Medisoft Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What kinds of standard maintenance should I perform on my computers?

A. In addition to backing up your data every day, there are a few routine maintenance items that should be performed regularly on all your computers.

Disk Defragmenter- This Windows™ utility examines the contents of your drive to determine if little bits of your files/programs are separated on different parts of your drive. Defrag will act to place these bits together so they are easier to load into memory.

To activate Defrag, simply open Windows explorer (click the Windows key and the "E" key on your keyboard simultaneously). Right click on the hard drive you wish to check (i.e. Local Disk C:), select the "Tools" tab and click the "Defragment Now" button.

This utility should be run at least once a month on every computer. Fragmentation of files on your hard drives will slow your system down and eventually cause program errors.

Before running Defrag, you should quit all programs as this utility needs uninterrupted access to the drive.

Scandisk- This Windows™ disk utility program comes free with most versions of Windows (it is labeled as Error checking in the newer versions of Windows). It runs tests on your hard drive to determine if there are any problems and then allows you to fix them if it finds problems. running this program four times a year would normally be adequate to ensure drive integrity.

To execute Scandisk, simply open Windows explorer (Click the Windows key and click the "E" key on your keyboard simultaneously). Right click on the hard drive you wish to check (i.e. Local Disk C:), select the "Tools" tab and click the "Check Now" button.

Before running Scandisk and Defrag, you should quit all programs as this utility needs uninterrupted access to the drive.

Q. How can I prevent database corruptions?

A. The three biggest database killers are power problems, improper shutdown, and network problems.

Power Problems- Use a working Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) on all computers. A UPS with a dead battery is just as likely to damage a database as using none at all.

Improper Shutdown- No matter what version of Microsoft Windows™ you are using it is imperative that you always shut your computer down properly. Turning the power off on your computer will eventually corrupt your windows installation but more importantly will very likely damage any databases that are open.

To shut-down your computer properly, click on the Start button and select the Shut Down option. You must then select the option to Shut Down and click OK.

Network Problems- Improper network Setup or design can definitely cause data corruption as can network hardware failures. Some network protocols are not fault tolerant. This means that they don’t handle problems well. Even intermittent network failures can damage your database.

Q. Will a Client/Server version of my software help prevent data corruption?

A. Absolutely!

Many software vendors are beginning to realize the benefits of Client/Server technology and are encouraging their customers to migrate from peer-to-peer products to products with Client/Server database engines. The difference between the two can be remarkable and it is not hard to understand why when you understand the differences in the technologies.

Q. Do I need to do anything about virus’ or worms?

A. Absolutely, yes!

If you are going to use a computer in the new millennium reliable antivirus software is a way of life. The two most common antivirus softwares are Norton and McAfee. Also, don’t forget if you have a server you must protect it as well. Unfortunately you will have to purchase a more expensive version of Antivirus software for a server but the alternative can be devastating!

While the better antivirus softwares offer some protection against worms, you should also have some kind of firewall between your computer network and the Internet. Unfortunately software firewalls require very specific adjustment and tweaking or they will interfere with legitimate network traffic. Often these software firewalls will generate errors in your billing or EMR software if they are not configured properly. A hardware firewall appliance (such as a router with built-in firewall capabilities) is often a better alternative then a software firewall.

Q. Is it important to keep my antivirus software up to date?

A. Again yes!

New virus’ are introduced into the computing world regularly. All the good antivirus softwares offer subscription services to keep their virus definition files up to date. It is very important that you keep these definition files up to date to protect your computer systems from virus threats.

Q. Who owns the data in your medical billing software or Electronic Medical Record (EMR) software?

A. It’s your data! Don’t be held hostage by a software vendor!

Whose data is it anyway? Does the data in your medical software belong to your patient? Yes. Does the data in your medical software belong to you? In a very real sense yes (under the HIPAA regulations you could be fined or be sent to jail if you don’t adequately protect it). Does the data in your medical software belong to your software vendor? We don’t think so!

HCFA and other governing entities charge you with the responsibility to guard and protect any identifiable patient data that you touch; but whose data is it anyhow? Why should any software vendor be able to hold you hostage?

Years ago we had the opportunity to assist a large number of customers who were having serious problems with their medical billing software. This software vendor was on the long slippery slope in the process of going out of business, which they eventually did. It happens.

This particular vendor released a major upgrade to their system without adequate testing and customers that installed the upgrade were finding that the new upgrade was destroying their database! One by one the practices and billing companies that were using this software were being shut down as their software quit working and their databases were mangled! We had a contractual relationship with this vendor and we had the ability to assist these customers migrate their data to another system. Unfortunately, this vendor had no interest in making it easy to for their customers to take their data and go to another billing software with it!

This situation posed a major problem because the database format used by this vendor was proprietary and there was no easy way to export the data. To make a very long (and painful) story short, we were able to get the data out using “gorilla” programming techniques (i.e., get a large enough gorilla and you can do amazing things). Many of these customers were converted to the new billing system and lived happily ever after. But it wasn’t easy because the original software had a closed database architecture. A near disaster averted for MANY folks.

One of the things that we have come to appreciate about the Medisoft billing software is its open database architecture philosophy. Both Medisoft and Lytec offer you a variety of ways to get YOUR data into or even out of their databases.

1) ODBC Connectivity- Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) allows you to access your data using other ODBC compliant programs such as Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Crystal Reports, and many others. While there are many programs that are ODBC compliant, setting up and maintaining the drivers often requires a high level of technical expertise. In addition, writing to any billing database in this fashion can destroy its integrity and corrupt it beyond salvaging if done improperly. Writing back to a billing database using ODBC is not recommended unless you really, really know what you are doing. Even then it can be dangerous.

2) Medisoft & Lytec Ports- Medical Software Tools has automated port utilities to import or export data into or out of both the Medisoft or Lytec databases. These utilities allow us to import data from a standard comma delimited ASCII format into Medisoft or Lytec. If you wish to migrate your data from another billing system to either Medisoft or Lytec call us for more information.

3) Medical Software Tools Conversion– The technicians at Medical Software Tools have been reading and writing directly to the Medisoft and Lytec billing softwares and other databases for over ten years. Our programmers have years of experience in manipulating data and reading and writing data to billing systems.

Because it is difficult to be expert at every billing system on the market (there are thousands) we also have arrangements with contractors that specialize in many of the other popular billing systems on the market.

This is a simple solution because Medical Software Tools handles the conversion for you. Normally, we do a trial conversion for you before you have to pay the full cost so that you can see for yourself that the data has been converted satisfactorily. In addition, Medical Software Tools and its contractors have already done conversions on a variety of Medical Billing Softwares and Electronic Medical Records systems so in many cases the conversion can be performed very quickly.

Who owns the data? Certainly medical data belongs to the patient, but when a medical provider renders services that data should be accessible to the provider. Don’t be held hostage by vendors. Choose wisely; it really is “your” data!