Practice Manager for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000



Jan 1999—Dec 2000

If you require help or further information on using any of the new features listed, please contact Customer Support by telephoning 01280 824600 DECEMBER 2000 CHANGES Clinic Merge Import / Export now additionally includes all Theatre List information, all Patient Diagnosis information and all Patient Recall information. Clinic merge can now be done via an internet connection. Help Further improvements to make the help more comprehensive, including access to the 'Practice Manager Problem Solver' knowledge-base. Photos / Images Practice Manager now supports capturing images from any 'Video for Windows' compatible capture device.  Using a compatible capture device, Practice Manager can capture and store images from any device with a video output - eg endoscope, slit lamp, camcorder etc Restoring Backups The Practice Manager utility "URestore2" used to restore backups has now been made easier to use. Aged Debtors Report This report now includes a more detailed breakdown of debts over 90 days old. NOVEMBER 2000 CHANGES EDI Consent Forms Practice Manager can now print 'Consent Forms' which you should get the patient to sign to obtain their permission to send information electronically to Insurers. From the main menu, select 'Billing', 'Print Blank Consent Forms' Patient Notes Added an 'Edit' button for easier correction of mistakes. Report Anaesthetist Workload report (only available to Group Anaesthetic Practices) now details the OPCS code for all procedures. OCTOBER 2000 CHANGES New version of EDI (Electronic Billing to Insurers) Practice Manager now allows you to send invoices electronically to BUPA.  Other insurers will be available by January 2001 and will include PPP, Standard Life, Royal & Sun Alliance & Norwich Union. The printed literature accompanying this update will explain how to set up and utilise this facility. On-line Registration With Healthcode. In order to send claims electronically, Practice Manager now allows you to register with Healthcode (the clearing house) on-line. Patient Details When viewing patients appointment history, you can now chose to print 'All appointments', 'Future appointments' or 'Past appointments' Layouts Added the facility to amend layouts for estimates. Multiple monitor support Practice Manager now correctly sizes screen for computers that have 2 or more monitors. Claim Info When entering a patients claim related information, Practice Manager now validates membership numbers for BUPA, PPP, Norwich Union & Standard Life and warns if the number entered is invalid. When entering claim information, Practice Manager now highlights in blue all fields which must be completed to send the claim electronically for the patients insurer.  (different insurers require different fields to be completed) New Report From the Patient Reports menu, there is now an option "Complete Data Print-Out for Selected Patient".  This report includes all demographic, accounting, financial, appointment, correspondence & treatment information for a selected patient.  Under the Data Protection Act a patient is able to ask for a copy of all information held on file - this report provides an easy way of providing this information. Help Files Practice Managers help files have been completely re-written and are far more extensive and user-friendly than the previous help. Detailed Theatre List Report This report now also includes the patient telephone number and full details of the GP and Insurer. WPA WPA have withdrawn their permission for Practice Manager to include their copyrighted professional fee schedule. Therefore Band 1 now no longer has any fees and all procedures billed for charge band 1 will initially show as being £0.00 When billing, you will now be asked what amount you would like to charge for the selected procedure - the amount you entered will be remembered for future use. SEPTEMBER 2000 CHANGES Internet Updates Practice Manager can now be updated quickly and easily via the Internet. If your computer has an internet connection, you can check for, and download updates by clicking on 'Misc', 'Load Practice Manager over Internet' from the main menu. Typically updates will download in less than 10 minutes. Electronic Billing Added new validation rules to ensure that all claims transmitted by Practice Manager are valid and will be accepted by the Insurers. Export to SageLine50 Practice Manager can now export basic patient and invoice information into SageLine50 accounting software for larger clinics who want to duplicate Practice Managers accounting information in their own accounting systems. - contact DGL for further information. Tape Backup Practice Managers internal backup now supports backing up to SCSI tapes under Windows 95 and Windows 98. Theatre Lists You can now access patient information and recall information from the top menu. New Report A report of deceased patients is now available from the 'Patient', 'Patient Reports' menu. New Report There is now a report of part-paid / shortfall payments available from the 'Accounts', 'Account Reports', 'Payments Received Reports' menu. Patient Search From the patient search screen, when clicking on 'Search By', you can now additionally search for patient records containing a given word, or containing a given 2 words. I.e. you could search for Smith & Buckingham Barcode Labels Practice Manager can now print bar-code labels to accompany invoices.  This is especially useful for radiology practices who want to print x-ray labels for the front of the x-ray folder. AUGUST 2000 CHANGES Links to Word Everywhere that Practice Manager communicates with Microsoft Word (eg letters, envelopes, labels, invoices, receipts etc) - Practice Manager will now automatically run Microsoft Word if it is not already running. Electronic Claims Now allows coded diagnosis to be entered using ICD9 codes New Word Toolbar There is now a DGL toolbar inserted into Microsoft Word.  This toolbar allows you to insert names/addresses of patients, GPs, Clinicians, Insurers etc into letters 'on the fly' Self-Checking When you run Practice Manager it will now detect if it was not correctly shut down when last used and automatically check and repair any affected files. Electronic Patient Record Speeded up entry of information & insertion of information into letters. Automatic Reminders Where an invoice was originally sent to an Insurer, you can now specify that reminders go to the patient. JULY 2000 CHANGES Theatre Lists There is now a custom layout designer allowing each customer to have their own unique design of printed theatre lists. Theatre Lists There is now an 'E-Mail' option on the menu when in Theatre Lists which allows theatre lists to be e-mailed to colleagues or hospitals Clinic Lists There is now an 'E-Mail' option on the menu when in Clinic Lists which allows clinic lists to be e-mailed to colleagues or hospitals Reports The detailed outstanding invoices report now shows the date and type of last reminder letter sent. Reports When previewing reports, there are now buttons to increase/decrease the zoom.  There is also a button to edit the report in Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel. Electronic Claims Validation of claims has been dramatically speeded up. Bar-Codes Practice Manager now supports the printing of bar-codes (on labels, or in invoice / receipt layouts) and also supports bar-code wands and scanners. Multiple Procedures You can now override the default start/end text when multiple procedures are printed on invoices.  You can have different start/end text for each charge band, allowing different wording depending on insurer. To change the wordings go to Misc, Preferences, Operation Fees and click the 'Multiple Procedure Text' button. NEW VERSION There is now a specific version of Practice Manager for MRI units. Envelopes Practice Manager now correctly supports the different envelope sizes available in Word2000. Recall Report The printed list of recalls due now shows the patients telephone number. User-Defined Billing Codes You can now specify different fees for each charge band. JUNE 2000 CHANGES Letters Practice Manager will now not allowing editing of letters written more than 7 days ago.  If a letter was written more than seven days ago, you should use the 'Edit Copy' button to retain the original and make amendments to a copy of the letter.  This way a history will be retained of the modifications made to a document.  This is in accordance with guidelines for electronic documentation and admissibility in court.  If you do try to edit a document over 7 days old, you will see the document in Microsoft Word, but it will be 'read-only' - ie you will not be able to make alterations. The Big Telephone Number Change ! As you will be aware, BT recently changed a number of the telephone dialling codes for certain parts of the country. Practice Manager can attempt to automatically correct the telephone numbers of patients, GPs, clinicians, insurers etc for you. From the main menu, click on Misc, System Maintenance and then select the menu option 'The Big Telephone Number Change'. Helpful Documentation From the main menu, click on Help and then select 'View Shortcut Keys' to display a document containing common useful shortcut key combinations that can be used in Microsoft Word and Practice Manager. Credit Note When issuing a credit note, you now have the option to produce a printed credit note which can be posted the patient / insurer. Logon Practice Manager now automatically checks to see long it has been since you loaded an update.  If an update has not been loaded in the last 4 months you are warned and asked to contact DGL to obtain the latest version. Clinic Merge Now also imports & export changes to the ophthalmic electronic patient record screen. Templates From the WP, Layouts, Invoices menu, you can now amend the template for an invoice sent to a hospital. Exiting Practice Manager If you chose the 'Exit, No Backup' option to leave Practice Manager, you will now see a warning advising you of the importance of backup and your responsibility to ensure adequate backups are taken. Toolbar When customising the Practice Manager toolbar, there are now a number of new buttons which you can add. - numerous buttons for accessing the most common reports, button to access sending electronic claims etc. EDI Reports New reports have been added to the Billing, Billing Reports, Electronic Claim Reports menu - these allow you to see which claims have been sent electronically, which are still owed etc. Label Printing When printing a full sheet of patient detail labels or address labels Practice Manager no longer prints an additional blank sheet of paper. Recall Letters When printing patient recall letters, there is now an option to also print corresponding envelopes or labels. MAY 2000 CHANGES Electronic Billing When adding / amending a hospital (from the hospital directory) there is now a search button next to the "Hospital No" field.  This allows you to search for the EDI hospital number required for EDI billing. You can either search by the name of the hospital, or the town in which the hospital is. When doing a summary statement, detailed statement, outstanding invoices report etc, you can now see if the invoice was sent electronically. When viewing the details of an invoice you can see if it was sent electronically & if so the unique claim reference on which it was sent and the status. Clinic Diary When printing clinic lists, where the patient name is shown, the salutation is now also shown (Mr/Mrs etc)   When recording the location of the appointment, this can now be up to 40 characters long. Payments Received When recording who the payment was from, you can now enter up to 40 characters (previous maximum was 25 and some users requested this be made larger) Reprint Paying-In Slips When reprinting a bank paying-in slip, once the required bank account has been selected, you can then press F2 or click the search button to see a list of previous banking's to choose from. Patient Search From the patient search screen, when you click on 'Search By' you can now search for a patient by NHS number. You can now do a free-text search for a patient from the surname box simply type the word to search for followed by a '&' and press F2.  You can even search for 2 terms by typing two word seperated by an ampersand ('&') e.g. Searching for 'John&Windsor' would show all patients named John who live in Windsor. Non-Patient Letters When looking at previous non-patient letters e.g. from the GP details screen, you can now click the Scan button to scan and store correspondence against the selected entry. Insurance Co. Price List Report Changed 'Prime Health' to 'Standard Life' Invoicing Changed charge band 12 from Prime Health to Standard Life MARCH 2000 CHANGES Invoicing A patient may now have more than one 'in-progress' invoice.  This is useful especially for Physiotherapists where a patient may be undergoing a course of treatment, some of which is invoiced to the Insurer and the remainder to the patient. Clinic Diary When booking an appointment for a patient, you can now record if the patient has requested an earlier appointment. Should you then get a cancellation, you can print a report of patients who would like an earlier appointment to contact. Document Scanning You can now add additional pages to a scanned document.  This allows for scanner which do not have a document feeder and also for scanning double-sided pages. Previous Correspondence Now shows who typed the original letter, the date it was typed, when it was last edited and who edited it. Theatre Lists Theatre lists have been re-written to allow more flexibility and for more information to be recorded.  You can now record the Hospital, Anaesthetist, Assistant, Notes/Comment, Start Time for each operating session. Digital Photography When in the 'View Patient Photographs' screen, you can now click the 'Scan' button to scan-in colour photographs, transparencies,  35mm slides, negatives etc from any TWAIN compliant scanner attached to the computer. Clinic Merge Clinic merge now also imports/exports banking entries.  This allows for the secretaries computer to receive payments but for the banking to be done by the consultant. Directories & Patient Details Where an email address is recorded, either in one of the directories (GPs, Solicitors, Insurers etc) or against a patient, there is now an 'email' button which will automatically link to your windows default mail program to send email to the selected address. Patient Search Deceased patients are now displayed in dark grey, also a warning is shown each time a deceased patient is selected.  The patient search screen now also shows the patient's GP. Reporting Practice Managers reports have been modified to allow correct reporting under Microsoft's new Windows 2000 operating system.  Practice Manager has now been thoroughly tested with Windows 2000 and works correctly. Electronic Claims Practice Manager now sends electronic claims for BUPA to Healthcode's new email address automatically Practice Manager now sends BUPA Membership No. requests to the new BUPA email address as they are now handling these enquiries directly. FEBRUARY 2000 CHANGES Patient Mailshots When specifying the criteria of patients to be included on a mailshot,  you can now exclude medico-legal patients, or choose to mailshot only medico-legal patients. EDI (electronic claims) There is now a facility to re-transmit claims which were not correctly received by the Insurer.  From the Billing menu, select Re-Transmit Electronic Claim. EDI On the 'Claims' screen, there is now the facility to record a 'Pre-Authorisation' number. Recurring Payments Fixed a 'Field Group No not found' error message which affected a small minority of users. Patient Details Added top menu option to access 'Notes/Results/X-Ray Tracking' Urgent Note/Comment From the patient details screen, there is now a menu option to set an urgent note/comment against a patient.  This note/comment will automatically be displayed every time the patient is selected.  There is now also a 'Delete' button to remove urgent notes/comment if required. End Of Month Report This report now includes a correspondence summary showing the number of each type of letter typed for the month. Layouts From the 'WP, Layouts, Reminders' menu, you can now edit reminder layouts for reminders sent to Clinicians. Security For hospital network installations, security can now be set up to allow medical secretaries only full access to their own consultants while still giving limited access (for writing letters etc) to other consultants. JANUARY 2000 CHANGES Theatre Lists Theatre lists are now multi-consultant.  Group Practices can now keep multiple theatre lists in the same was as multiple clinic lists. Anaesthetist Version Now includes operations codes, fees and multiple procedure calculations for Prime Health, Cigna and Royal & Sun Alliance.  The Insurance Co. Price List report has also been added to the anaesthetist version of Practice Manager. Clinic Merge Clinic Merge (import & export) now also includes Theatre Lists information Notes/X-Ray tracking information and EDI information for electronic billing.  Electronic claims now merge, allowing a secretary to be inputting the information & the claim to be sent from a different computer. Appointment Letters When Practice Manager inserts times into appointment letters, you can specify whether times should appear in 12 or 24 hr clock format.  To set this option, go to Misc, Preferences, Correspondence Preferences from the main menu. Address Book When searching for an address-book entry, you can now do an advanced search which will search all fields of the address book (including the notes/comments). Supplier Invoices Report Now allows for supplier invoices with more than one supplier credit note. Clinic Lists Fixed minor bug - when deleting an appointment, any available concurrent free time slots are now correctly joined together. Patient Details To search for a patient by their Patient Number, you can now just type the number into the surname box and press enter. (previously had to press F2) Invoice Reports On 'In-Progress Invoices Report', 'Outstanding Invoices Report',  'Invoices Raised Report' and 'Deferred Invoices Report' there is now a option to also show the name of the Insurer/Solicitor/Clinician/GP that the invoice was sent to.  This information will also be included on the 'Detailed' print out. Automatic Reminders The 'Reminders Due' report now prints in the same order as entries are shown on screen (either Name / Date / Invoice No. / Insurer) Re-Print Invoice When selecting the invoice to re-print, the screen now shows the name of the person/organisation to which the invoice was originally sent. New Report On the 'Account Reports' menu, there are now options to report on Outstanding Invoice By.... or Invoices Raised By... - you can then select which 'user-defined' field to report on.