$5-27.$ The Pucini Pediatric Practice $($Selecting software for a medical office$)$

It was Friday afternoon, and Dr$.$ Tammy Pucini had seen her last patient for the day. As she sat in her office, staring at the gloomy afternoon sky$,$ she realized that she was both tired and happy. She thought, for example, about how much she had worried that there wasn$$t enough demand for another pediatric doctor in town. But not anymore. That first year had been a little difficult, but now her practice included two full$-$time doctor$-$partners, and a complete clinic of five nurses, three clerical receptionists, two data entry clerks, and one office manager.

Of all these people, Katie Karr was the newest hire. Katie was bright, personable, genuinely kind, and already a favorite among the office staff. Ironically, this was turning out to be a problem. Katie had suggested that the office needed to upgrade its accounting systems $$for all kinds of reasons.$$ A new system, she noted, could handle the higher volume of patients they were now seeing, could produce financial reports both for the individual doctors and for the practice as a whole, and could interface with the software of the many health insurers in town.

Best of all, Katie had noted, she had a friend working in a dental practice in another state, who had just implemented DoctorsFirst$$a new medical system that $$the staff over there just loved.$$ She heard that it was easy to use, produced both itemized and collective reports, and included an insurance module for third$-$party billing. It wasn$$t expensive, Katie added, and was so intuitive to use that little training was required to use it$.$

Despite these many advantages, Tammy wasn$$t completely convinced. At a recent conference, for example, she had learned that $$acquisition$$ was only one of the many costs of a complete system, that the medical packages designed for one state did not automatically work well with insurers in another state, and that what was $$intuitive$$ to some people was anything but to others. Most importantly, Tammy realized that she was $$out of her element$$ when it came to picking a good package for her office. She knew pediatric medicine$$not computer systems! She also feared that Katie might be too optimistic in her assessment of DoctorsFirst$$a natural outcome of her sunny disposition. Tammy feared that the risks were high$$a failed system could spell disaster for her small practice.

Tammy felt that she had at least three options. One was to continue to rely on her existing systems. Yes, things were slow, reporting was limited$,$ and third$-$party insurance interfaces were now mostly faxes and e$-$mails to insurers. But this option had one huge thing going for it$$things worked and the current staff knew how things worked.

Another option was to trust Katie and implement the DoctorsFirst system. She liked this idea because she liked Katie. She realized that she could invite the people at DoctorsFirst to visit the practice and first ask them to make a presentation. That way, the doctors and staff could ask questions and determine just how useful the system might be to them. But the home office of DoctorsFirst was over $1,000$ miles away, making an onsite visit expensive. Would she have to pick up the tab for that visit? Also, staff time was valuable and in short supply, and she had no way of knowing just how much she could trust the presenters$$ answers to their questions. She knew that such people were salespeople first and might promise anything to make a sale.

Then there was a third option: hire a consultant to help them. But who? And where would they find one? Would this person be reliable? Or honest?

Tammy signed. The continuing gloom of the late afternoon did nothing to improve her mood. It was time to go home and feed Tabby$-$the$-$cat! Maybe the best choice would come to her while she took a bath....

Requirements

The case provides three options. Create a list of them, and for each, itemize the pros and cons. It is fine to list items not mentioned in the case but that are also likely for one or more options.

What do you recommend Tammy should do and why?