Pulse Practice Solutions provides patient chart conversion services for Healthcare organizations that have or are planning to implement EMR solutions. We convert paper charts to indexed images, named PDF files, or any other digital format needed for import into new or existing EMR or Practice Management systems.
We are a full service organization dedicated to helping Healthcare organizations such as yours and offer professional file preparation, scanning and indexing services.
If you simply wish to archive inactive charts rather than integrate them with an EMR, we can convert them to indexed digital images for easy retrieval and minimal cost.
Most importantly, we can do it faster and more efficiently than if your staff takes on the task. And once we’ve cleared your paper charts out of the office you’ll have additional space in which to see patients.
To learn how Pulse can ease your transition to the digital age…
For more information, feel free to contact John Bybee at 615.425.2719 and he’ll discuss your practice’s needs.
Does your practice have a reliable and stable internet connection? If your internet connection goes down, do you have a back up plan to be up and running within minutes? Are you experiencing decreased network performance as you increase the number of processes you handle electronically?
With practices depending on more electronic processes these days, there must be solutions in place to insure the maximum amount of up time possible. This can be accomplished by having internet redundancy and load balancing.
In this edition of “The Pulse Beat”, you will find articles that provide more information about why two internet connections are better than one.
Thanks again and GREAT READING
Two Connections Are Better Than One
The theft of network cards from a Verizon office last May caused many Manhattan businesses to lose Internet service for nearly a day. Outages such as this convey to all businesses-not just the affected ones-how dependent they have become on Internet access and how vulnerable they are to disruptions. A few hours of downtime-even outside normal business hours-could mean thousands of dollars in missed opportunities and lost customers… Read More
Redundant Internet Access for Businesses
Businesses are increasingly reliant on internet availability for their critical business operations and revenue generation. What were once brick and mortar stores targeting customers in their local geographic area are now interactive websites offering products and services to customers throughout the world. This drastically changing face of commerce revolves around the availability one crucial element: the internet… Read More
Colocation Benefits – A Simplified Solution
Colocation hosting services means locating your IT infrastructure to the third party data centers. The data centers which are highly reliable, secure and has fully equipped redundant infrastructure. Colocating your web servers to the data center is always a wise choice as it provides many benefits and secured physical atmosphere to your server. Colocation web services offers all the added features and also secures the data from any natural calamity disasters… Read More
Colocation hosting services means locating your IT infrastructure to the third party data centers. The data centers which are highly reliable, secure and has fully equipped redundant infrastructure. Colocating your web servers to the data center is always a wise choice as it provides many benefits and secured physical atmosphere to your server. Colocation web services offers all the added features and also secures the data from any natural calamity disasters. Colocation is a type of web hosting, whereby customers who have their own server can host it at a purpose built Data Center (or Colocation Center). Customers rent rack space where they keep their server, while maintaining control of it themselves.
There are numerous benefits which can be classified as follows:
Cost effective :
The colocation service is considered as one of the cost effective solutions for your servers to maintain. Basically you don’t need to build and maintain the in-house requirements that your server demands can cost you valuable capital in facilities, Internet connectivity and maintenance personnel. The colocation hosting providers has such kind of full facility available with their infrastructure.
Reliable Uptime :
Uptime is always a major concern for the server owners. With colocation facility one can be rest assured that his server is getting proper uptime. Within colocation facility everything is redundant so that if anything goes down the colocation customers server and network equipment will not even notice it as there are redundant systems in place that automatically replace those that went down. This may include the air conditioning systems, UPS (uninterruptible power systems), power generators, utility power, network routers, redundant Internet backbones with plenty of extra capacity, and redundant onsite network engineering staff.
More Security :
Security is of prime importance when it comes to the servers or leasing any services for your IT equipment. Data centers are generally considered to be secured and well established infrastructure. Data centers should be monitored 24-7. Your systems should be housed in a state-of-the-art data center, with redundant air cooling and filtering systems, designed to operate even in the event of a power failure. Data centers should be located and built to withstand natural disasters, and other emergencies.
Network Speed & Reliability :
Getting good speed and that too with reliability is a matter for every server owner. The hardware basically resist on the climate controlled environment as well as the power conditioning. Server hosting can allow you to access enterprise level backup, and monitoring tools. Many of the colocation service providers run BGP and have redundant Internet networks and different Internet backbones coming into their facility. When a company sets up a network at an office they usually just get the Internet bandwidth capacity that they need such as a single T3, which is 45 Megabits, or an OC3, which is 155 Megabits without the redundancy.
Outage Protection :
Power redundancy and backup are very important factors to be considered while one is looking to colocate their servers to the data center. Colocation data centers often offer power redundancy through the use of power generators and backup power supplies. This will allow networks to remain up even in the instance of a long-term power failure. Colocation providers often offer server protection from floods and fires as well.
Source: esds
Businesses are increasingly reliant on internet availability for their critical business operations and revenue generation. What were once brick and mortar stores targeting customers in their local geographic area are now interactive websites offering products and services to customers throughout the world. This drastically changing face of commerce revolves around the availability one crucial element: the internet. The internet’s widespread availability and ever improving speed and capacity has given it a stronghold in a world that in the not so distant past was constrained by geography and logistics. The internet carries with it countless advantages for businesses, such as rapid communication between employees, erased geographical boundaries and the convenience of reaching out to customers seeking services from their own homes. Today, many businesses rely solely on the internet for their mere existence, making internet availability a critical element of their business strategy.
With one outage, the grandeur of the internet is instantly diminished. Not only does internet downtime prevent website visitors from patronizing a business, but it hurts customer goodwill and inhibits valuable communication between employees of a company. For instance, a corporate headquarters in Massachusetts utilizing a virtual private network (VPN) to securely share files and data with its branch in Colorado would be brought to a halt by a lack of internet access. The loss of revenue associated with internet downtime can be substantial, prompting businesses to seek out preventative measures to ensure consistent availability such as redundant internet access.
Typically, home and business internet users rely on a single link to an internet service provider’s network for their internet access. Internet outages are not generally caused by a system wide failure, but rather because of a problem with an organizations sole link to its provider. Technical failures or physical cable damage caused by construction, for example, can cause internet service to be disrupted indefinitely. The loss of revenue associated with an uncertain amount of internet downtime beyond their control is a risk many businesses cannot afford to take. Redundant internet access facilitates the flexibility to automatically switch traffic among multiple connections, eliminating the uncertainty associated with relying on a single link. This is accomplished by subscribing to multiple internet service providers allowing for the use of multiple types of physical connections. For instance, a company may use a T1 connection as a primary internet service, and also subscribe to a telephone based DSL service for backup in the event of failure.
Effectively implemented internet redundancy allows for continued internet access even during a primary ISP failure, thus preventing losses in revenue associated with internet downtime.
Source: streetdirectory.com
The theft of network cards from a Verizon office last May caused many Manhattan businesses to lose Internet service for nearly a day. Outages such as this convey to all businesses—not just the affected ones—how dependent they have become on Internet access and how vulnerable they are to disruptions. A few hours of downtime—even outside normal business hours—could mean thousands of dollars in missed opportunities and lost customers. But how can you ensure you’ll have an unbroken connection?
A growing number of professionals, as well as companies of all sizes, are buying redundant connectivity: multiple paths to the Internet. If cable modem service, DSL, and/or wireless broadband are available in your area, you may want to subscribe to at least two of these services. (Few, if any, ISPs provide connections “for backup only.” While some will let you use a conventional modem if your connection fails, this is so slow that it is of limited use as a backup.)
But how do you configure your equipment to shift quickly and seamlessly to another connection? Most computers and SOHO routers cannot do this, so unless you have the right hardware or software, you have to reconfigure manually.
What’s more, if you’re paying for multiple connections, you should be able to use the extra bandwidth in nonemergency situations. You should be able to exploit all your links simultaneously (load sharing) to get more bandwidth than you could from any one of them. There should also be a way to shift loads when one of your connections is slowed through congestion. You may even want to steer users accessing your servers to the “closest” connection, Internet-wise, to them. But how do you do all this? You’re not likely to find any help in the documentation for your operating system or small router/firewall.
Unfortunately, it’s hard for a small company or an individual to exploit the protocols that implement load sharing and redundancy on the Internet. For example, the Border Gateway Protocol, or BGP (RFC 1771), lets a host or a network “advertise” to the Internet how it can be reached—and to change that information if a connection goes down. But because the BGP assumes you’re a large entity that has a big network and its own block of Internet addresses, using BGP to help with redundancy isn’t practical even for moderate-sized companies, let alone SOHO users.
The Open Shortest Path First, or OSPF (RFC 2328) protocol, is good at managing redundant connections inside a network that you control. But OSPF won’t help you manage multiple ISP connections unless they’re all to the same ISP, which has agreed to help you use OSPF for this. (Most ISPs won’t do that.)
If you’re a typical small-business user, you’ll need to find a way to get these features without the help of your ISP(s) or special protocols. Fortunately, engineers have begun to cook up hardware and software to let you do this.
The tricks used by these multihoming appliances can be divided into two categories: those for incoming connections (such as hits on your Web server) and those for outgoing traffic (your own browsing). The best-known are the ones that handle incoming traffic. Nearly all such products can create a server pool, which divides incoming requests among your servers and ensures that a client is matched to the same server throughout a Web transaction.
Most server appliances use domain name service (DNS) to route incoming traffic over a particular link. As most URLs include a domain name, it’s possible to control which link a client uses to reach your server by changing the IP address that’s returned when the client looks up a domain name.
These appliances have built-in DNS servers that respond to changing conditions. First, the appliance performs a periodic check on each Internet connection and stops furnishing IP addresses associated with a connection that goes down. (The standard protocols that domain name servers use already let them have multiple IP addresses, so a client automatically tries to reach the DNS server via a different link if one is down.)
If multiple links are up, the DNS server may choose the IP address to return to a particular client by considering the loading and capacity of each of your links. It may also try to do a proximity test to choose the link that leads most directly to the client. Since the appliance can’t know how much data each client will request, it can’t always balance loads optimally, but it should at least let you take some advantage of all of your working links. Once the traffic gets inside your network, the device may also use a specialized form of Network Address Translation (NAT)—sometimes called smart NAT—to pair each client with a particular server, dividing the load so that none of your servers is saturated.
Even if your office doesn’t host anything that you think of as a server—for example, your Web site—server redundancy features are still important in the event of an outage. Why? Because many of the applications you may use every day—VoIP, peer-to-peer, remote-control programs (like LapLink), VPN, file-sharing programs, and more—cause your system to accept data connections from the outside world and thus act like a server. If machines in the outside world can’t “find” you, you may lose functionality, so any solution that provides good redundancy must divert all incoming traffic (usually via DNS) to the connection(s) that are still working.
Load balancing and redundancy for clients connecting outward to the Internet are relatively new areas, for which far fewer products are available, and techniques vary widely. Some split up outgoing traffic packet by packet, feeding each to the least congested upstream link. This technique is especially useful because many Internet connections are asymmetrical—with less upstream bandwidth than downstream. Unfortunately, allocating bandwidth packet by packet between multiple connections doesn’t always work. To help thwart Internet worms, some ISPs use egress filtering: They won’t let you send packets with a return address that belongs to a different ISP. So, a load balancer that wants to spread a connection among multiple physical links needs to be able to sense—or be told—that a particular link can be used to send only packets with certain source addresses.
Other appliances pick one link to use exclusively for each session, or connection, with a remote server. However, the router may not always correctly determine the best link to use. (Some products try to start every outgoing connection on several links simultaneously; the one that responds first is used, even if a random delay skewed the outcome.) Also, not all products can correctly balance loads on an asymmetrical Internet connection, such as ADSL. Finally, the appliance must be able to check the health of each link.
Source: PCMAG.com
Often in EMR/PM discussions, internet speed is usually overlooked and not addressed until after the fact. Going electronic will always increase the need for internet bandwidth.
Not only is speed critical, redundancy is also important for EMR/PM users. Having a redundant internet connection guarantees maximum up time and allows your staff to have access to all patient information at any given time. NO DOWNTIME FOR YOUR PRACTICE!
Do the the below questions sound familiar?
With the proper bandwidth and redundancy solution in place, none of the above questions come into play! What would that mean for your practice? More profit… Increased patient through rate… You can see the benefits!
Pulse has aligned and partnered with the leading telecommunication providers throughout the Southeast to provide the best and most cost-effective solutions for our customers. No matter your needs or budget… we have a solution for you!
Most parents prefer electronic forms over paper forms when filling out medical information about their children, according to a study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, the Canadian Press/Winnipeg Free Press reports (Canadian Press/Winnipeg Free Press, 2/7).
Study Details
For the study, researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston and Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto followed 180 parents of children who were being treated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in the Boston area (Abma, Postmedia News/Calgary Herald, 2/7).
Parents were asked to fill out traditional paper forms and electronic forms that asked about their child’s behavior, prescription medications and side effects to medication.
Although the two types of forms covered the same content, the electronic applications included:
Findings
According to the study, parents generally reported feeling less burdened when filling out the electronic forms, compared with the paper forms. Parents also said that the electronic forms were easier to complete and that they would be more likely to fill out such forms in the future (Postmedia News/Calgary Herald, 2/7).
Stephen Porter — lead author of the study and head of emergency medicine at the Toronto hospital — said the findings have important implications for efforts to design personal health record for pediatric chronic conditions (Canadian Press/Winnipeg Free Press, 2/7).
Source: iHealthBeat
For assistance or questions regarding online forms and how they would be used within your practice, don’t hesitate to contact us.
All businesses, whether small or large, operate on a day to day basis looking to cut costs, increase production and gain profit. One undeniable necessity for businesses of today remains to be computers and technology. Can you name a business that does not use computers as part of it’s day to day operations…besides the “Paleta guy” on the corner? NO YOU CAN’T!!
Let’s focus on small businesses today; companies that have fewer than 50 employees, and a range of 1-30 computers (or servers, or workstations). Due to the nature of computers and their likeliness to fail, many business owners have developed the “break/fix” mentality. What is the “break/fix mentality” you ask?
In other words many business managers and owners, feel that there is no need to worry about the maintenance of their computers or data until something “breaks” or fails to work properly. Unfortunately, there is a serious problem brewing, for most business owners and managers, who are not pro-active about maintaining their technology.
Not applicable to all business types, businesses that provide services to clients and retain sensitive information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, mortgage records, health information etc, can not afford to cut corners when it comes to their technology, network, and sensitive data.
Let’s visit a scary fact: According to the Institute for Business and Home Safety, an estimated 25% of businesses do NOT reopen following a major IT disaster.
We all understand that statistics can be skewed, but realistically speaking; does YOUR business serve customers that would lose trust in your security if they received notification that their personal information stored on your company’s computer(s), had been compromised or stolen; or even worse – used in identity theft?
NO, they wouldn’t!
Let’s envision a different scenario, that is actually common in the business world. The owner of an accounting company decides to streamline his budget and call his “neighbor’s son” to address his computer network when there is a problem. One day, a hard drive failed on their file server, and the company’s financial records stored on that server/drive, were not longer accessible. “No problem” said the business owner.. “we have backup of this drive so we are fine.” Unfortunately, the backup was never tested, and the “neighbor’s son” soon realizes that the backup copy that they have been using – does NOT restore. The critical financial data is lost for good!
To make matters worse, an audit of the company’s books by the shareholders – is scheduled for the next week. The business owner mentions that the financial records have been lost. Several of the share holders allege that the owner has “cooked the books” and is simply hiding the data from them. The shareholders decide to sue in court, and are awarded a large sum of money. The business owner files bankruptcy and goes out of business. Who ever thought backing up data was THAT important?
Managed Services is a proven solution to many of the current technology problems that plague small business owners, and can cause their businesses to close their doors unexpectedly. Also known as Pro-Active Maintenance, Maintenance Plans, Maintenance Agreements, Contract Business Tech Support, or Network Tech Support….the list goes on.
In a nutshell, this service is provided by IT service providers or computer/network consultants, to keep networks, computers, servers and hardware working in optimal condition as well as preventing problems that “regular computer users” (most business owners), would fail to notice.
Just the same as an automobile requires maintenance to avoid catastrophic engine failure (which in many cases the repairs cost more than the car is valued), so do networks and hardware. Some of the benefits that a maintenance plan can offer are:
* 24/7/365 monitoring the health of servers, workstations, computers and hardware; to discover and mitigate possible problems that could ruin a business.
* Managing (adding/removing) staff/employees on a network, preventing people without valid credentials, from gaining access to confidential and privileged information.
* Assuring that the anti-virus software installed on servers and workstations, updates properly and contains the latest malware detection signatures.
* Monitoring internet traffic to detect hackers attempting to gain unauthorized access to the network; in hopes of using the company’s network to attack other businesses – while concealing their true identity and location. Also, monitoring traffic to detect hackers that will compromise a company’s network for illegal financial gain (credit card info theft, etc).
* Implementation of backup solutions. Ensuring that all data is being backed up to prevent data loss, as well as testing the backup for integrity, to ensure the backup can actually be restored successfully if needed.
* Implementation of power supply solutions. Ensuring that in case of a major power outage, all computers, servers, printers etc, will continue to stay powered on to allow the users to save all of their current projects, with no loss in productivity, or loss data.
* Network security implementation. Ensuring that a policy for network and internet access is put into place. Wireless networks are secured to prevent unauthorized users from “stealing” critical data, or connecting to the network to share it’s internet connection. As well, putting into place a policy that will not allow certain users to jeopardize the integrity of a network (i.e. connecting to the company’s wired network using a wireless router and a laptop, thus exposing sensitive information to the “outside world,” due to an unsecured connection).
Source: ezinearticles
Your network infrastructure is a critical part of your company’s success. When it comes to handling IT you have a choice-wait till something cripples your system and then call in a professional to try fixing the problem-or take a preventative IT solution by daily monitoring via Managed Services and stop most problems before they start.
Break-fix monitoring is pretty much what its name implies-waiting for your technology to break and then fixing it. This option seems a cheaper route to go, especially if your business requires minimal network support. The only problem is when something breaks you end up suffering from network downtown while waiting for someone to come to fix it. A response time for a break fix customer tends to be slower than a managed service customer. Factor in any employee who relies on the network for phone or computer support and the money loss ads up quickly.
Managed Services is a proactive approach of handling your network. How Managed Services works is you have a monthly fee that would include any proactive monitoring, service calls, software upgrades and help desk support. A nice feature about managed services providers is the predictability of a fixed fee every month and reduced risk of network downtime, which equals more productivity for your business. An added bonus is Managed Services customers are always a priority-a necessity in the event of an emergency IT situation.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both models. IT problems are bound to happen-it is up to you to decide which option will maximize your profitability.
Source: Spaulding Hill
Your day just went off the deep end.
This may very well be playing in your organization today for anyone who is not already using managed services. The worst part is the fact when you call your repair guy, they tell you that they are swamped and won’t be out until tomorrow. Ok now what? The amount of is likely to cost in lost productivity? In lost sales? In dissatisfied customers?
That is just comes later when investing in the repair bill and realize you will need to sacrifice a shape part.
Managed services is not a silver bullet however it could make your enterprise life significantly more predictable. Monitoring and maintenance may help minimize “emergency” repairs and invite you to definitely policy for downtime and treat repairs more routinely. Predictability for the business owner can be a welcome change to daily fire fighting and emergencies.
One of several current myths is that often managed services be more expensive than break/fix repairs. Even though it can certainly seem that way when viewed only by comparing the repair bill for the monthly service fee, that isn’t a fair comparison. Break/Fix repairs have significant costs linked to lost productivity, customer dissatisfaction, lost revenue opportunities among others.
Consider any mechanical device you understand of from a car to the lawnmower. All things mechanical perform better when properly maintained. Managed services typically provides that ongoing maintenance and care that will extend living of your respective computer resources giving you far more value on your investment.
The break/fix type of caring for your computer resources isn’t managing your online business. It truly is gambling. You happen to be betting that you will not have a problem that costs you customers or a large repair bill. Can there be almost every other area of your company you treat doing this? I doubt it because if you do, it’s a safe prediction that you will not be in business very long.
Do you want to feel as if you’re running your company rather then it running you? Managed services can assist you to get a handle on a different part of your enterprise and put it at bay and management.
Source: Maxiarti.com
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