PracSoft

PracSoft - Forward thinking Software Solutions

Overview
Features
Requirements
What's New

PracSoft is Australia's most popular practice management software. More than 3,300 practices nationwide manage their practice workflows using our software.

PracSoft lets you run your practice efficiently, allowing you more time to spend on patient interaction. PracSoft installed with Medical Director provides the full suite of leading practice management and clinical tools required for today’s busy practice.

Practice Management

PracSoft is the practice management solution that covers all the essential needs of a modern practice. Appointments, billing, claiming, reporting and other essentials are all provided in this comprehensive software package. PracSoft is used in a variety of settings ranging from general practice, specialist practice, Allied Health and hospitals and is also suitable to use in many other practice settings. PracSoft includes comprehensive patient file screens, straight-forward patient accounting, 14 customisable fee columns, easy lodging of Medicare and Veterans Affairs claims, multiple bank accounts with nine levels of security, statements for institutional and private patients, and an extensive reporting module. Streamlined claiming solutions in PracSoft have never been easier. Standard features of PracSoft are Medicare Australia Online Claiming, DVA Streamlined claiming and Integrated Medicare Easyclaim (Medicare's EFTPOS based claiming solution). The unique combination of Online and Integrated Easyclaim in PracSoft is now used by the majority of our customers to provide the best claiming method for individual practice and patient needs. Claiming is easy, saves the practice staff time, and it is also very convenient for your patients.

Billing

PracSoft looks for opportunities to maximise your billing capabilities and ensures accurate billing. It allows thorough checking of amounts charged at close of business, proactively warns of outstanding accounts when booking appointments and reminds reception that there is money owing when a patient arrives in reception.

Integrated EFTPOS

PracSoft users can benefit from easy processing of payments through the Integrated EFTPOS functionality in PracSoft. Integrated EFTPOS delivers many benefits to the busy practice – quick, easy payment processing and no re-keying of information. Currently PracSoft integrates with Tyro EFTPOS terminals.

SMS Reminders

SMS Reminders is a cost effective method of communication with your patients. Whether it's reminding your patients about their appointments or to alert patients to services or as a reminder for seasonal visits such as influenza vaccinations. SMS is fast, easy and saves you time – it has become one of the most popular methods of communication today. Simply register, purchase credits and start sending your SMS reminders.

Easy to Use and Modern Interface

PracSoft has recently undergone a ‘facelift’. The modern, new user interface is easy to navigate and requires very little training and has been designed to suit Australian medical practice workflows in consultation with professional medical practice staff. All HCN products are designed to ensure ‘minimal clicks’ to suit time poor medical professionals.

How to order?

Call 1300 300 161 (select menu option 1) or email questions before you buy.

PracSoft is the most popular practice management solution in the Australian marketplace today. It is intuitive and easy to use and includes all the features the modern medical practice needs to efficiently manage patient flows.

These features include:

Customisable and easy to use appointment book

Robust billing module to suit the modern medical practice

Comprehensive and extensive reporting module

PracSoft links with Medical Director to form a fully featured practice solution

One click opens patient files in Medical Director

A waiting room view displays a list of waiting patients and provides a quick reference for practice staff on services to be billed

PracSoft alerts staff of any outstanding accounts

PracSoft caters for Private, Bulk Billed, and Institutional payments

Easy to use receipting functionality

Robust banking functions including allocation of funds into multiple bank accounts

PracSoft streamlined claiming caters for fully integrated Medicare Easyclaim and Medicare Online functionality

Integrated EFTPOS functionality

14 Flexible user-defined fee columns to suit your practice's unique requirements

SMS Reminders to reduce no-shows thus saving your practice time and money

9 Levels of user access and security settings

Introduction
This document is intended only as a guide to assist practices in identifying their computer hardware, Operating
System and software requirements. HCN recommends that practices consult a Microsoft Certified Technician
to determine requirements and licencing to meet their individual needs.

System Recommendations are minimum guidelines. Actual requirements will vary based on your system
configuration, installed applications and usage.

Download a copy of system requirements for PracSoft.

The following HCN applications are covered by this guide:

Medical Director 3.12.1,
PracSoft 3.12.1,
Medical Director 3.12.1 with Blue Chip 2.7.3,
Blue Chip 2.7.3 only.

Operating System Minimums	MD / PS	MD + BC	BC
Windows XP Home Service Pack 3. 32-bit only. Standalone or Peer to Peer with other XP Home workstations only.
Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2. 32-bit only.
Windows XP Pro Service Pack 3. 32-bit only.
Windows Server 2000 Service Pack 4 (including SBS). 32-bit only. Releases of Blue Chip after v2.7.3 will not* be compatible with Windows 2000.*
Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (including SBS). 32-bit only.
Windows Server 2008 R1. 32-bit.
Windows Server 2008 R1. 64-bit.
Windows Server 2008 R2. 64-bit.
Windows Server 2008 SBS 64-bit only
Windows Vista Business/Ultimate/Enterprise, Service Pack 1. 32-bit. Vista, Home Basic and Home Premium will install Medical Director / PracSoft 3.12.1 and Blue Chip 2.7.3, but are not recommended. These Operating Systems should not be used in a Server role for MD/PS, or Standalone or Dedicated Server for BC.
Windows Vista Business/Ultimate/Enterprise, Service Pack 1. 64-bit. Vista, Home Basic and Home Premium will install Medical Director and PracSoft 3.12.1 but are not recommended. These Operating Systems should not be used in a Server role for MD/PS.
Windows 7 - 32-bit. Windows 7 Home Premium has limited functionality. It is recommended that this is only used for Standalone Server Role for MD/PS, or in a simple network with other Windows 7 Home Premium computers.
Windows 7 - 64-bit. Windows 7 Home Premium has limited functionality. It is recommended that this is only used for Standalone Server Role for MD/PS, or in a simple network with other Windows 7 Home Premium computers.
Citrix Presentation Server 4. See note below

*Terminal Services and Citrix

Many HCN customers are using Terminal Services and a few Citrix as an operating environment. These environments generally require a qualified professional technician to manage and configure. HCN support services are limited to the operation of HCN software in these environments.

Microsoft SQL

Medical Director, PracSoft and Blue Chip are distributed with the free Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (Max 4GB database limit). If practices wish to use a full Microsoft SQL Server product, the following are supported versions.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (Service Pack 4 recommended)
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R1
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

Microsoft Office Products

Blue Chip requires a minimum of Microsoft Word 2000 for word processing and a minimum of Microsoft Excel 2000 for the Blue Chip Reporting Module. Blue Chip Day Surgery requires a minimum of Microsoft Access 2000 or Access 2003.

Note that releases of Blue Chip after v2.7.3 must have a minimum of Microsoft Word 2003.

Hardware

If you are buying new computers the following specifications are recommendations. If you have existing hardware that does not meet these recommendations you can call HCN Technical Support to discuss suitability.

	Server / Standalone	Workstation
CPU	Intel Quad-Core (or equivalent) or better	Intel Core2 Duo Processor (or equivalent) or better
RAM	4 GB or higher	2 GB or higher
Monitor	Minimum resolution of 1024x768 at 16-bit colour.
CD/DVD	A drive capable of reading CDs and DVDs is required for software installation.
Hard Disk	HCN Software occupies approximately 1.5 GB of drive space.	Minimum of 1 GB Free space.
	The actual space required to operate all software will be determined by the range of your activities. Large Hard Drives are now inexpensive and the minimum recommended size is 320Gb - 500 GB. If you require further information consult a suitably qualified professional or call HCN Technical Support.
Printers	PracSoft requires a Windows printer to run. HCN recommends any middle to high range Windows printer determined by the intended workload. Multifunction Printers are not recommended for Blue Chip.
Scanners	Medical Director and Blue Chip require that scanners be TWAIN-compliant.
Internet	It is recommended that each computer have internet access to take advantage of HCN Automatic Updates.
Backup And Disaster Recovery	All businesses that have ‘mission critical’ data should have a full disaster recovery plan in place. This will require a full backup and restore facility for at a minimum the practice Server, but could offer significant benefit if extended to all computers that perform important functions or store practice data. This will allow you to restore the Operating System, Network settings, Applications and all data stored on the Server. While this has the impact of initial setup costs, it will provide comprehensive coverage in the event of a failure. Consider the value to your practice of your Clinical and Billing data, and ‘downtime’ in the event of a major failure. HCN recommends that practices consult a suitably qualified professional to establish your needs in this area.

What's New in MD/PS 3.12

(Released 14 April 2011)

PracSoft has undergone a "Facelift"

PracSoft has undergone a "Facelift" and has been transferred to a modern architectural platform called Microsoft.Net. This has resulted in the complete redesign of the PracSoft application interface, as well as some modifications to functionality and features.

PracSoft streamlined claiming

PracSoft has Medicare Easyclaim fully integrated into its software. This means no more re-keying and data entry errors. Your patients can now obtain their rebate in the practice within 11 seconds. More than 1,500 practices are using this revolutionary EFTPOS based claiming solution in PracSoft.

Support for new Windows Operating Systems

Both Medical Director and PracSoft 3.12 now support Microsoft Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit), Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008.

Also...
- DVA Medical Paperless Streamlining claims
- Now accommodates Nurse practitioner billing
and more....

New MBS updates for May 2010 are available for download click here