, payroll, debtors and creditors ledger in house? Can physiotherapy practice owners ensure that only they or nominated staff members have access to this information? Is it possible to remote access to do this work at home?

Software Providers’ Response

Houston says,” Houston VIP is fully GST compliant and able to provide financial information based on revenue – be it from patient, ACC, insurance companies, or employers. GST for revenue, or sales, is calculated via a wide variety of financial reports. Houston VIP manages stock and inventory, which is GST compliant. Suppliers and incoming goods/invoices can be set to include or exclude GST as they are entered, and full reporting including stocktaking is included.

VIP manages all the cash and cheque banking, direct-credits, eftpos, or credit-card payments, and give details on a daily basis of cash-flow and banking history. This can be reconciled against bank statements. VIP is supports multiple bank-accounts, for multiple Providers’ and/or multiple businesses within the same database.

VIP offers complete management of all debtors, including aged-debtors reports, sending of patient/third-party/acc monthly statements. Letters can be generated via reports for overdue payments.

VIP financial reports can generate information for individual physiotherapists on contract-based payments, or payment-per-treatment arrangements. Time based calculations can also be done. Payroll for admin staff etc, is not part of the VIP program, and apart from managing Suppliers and Stock, does not have a creditor’s ledger.

Security is a big part of Houston VIP, and individual users can be fully configured. Groups can be set up to allow access to clinical information, financial information or set-up areas. For example reception staff as a group can be denied access to financial reports, whereas admin staff can have access to reports but not clinical information.

Remote access is simple and straightforward provided the correct network infrastructure has been installed. We have set up remote access for many of our clients, and as long as it is done correctly, it is safe, secure and fast. Once the access has been granted, then it is possible to work as if you were in front of the PC.”

4. Supplier support & service level agreements: What training or tutorials are available? Can help be requested as it is needed, or is it provided at the start? What is the cost and how is it paid for?

Software Providers’ Response

Houston says,” All our clients are required to have a “Support and Maintenance Agreement” with Houston Medical. This entitles them to regular updates, which include the improvements as we develop them, as well as ensuring that the program is kept 100% up to date with any legislative or ACC changes as necessary.

In addition, the agreement entitles access to 0800 toll-free telephone support, remote support via our fully-staffed helpdesk, and exclusive access to our library of help files, User Defined Forms, support documents, how-to’s and manuals, which are all available via the Houston Medical website. The helpdesk is available from 8.30am – 5.30pm Monday – Friday and after-hours and weekends for emergency support.

The Houston Medical website is regularly updated, and the Houston VIP program integrates with the website to search for solutions when problems occur. A fully indexed knowledge-base is included on the website.

Forum’s for program development, suggestions, and changes will shortly be available.

When clients initially sign up with Houston Medical, we provide full onsite training for the program, including at least two onsite visits. Additional training is provided on request, and we can offer a variety of options for keeping our clients up-to-date, including online training, site-visits and or documentation.

Houston Medical has Support Groups and meetings in major centres throughout New Zealand – this is an ideal opportunity for clients to meet and discuss how they utilize the features within VIP. We provide presentations of new features, and proposed changes, and invite input.

Training is provided and charged on an hourly basis. Payment is accepted via direct-credit or cheque.”

5. Ease and cost of upgrades: Is it easy for physiotherapy practices to keep their software up to date? If physiotherapy practices need to customise their system, what will it cost them?

Software Providers’ Response

Houston says,” VIP connects to the Houston Medical website to collect small updates and, larger system-wide upgrades are sent to the clients on CD with instructions. Alternatively, full packages can be downloaded off the internet.

We offer extensive information on customisation and how-to’s, and if clients need assistance they can contact the helpdesk via email, telephone or a website request. We often build “User Defined Forms” for clients, especially in the clinical area, which we can then export and send to clients who can import them into their own system and immediately start using them. We have a library of forms which are available free-of-charge, but new forms or forms that we consider not suitable for use by a majority of our other clients, are chargeable at the hourly rate. “

6. Back-up systems: How easy is it to do regular backup of data? Will it interfere with daily functions?

Software Providers’ Response

Houston says,” Houston VIP contains a backup program which backs up all database files and any other files/folders as specified, such as “My Documents”. Many smaller practices use this included program, but larger practices with a bigger network infrastructure opt for a tape-based solution. Backups require exclusive access to the system, so requires all users to quit (VIP can send a message to all users), and can be scheduled to run during the night. Our recommended backup practices are for offsite storage, and easy access to the backup media in the event of a disaster”

7. Can the IT system grow with the business: Can physiotherapy practices purchase what they need now, and extend on the systems in the future or will they have to pay for what they don’t need now or have to buy a completely new system as the business grows?

Software Providers’ Response

Houston says,” Houston Medical encourages growth within the industry. There has a been a move towards multiple clinics linking together and running off a single database – some of our clients are running 30+ computers, with clinics linked across the entire country. These same clients started off a number of years ago as a single-user system, with a basic Houston package for billing ACC.”

8. And is there more? Is there something we haven’t asked but we need to know? Please provide a brief summary.

Software Providers’ Response

Houston says,” There are many areas within the program that are not covered here, but are equally, if not more important than the focus above on reporting. For example, the ability to make and track appointments for clients instantly, as well as find future empty slots. Busy receptionists with customers at the counter, phones ringing, and a full waiting room, need a system which can deliver the results quickly and efficiently – Houston VIP delivers on this with our intuitive appointments book.

VIP has the functionality to send text messages to patients from within the appointment book for reminders or any other occasion thus reducing the number of DNA’s.

Health professionals are demanding more feedback from those they refer to, making the use of electronic messaging to send summaries more common. VIP simplifies the process of creating outgoing letters, automating the creation, saving and printing of letters, and marking for electronic transmission.

Tablet PC’s and technology, coupled with wireless networks; make it simpler for practitioners to quickly enter clinical notes electronically. For some practitioners handwriting and speech recognition are replacing keyboard entry. These technologies work seamlessly within Houston VIP.

Technology and the computer industry is constantly evolving! At Houston Medical, we stay at the forefront of technology developments as they arrive. We are always considering ways to embrace and improve the usability of our program.”