Clinics and multiple locations

[rambochambo]

Thinking of consolidating 4 offices in to one data base and using clinics. Has anyone done this and been happy with the decision? Right now all 4 office have their own data base and replicate to get as close to real time as possible. If so how do you handle images that are bridged into open dental? Thanks.

Brandon

[irfan]

We do this with an online middle tier server. Has not been a smooth transition, lots of glitches, very slow module transitions. OpenDentImages do not sync because they pulled dropbox/sftp functionality due to bugs. Insurance reports have been broken, still working to get things fixed. Its been a real pain so far for the billing end. Still need to figure out xrays, may have to switch to Apteryx from XDR since XDR has shown no interested in making multiple locations work. convenient seeing multiple locations at once though. duplicates of employees will happen and time cards will be screwy for a couple weeks but no big deal. databases were merged incorrectly and patients were assigned to the wrong clinic.

[cmcgehee]

To echo Irfan, we generally don't recommend merging multiple databases into one. You may end up with duplicate patients, employees, providers, operatories, and fee schedules. Reports may be inaccurate due to work not being assigned to the proper clinic. The program will often be slower because queries take longer on larger databases. You will also have to make sure that your external imaging software will be able to play nice with a merge. Dropbox and SFTP will be helpful to you in handling the images stored within Open Dental, and I can say that those features will be present in 17.1. We can do a database merge for you, but we want you to be fully aware of the downsides before you make your decision.

[irfan]

upside of the convenience is still worth it for us, especially with a VOIP phone system that links the offices together well. patients were assigned new numbers, not a big deal, but your xray software database will need to be updated with new patient numbers. employees/ops/fees were duplicates, but again, resolved in a week or so of cleanup duty. The treatment plan module is painfully slow though. simple stuff like assigning a priority to a procedure can take upwards of 10 seconds when it should be instantaneous. I dont get why that module and the insurance module become unbearable while the rest of the system is still ok to use.

[cmcgehee]

The treatment plan module is painfully slow though. simple stuff like assigning a priority to a procedure can take upwards of 10 seconds when it should be instantaneous.

We would be happy to help troubleshoot this issue. You could enable the slow query log for a few days and then send it to us. This problem could also be caused by a large number of fee schedules. Send me a private message or email (chris@opendental.com) if you would like to pursue this.

[rambochambo]

Irfan

How many offices are you running on the one data base? We want to try 5. Now we have 5 data bases and it gets very frustrating with pts going between offices. Managing pts across 5 data bases is very frustrating. Cant help but think one data base would streamline a lot of issues. We use carestream for images and they are a night mare to deal with. Plus our IT costs are off the charts. We have 300 Mbs connection at all offices. I'd switch to fiber if speed was a problem. All our servers replicate to a location where we have scheduling and billing. They have to keep 5 different OD instances up to bill and schedule. Well send a pt from office A to collection and then reschedule at office B because we can't search all 5 data sets for each patient. Just looking for a solution to make things smoother for staff and pts. I can do a million things with just my cell phone and having a office management system that makes me more efficient seems like a huge obstacle. Thanks.

Brandon

[jsalmon]

We have an office with 50+ clinics in one database which decided to use one database for the reasons you mentioned (plus others). They've been helping us make our software much faster and more user friendly for managing lots of clinics at once. Versions 16.4.X and 17.1.X (coming soon) have many upgrades specifically for clinic users.

It will be a big (and painful) change for your clinics at first but it sounds like it might be a necessary change.

[rambochambo]

Any upgrades for clinics you can expand on or do we have to wait for the release???

[jsalmon]

All the clinic sections on our version pages have more detailed information:
http://www.opendental.com/manual/version16_3.html
http://www.opendental.com/manual/version16_4.html
etc..

[irfan]

we have 3 offices in one database. Chris I will email you