Tri-County Podiatry has three busy podiatrists offering general podiatric care and surgery at three locations in Northern Illinois. “We had been using a pretty cumbersome DOS-based practice management system,” says administrator Bonnie Murray. As the years went by, the system got slower and slower, and crashes became more frequent. The outdated technology had begun to negatively affect productivity. For example, “If two people accidentally tried to access the same patient file at the same time, the system would get hung up and be down for hours,” she explains.

The Compulink Solution
Update to Current Technology with a Flexible System from a Stable Vendor
It was obvious how much more the practice could accomplish just by updating its systems. But with many podiatry software vendors having gone out of business in recent years, Tri-County Podiatry needed a stable business partner. In Compulink, they found a partner with more than 26 years of experience in electronic health records (EHR) and practice management.

Tri-County implemented Compulink’s Podiatry Advantage for all their patient demographics and management, claims processing, billing, and scheduling needs. “We really liked the way the screens look in Podiatry Advantage,” says Murray. She and her colleagues also appreciate the fact that Compulink is fully customizable, allowing them to make changes to screens and tables to meet their exact needs. “Some of the other systems just weren’t suitable for us—you couldn’t change anything,” she says.

The Outcome
Improved Efficiency, Flexible Reporting and Faster Reimbursement
“Podiatry Advantage is much more comprehensive and powerful than what we had before,” Murray says. She likes the flexible reporting features. “We can check claims status electronically and if there is a problem, run a detailed report to see what’s going on. We can also print just the pages we need rather than wasting paper on an entire report,” she says. The practice was already filing claims electronically, but the claims are faster and more accurate through Compulink. “It’s so much easier to follow up on a problem,” she says. The system also lets staff enter extensive comments on the patient demographics screen. “When discussing billing with patients or following up on claims, it’s nice to have the details right in front of you,” Murray says.

Tri-County is interested in exploring new capabilities, such as e-prescribing and EHR. Fortunately, with Compulink, they’ve already chosen a partner that can offer them a certified EHR system and the support and expertise they need to be successful with EHR.