How should we improve OrthoTrac?

[FormerPLM]

[[NOTE: This discussion is being locked as of April 2018 as it is now two years old and the thread is now 10 pages in length.   Please be assured that none of your suggestions have been lost!  All of them have been read and received by Management.  A new thread has been created here for continuing discussion:

How should we improve OrthoTrac? -- Part 2 

Please feel free to add any future suggestions there!  You may also post a new topic of your own using the "Idea" feature.  The benefit of doing this is that all Ideas can be voted on by the community.  The more votes a suggestion gets, the higher visibility it is.

Thank you,

Phil Carter / OrthoTrac Escalations]]

ORIGINAL POST BELOW, created September 2016

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Good morning OrthoTrac Community,

Here's a loaded question...what should we do to improve OrthoTrac?  Bug fixes and minor enhancements aside, what big things should we do?  Would it be a lab case module?  Electronic forms?  Toothchart changes?  TX Card improvements? Reporting?

I'd love to hear your ideas!

Thanks in advance for your input!

Jeff

[Anon]

Good day Laura (sundberg101‌), 

Thanks for chiming in!  I should note that it's easy to keep staff from overriding those blockouts by making a change in Security (please note that only the office manager will generally have access to Security Maintenance). I did neglect to mention this in my reply to Claudia, though, so I'm tagging her now (claudiamiz) to make sure she knows this. 

To prevent staff from overriding areas coded for "blocked out/unavailable":

1. From the main menu of OrthoTrac, click Functions, Maintenance/Set-up, Security.

2. Enter the password to open the security window. If security is not set up with a password, skip this step.

3. Select the staff member from the By Staff drop-down box. If the change is being made for all staff members with the same title, select the title from the By Staff Type drop-down box.

4. Select the Scheduling option from the Category list.

5. Select Override Block Outs from the list of Functions.

6. Select the No option from the drop-down box.

7. Click OK to close the Security window.

8. Repeat steps 1 through 6 for any additional staff members or staff types.

9. Restart OrthoTrac for the change to take effect.

For this reason, Development has previously said they will not add a new "blockout" in Scheduling, as they feel the existing "block out" already prevents scheduling of appointments when properly configured.

Your second recommendation is actually the solution many offices have chosen if they change their schedules frequently to have different start and end times, but it bears repeating because this is a very good solution.  Set up schedule templates that START very early in the day and END very late in the day, but are only opened for appointments during their actual scheduled times. Then if those days need to be opened for extra time at the beginning or end of the day, it's easy to just open the already-existing slots.  The same thing can be done for the chairs -- create schedule templates which have as many chairs as you will EVER need, and then only set appointments in the ones which are actually needed on most days.  Then if an extra "overflow" chair/assistant is needed, it's easy to just open the already-existing slots. 

Regardless, many offices have asked previously for the ability to add chairs or time to already-existing schedule days.  We know the demand is there for such a feature, it is just difficult to add from a programmatic standpoint. 

Thanks again for your input!

Regards,

Phil Carter / Orthotrac Escalations

[claudiamiz]

I would like to see more flexibility in the schedule. For example, being able to close a day without losing all of the patients who may be already scheduled or being able to extend the hours of the day without having to delete the entire day and re-enter all of the appointments.

Another issue I have with the schedule is that I cannot block out a period of time where no patients can be scheduled. That is very frustrating

[Anon]

Good day Claudia  (claudiamiz‌),

I need clarification on the first item you mentioned, please.  When you say "close a day", please clarify what you mean by that.  If you are talking about deleting the CURRENT day from the schedule, for any patients that are still on the schedule (that is, still in patient flow and not checked out yet) will of course be marked as no-shows because they were not properly checked all the way through patient flow.  If this is not what you mean, please give me some more details.

The second item you mentioned (adding time to the beginning or end of an existing schedule day)  has been brought up in a previous post you made, but unfortunately the response is still the same as it was then -- implementing this from a programmatic standpoint is very difficult.  It was already forwarded to Development as a suggestion, nevertheless. 

As for blocking out time on the schedule to prevent appointments from being scheduled, this functionality is already available in OrthoTrac.  Slots marked as unavailable for appointments will appear in a light gray. 

1.  Select the schedule day you want to modify from the schedule calendar. 

2.  Click the "Zoom" button. 

3.  Click the "Change" button. 

4.  Verify that the "Block Time Slots" radio button is selected (it is set by default). 

5.  Click on any currently open time slot to mark it as unavailable.  Existing multi-block appointment blockouts, if clicked, will ask if you want to block all slots for that appointment type.  

You may also click on a time slot, hold the mouse button, and drag the mouse to mark multiple slots as unavailable.  When you release the mouse button, all those slots will be marked as unavailable. 

6.  When you are finished making changes, click "Done" and then "Close".

If you have any questions on this process, please let me know!

Regards,

Phil Carter / Orthotrac Escalations

[brandie36]

Go to the day that you want to extend, click on zoom, then click change. From there you can block out time that you don't want to have patients by clicking block time and highlighting the time that you don't want patients. To open time you click the open time and highlight the time that you want to open and select the color that you want it to be. I use it all the time. 

[Anon]

Thank you Brandie (brandie36)  for the helpful reply!  

Regards,

Phil Carter / Orthotrac Escalations

[sundberg101]

I have a question regarding the claims module. We have almost 10 years of printed claims information stored in OrthoTrac. My predecessors never deleted printed claims from the claim history when they were paid. The reasoning being that there are occasions where we have to go back to see the claim history due to an insurance question or new insurance.  I have recently started deleting claims when treatment is completed. With more and more insurance companies switching payments via EFT's midway through treatment on more than one occasion I've had to hunt down a mystery EFT payment. Could a "paid" status be added to the claims module? This way I could run a report on COT claims marked unpaid. Currently I can only run reports for printed or unprinted ones and on more than one occasion have had to spend hours trying to figure out which patient a random EFT was for. 

If there was a way to mark a claim paid but not delete the claim from the claims history window it would be so helpful. I could then just run a report for unpaid claims that fell within a particular range of dates.

[Anon]

Good day Laura (sundberg101‌), 

Adding a "continuation of treatment claims - paid" would probably require a fairly major redesign of the Claims module.  How do claims get marked as paid? On what screen would you make that change? Should there be a method to batch mark multiple claims as paid but leave others?  Should there be any kind of checks and balances to prevent claims from being marked as paid without proof?  What new reports would have to be developed to go along with the new option?    Etc.  

However, as always we are happy to receive your suggestions and I am tagging the current Orthotrac PLM uriyahrobinson‌ to make sure he is aware of the feedback.  

Thanks!

Regards,

Phil Carter / Orthotrac Escalations

[kasianne1]

We recently had an issue with eForms. When the eforms were emailed to the patient it would place the location as our main office only. Orthotrac had a few hours in our server trying to get it to decipher between offices with no luck. They had to take out the location all together. So when our new patients get their eforms it does not confirm what office their appointment is. So my suggestion is to have the software pull directly from their appointment to put the location in the new patient form email. 

[Anon]

Good day KasiAnne (kasianne1), 

Looking at Rich Shenberger's notes on that issue it appears the fix he gave you was done as a workaround.  It does seem like this is a design flaw which could be addressed so I am tagging the current Orthotrac PLM uriyahrobinson to make sure he's aware of your suggestion. 

Thanks for the feedback!

Regards,

Phil Carter / Orthotrac Escalations

[brandie36]

I don't know if it is a copyright issue, but it would be nice if you could fill out the ADA 2006 claim forms on the screen and print it from there instead of printing it on an already printed form. Your fields never match up nicely and so it doesn't look as nice as if you could if it was printed directly from the screen. 

[Anon]

Good day Brandie (brandie36‌),

This isn't the first time this kind of request has been made.  Unfortunately, you've guessed the reason we do not print the actual forms themselves.  It is because of licensing and copyright reasons;  it would be prohibitively expensive to be able to acquire the licensing rights to be able to print the ADA forms themselves, costs which we would then have to pass on in some way to our customers.  Printing the data only is a compromise which was deemed best.

I will note that because of variations in spacing on the claim forms supplied by various manufacturers, it's important to keep in mind that we can only guarantee that the claim forms will print properly if they were provided by our partner RR Donnelley.  For more information on this, as well as information on the use of the margin adjustment utility which can be used to make alterations in the way the claim forms print, please see our knowledge article Orthotrac - Insurance Claims are Not Lining Up Properly Within the Margins When Printing . 

If you have any other questions, please let us know!

Regards,

Phil Carter / Orthotrac Escalations

[brandie36]

I would love it if you could scroll using the arrow keys when you are in the patient search screen. Right now you have to use your mouse to select the patient. By scrolling with the arrow keys, especially when there is just a short list would be much faster. 

[Anon]

Good day Brandie brandie36), 

OrthoTrac does already allow you to scroll through the patient lookup list using the arrow keys;  however, to be able to do so, you first have to use the mouse to click on any name in the list to make the highlighted name "active".  After that you can scroll up and down with the arrow keys.  I don't know whether it will be possible to have OrthoTrac automatically "focus" the first patient in the list so that you don't actually have to click in that window before the scroll will work, but I can pass that request on to Development.  Tagging the current OrthoTrac PLM uriyahrobinson‌  to make sure he sees this.

Thank you for the suggestion!

Regards,

Phil Carter / Orthotrac Escalations

[brandie36]

Yep, you are right. I learned something new today. I would be nice though if it could automatically focus on the first patient so you don’t have to click the mouse, it just is a waste of time when you have to grab the mouse first, you may as well click on the patient that you are already searching for rather than doing the scroll. It seems like one of the older versions let you scroll without clicking on the mouse first. Thank you for the tip.

[james.rubbo]

Hi Brandie,

You can also use the enter key on your keyboard to focus on the patient at the top of your list.

Pressing Enter once will focus on the patient, pressing enter a second time will open the selected patient.

This means you do not need to grab the mouse in order to start scrolling or to open the patient chart.

I hope this helps.

Regards

James Rubbo | International DPMS Service | Australia 

[brandie36]

Thanks! 

[Anon]

Hi James,

And now it's *my* turn to learn something new for the day. Wasn't aware of this and thanks for passing it on to Brandie.  I'm tagging her here in case she didn't see your reply. brandie36‌,  looks like the Enter key will take care of things for you!

Thanks,

Phil Carter / Orthotrac Escalations

[thebigsmile]

The patient information sheet that can be printed on a specific patient or blank form should be able to be edited so we can add specific criteria like a health history questionnaire with yes/ no sections.  (this is for returning patients and to verify new information/ medical history changes and not fill out a full New Patient form) Adding a Hippa acknowledgment as well to make things easier for returning patients

[Anon]

Good day Roxy (thebigsmile‌),

Thank you for the suggestion.  We will review it, but I think it's unlikely that it will be implemented.  The Patient Information Form has been hard-coded to pull specific information from the patient's chart because it is intended as a one-time thing.  If you need a form which retains previously entered patient information and has additional questions about new information / history changes, I recommend you set up a questionnaire which can be executed multiple times for any given patient.   For more information, please see our knowledge article Documentation: Setting Up Questionnaires   . 

Thank you again for your suggestions!

Regards,

Phil Carter / Orthotrac Escalations

[thebigsmile]

When a patient calls and schedules an appointment and due to a language barrier- the name is misspelled- it would be nice to not have to cancel the appointment to update then name, otherwise the CBCT and photos come out with the incorrect spelling

[Anon]

Good day Roxy (thebigsmile‌),

Your first suggestion is a good one.  Tagging the OrthoTrac PLM uriyahrobinson‌  to make sure he is aware of that suggestion.  

For your second suggestion, that issue has been previously reported as a defect in OrthoTrac and is scheduled to be corrected in a future version of the software. 

Thank you again for your suggestions!

Regards,

Phil Carter / Orthotrac Escalations