practice management computer systems

Re: practice management computer systems

Philip Balchin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 16:21:02 GMT

Hi Aileen, You may wish to have a look at easyVET (not ezivet pro). easyVET have only been in the U.K. for the past 2 years but are the largest supplier of practice managment systems in Europe and third in the world, with over 4200 installations. From the single vet to Universities (Hannover to name one), small animal, equine and large animal,easyVET will handle any requirement. You can synchronise laptops with the main server so they can be used in the field, literally. We offer first class support and once paid for, there are no recurring license fees every year which can make a system that seemed low cost at the start, quite expensive after a few years. Although not yet on their website we will shortly have all the benefits of Vetenvoy within our system. If you would like a demonstration please contact me via this website or call on 01556 650460.

Phil Balchin

VetZ Ltd.

Re: practice management computer systems

Bob Russell — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 11:28:46 GMT

It is interesting how much variation there seems to be with peoples experiences. Vetsolutions supplied a Fujitsu Siemans server and this has been a complete disaster and is now residing in a skip. All our Dells (now very ancient) are still going strong. I have heard that newer ones are less reliable but I have a fairly recent model at home and it has been great!

Ezevet Pro seems much cheaper up front than some of the others and as I have said earlier has shown itself to be bomb-proof! Cosmetically it could be a little more exciting but at the end of the day once you are used to a system these things don't matter much.

Our staff were using its basic functions within minutes so practice life went on almost uninterupted. It seems to be as logical as Mr Spock!!!

Re: practice management computer systems

Colin Cameron — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 01:02:07 GMT

[quote user="James Allsop"]

It is not the easiest to get the information for marketing etc that you might want, even standard KPI's like average client spend are not readily available but they can write a search and upload it. Support initially was very good but they have now focused most of their efforts into their new system - Voyager, and they have re-structured their Enterprise support dept which is now less effective.

They recommended Dell PC's and these have been poor quality and expensive with regular RAM and HDD failure - 12 RAM and 5 HDD failures over 5yrs on 10PC's which until you get to know whats gone wrong requires a site visit.

[/quote] You have been rather unlucky. I can only remember 1 failure of machine in the original batch of 7 + server until we got to the seven year stage ( on 24 hours a day since Nov 2002). then a couple had had enough and died. We replaced the whole lot with Dell again as well as upgrading to Voyager early this year and are very happy we did so ( significant improvement all round from Enterprise ) I suggest anyone still on Enterprise gives Voyager a look. It is quite impressive! I am now on second Dell laptop and so far it has been trouble free ( Latitude 6500). first one still functions but a bit slow (Latitude D610). So far my experience of Dell is mainly positive but you never know what tomorrow may bring!!!

Re: practice management computer systems

Andrew Henfrey — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 19:46:14 GMT

We have been using ezVetPro for the last 5 years for a 100% SA practice (single branch). It's very stable, gives good reports, and when we bought it the upfront costs were nowhere near the cost of Jupiter, Robovet or Teleos. The licences are a bit more expensive each year but there was no 3 year tie-in period (unlike some). It just means if you don't like the system you can change without being excessively penalised. I've never once thought about changing though as the support is always excellent.

I'm sure at one point I read that the system can synchronise a laptop with the main server, so LA vets can each have a laptop in the car with up-to-date client info.

We changed from Verifac Mobius and the data transfer was excellent. They had a copy of the database and sorted the configuration before they downloaded the last database over 16 hours via broadband and then converted. The system was up and running within 48 hours.

Hope this helps

Andrew

Re: practice management computer systems

Ian Mostyn — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 18:52:44 GMT

I have chosen HP computers for work and they have been very reliable. I have 2 units over 6 years old running XP and going strong. A couple of hard drive failures (Firebirds were a bad choice by HP) but decent drives now and no problem. I have also got 2 small-form factor Acer Veritons recently. £200 ish with XP and they mount on the back of the monitor. For a terminal server system like Teleos the atom processor is more than enough and the energy savings help. No more bulky units to hide and get hot. I suspect I will get more when I need to replace / expand.

Ian

Re: practice management computer systems

James Allsop — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:33:29 GMT

We changed from Midshires 5yrs ago and short listed Telios and Jupiter Enterprise. We went with Enterprise as I felt that as it is windows based it would be more familiar for the staff to use. This has proven well as even our elderly receptionist manages better with this than the old Midshires and was happy to use it within 5days. Support has been good and mostly done remotely via the broadband. Site visits are set price but are only necessary due to hardware failure or changes. The system has been very stable, although we had a couple of hard drives fail on the server but redundancy is built in so there was no down time during surgery. The general PC's are interchangable so if a consult PC fails it can be swopped for a less used office PC until repair.

Overall I'm generally pleased with the ease of use, quality, support and flexibility of the system. Although we are SA only I can see that it should run farm and equine adequately.

Re: practice management computer systems

Colin Cameron — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:11:13 GMT

[quote user="Bob Russell"]

We had Jupiter for a number of years. It worked very well but despite paying for support / licence we had to pay extra for any 'tweaks'. I think it was £6 per CD if we wanted another report. £200 if a visit was required includiing upgrades. This rather grated as we were already paying through the nose. We were not impressed with their level of support either but sods law as soon as we decided to change someone new started in the support department who was much more helpful. Hopefully these niggles have been resolved.

[/quote]

I have never had to pay for any tweaks as they tend to be included in the next upgrade anyway. Almost all the support is now done remotely and for free. last upgrade was also free and done remotely. Very few site visits are now required and we find the support from Jupiter first class. Of course nothing is ever perfect but I still think it would be very hard to better this system

Re: practice management computer systems

Bob Russell — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:37:36 GMT

Next was Robovet!! Seemed to crash in minor ways rather a lot but was up and running very rapidly. Support was good but needed regularly. It required the use of a rainforest of A4 paper to do the simplest print out. A regular client history could take 20 pages to print out. I understand there is a newer version now so much may have changed.

Now with ezevet pro. Quite inexpensive to buy, not particularly exciting to look at but works competently, is extremely reliable. A very good workhorse and would recommend it!

As you can see we have used a number of systems but have found one now that works well.

Re: practice management computer systems

Ian Mostyn — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:33:14 GMT

[quote user="Laurence Webb"]Generally it's been pretty reliable although I remember someone in a previous discussion saying that they had trouble linking up different branches.[/quote]

Our only trouble linking up is the broadband connection. I am about to increase our upload speeds from the server end which should help. Some of the lifelearn handouts can take a minute or two to transfer to the printer. We also have quite a few more connections now but Teleos has been stable so far. The speed issue would be the same with any supplier

Ian

Re: practice management computer systems

Laurence Webb — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:43:49 GMT

We've had Teleos for about 5 years now and got on well. We're small animal only, but the system is readily customisable so you can change the 'consult' and lab screens quite easily to your own requirements.

Generally it's been pretty reliable although I remember someone in a previous discussion saying that they had trouble linking up different branches.

Re: practice management computer systems

Ian Mostyn — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:30:57 GMT

Give Teleos and Verifac a ring and ask them to put you in touch with a couple of LA practices using their systems. We have had a couple of phone calls in this way and I was happy to answer questions. If they wont (or can't) suggest anyone, use someone else.

Ian

PS Teleos works well for us SA

Re: practice management computer systems

Colin Cameron — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 09:39:54 GMT

[quote user="Aileen"]

We are a 75% 4 vet LA practice & we have to update our current Datavet (ex Dunwoods) system. This is a basic dos base system which has served us well for last 20 yrs. My current thoughts are to stick with what we know although this has much less potential on the SA side or we have looked at a no. of systems of which we think Teleos & Verifac are 2 of the better ones but we are worried they are not very well adapted for LA. Does any one else have experience on this? Also has any one any feedback about changing on to either of these systems? I think that they can convert almost any data to run on this system. Our records were archived on day 1 but remain accessible at the click of a mouse with account balances set as opening balances

[/quote]

Having looked as many systems I chose Jupiter for this mixed 75% SA 2 branch practice when we finally came into the modern computerised era in 2003 !!. This system handles SA, LA and equine equally well as parallel modules but all interlinked (ie Clients can have either SA, LA or equine accounts, or a combination). My partner used it in a purely equine practice and had no trouble. I would recommend that you look at this system. One minor point is that some of the systems produce absolutely awful print-outs of case histories, some of which are virtually indecipherable!! One such print-out I saw recently used a whole sheet of A4 paper to deliver 6 lines of clinical notes but the rest as who did the work ( in bold capitals!) amd when they were seen etc. I think Jupiter has one of the best. We recently upgraded to their Voyager system and find it so easy to use and amazingly powerful in data crunching if you so wish. Also this system just looks so smart and professional with no gimmicks. All new staff can usethe basics well with about half an hour's training, vets included!! We have found the back-up from Jupiter to be first rate and their staff a pleasure to deal with.I have heard through the jungle telegraph that some companies are not so good. I have not seen any other system which I would be tempted to change to. I hope this helps.