Intracore Online Solutions Pty Ltd has been a disruptive leader within the health industry since 2007 when it launched OPMS (Online Practice Management Studio), delivering Software as a Service solution for Health practitioners to be able to manage their patients and practices from an Internet Browser.

OPMS has gone from strength to strength since then and has delivered key leadership milestones such as:

• offering the first 100% web based medical billing integration with Medicare Australia
• Appointment synchronisation (iPhone, Outlook, Google, Hotmail etc…)
• SMS Gateway Integration
• Credit Card/ Payment Gateway Integration
• Xero & MYOB integration
• salesforce.com two way integration
• Automated management reporting supporting health practice groups and franchise business models.
• Call Centre Infrastructure Integration supporting corporate/ centralised booking and administration service models
• Tertiary certification platforms for issuing Certificate III and IV in Health Practice Management (NB: OPMS became a quality system after this integration against the Government’s mapped standards of practice management software)

OPMS delivers efficiency in processing and administrating a great deal of typical health practice business needs and is essential as a core system in operating a Health Practice.

The cost savings in comparison to old world software operating on Servers and Desktops are chalk and cheese with OPMS requiring a simple internet connection and internet browser for access without the overhead of software licensing/ maintenance or IT Support for heavy computerised operating environments.

Additionally, the freedom provided by having OPMS available from any Internet browser means mobility and tele-working models are cheap and easy to implement and health professionals always have access to their notes and business information.

As big and feature rich a system as OPMS is, it does not cater for 100% of possible needs a Health Professional or business might need.  For example, some health practices are very strong with marketing activities and need email marketing software, OR, there may be a need to report for BAS/ Superannuation or other taxation requirements.

The result is that we’ve understood from our feedback forums and feature request list that our user community typically uses a variety of disparate software within their business.  OPMS is the core or main system with a variety of other systems rounding of the practices needs.  This presents a challenge that OPMS is seeking to address.

The Problem:

Having so many systems in one health practice or business means that health professionals may not be operating to a quality system or to a standard that allows for cost efficiency and lowest possible admin time, thereby resulting in lost time and money juggling various systems.

Additionally, old world software providers are realising that their clients systems have become dated and this is resulting in a push to upgrade IT Infrastructure to support their next version of software leading to business owners being faced with substantial costs.

Having more than one system also means that you’re drawing on various vendors, skills, experience and this brings about a lack of data synchronisation/ integration and multiples of costs associated with double handling technical issues.

The Challenge:

We spoke with a lot of our clients who range from sole proprietors/ small partnerships to corporate and group/ membership based organisations and discovered that it’s unlikely that one software could cover 100% of each business models requirements.

This results in a significant challenge for health practitioners being faced with decisions as to what are the most appropriate and best of breed and then to find someone to bring them all together (integration of systems).

Our health practitioners don’t earn fees solving IT problems and therefore it’s expensive to try and work out which systems are best, who to integrate and when to put all this together…

Knowing this challenge, the question then begs…well is there a solution or a better way? The answer is Yes!

The Solution:

OPMS has a number of integration partnerships in place already and is continuing to grow a partner framework to allow you access to best of breed products suited to the health industry that work well together and synchronise all the common data.

Aside from taking the guess work out of it for you, OPMS stays focussed on what system partners can be cost effectively integrated and offer low cost access to the health practice community.

The commitment from our selected partners means you have a team around your practice who are solving technical problems and rolling them out for your benefit and to ensure you’re practice is technically buzzing along ensuring your time is used for caring for patients, OR spending more time with family and loved ones.

Although the integrations noted above are already embedded in OPMS and paid for with the fee in place, there are some software providers who do their particularly thing very well.

One exciting partnership just recently launched is Xero (http://www.intracore.com.au/intracore/xerolanding.html).

Essentially, this partnership means that by adding on Xero to OPMS you now have the ability to run BAS/ PAYG/ Payroll/ Tax Reporting and a host of other general ledger functionality to OPMS’s patient, practice and reporting functionality giving you most of what you will need to run a Health Practice.

When is this available?

You can Add-On Xero right now by going to www.intracore.com.au/intracore/xerolanding.html and clicking the “try Xero accounting software” link for free.

We’re open to your suggestions as to any other type of software/ functionality that you’re looking for so we can source, test and approve the best of breed applications and integrate them into OPMS for your convenience.

If you are a Health Professional running a practice or know health professionals consider the Add-On integrations OPMS is developing as they will be the most cost effective ways for you to ensure a low cost subscription fee model without the time/ costs associated with synchronising data and system.

Using OPMS as your core system and approved Add-Ons will save you a great deal of time, money and headaches in running a modern day health practice and hence the context of the “Smart Practice”.

Let us know if you have any questions and what you think of this initiative.  OPMS is committed to being your core operating system and ensure that any additional software you need can be joined into our Add-On community, so to this extent keep your requests and suggestions coming through and any comments.