Conversion issues, should I start from scratch ?

[azzedine]

Hi all,

I'm new to OD, to be hones my new to the dental field. My wife is the dentist and since I work in IT I'm the one in charge of the IT.

We're switching from an old software named Practice Outlook (1993), we did a test conversion and the results are really not great. Parsing issues that lead to "fake patient" with random strings in it, existing patient with random string at the end of the first name/last name, same deal with the insurances and as this was not enough the finance info are wrong :/

Anyway it's a mess, but we need to update our software because I'm the only who can use it right now and the front desk is lost (it even has a DOS interface hahha). What do you guys suggest ?

On a related note, It seems to me that most dentist would use insurances so why OP doesn't ship with insurance addresses/po box for major provider ? Am I missing something ?

Thanks
Azzedine

[Manny Ramirez]

I think you've already answered your own question. Here are three things I think you've heard of before in IT:
KISS (Keep it simple stupid)
If in doubt throw it out
Garbage in Garbage out

Keep the old system. Learn OD and start from scratch. That way you will have a clean system

PD: By the way, OD doesn't know which insurances your wife will take... that is why OD leaves it up to you to fill them out. I know sucks but that makes it twice the fun.

[jsalmon]

I don't know what insurance companies were like 20 years ago (I was a baby) but there are tons nowadays. So to ask us to bloat our database and make our users filter through the plethora of insurance companies is quite the expectation. It would be a full time job just to have someone maintain that list and make sure that the addresses / names of the companies are up to date. To be honest, I can't see how that would be worth the money in the long run.

[stjames70]

We only starting to convert to OD in 2008 when we acquired DEXIS at the same time. I suggest you start from scratch. Just log in the new patients as they show up and keep your old system functional for a specified time period.