Four things to prepare before your clinic goes digital

Installing the system is usually quick. What slows some clinics down are the things that should have been settled before any software existed.

First, a definite practice schedule. How many service stages in a day, what time each opens, and how many patients can be handled per stage. As long as those numbers are "we’ll see", the system has no basis for closing registration.

Second, administration fees per patient category. How much for a new patient, how much for a follow-up, and whether priority and VIP are charged differently. That is the owner’s decision, not the software’s.

Third, a readable list of existing patients. It does not need to be perfect — name, phone number, and first treatment date are enough to start. The rest can be filled in when they next visit.

Fourth, agreement about who is allowed to do what. The front desk registers and confirms payment; the practitioner writes the medical record; revenue reports are for the owner alone. Agreeing on this up front is far easier than clawing it back once everyone has settled into a habit.

With those four settled, the rest of the installation is just technical work.