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PPS has an option in the Tools menu for database maintenance. This includes a Re-index All Data Files option and an Archive option, both of which should be utilised as part of your regular maintenance routine of PPS.
The Re-Index option reorganizes your data files to ensure optimum speed of access to your records during normal PPS use and further ensures that if you use PPS Sync Server, all data can synchronise correctly.
To perform a re-index you need to make sure that you are the ONLY person logged into PPS and if you are a PPS Sync Server user, it is shut down before proceeding.
Note: If you have a multi-site clinic, each database will NEED to be re-indexed seperately on a regular basis. When performing the re-index you only need to ensure your local sites users are logged out - other sites can operate as normal.
This option also identifies and fixes a range of minor database corruptions that are sometimes caused by computer failures, power cuts, etc. The Archive option allows you to archive your older audit records.
- To run a re-index, go to Tools > Database Maintenance > Re-index.
- Click OK on the next prompt.
- The next screen will appear if you have not archived your audit within the last month. Click Yes if you wish to archive your audit now, if not click No.
Note: If performing an archive of older audit records, please make sure that your PPS system will not be needed as depending on the last time your audit was archived, it may take more than 1 hour for this process to complete.
- Your data will now begin to re-index. Depending on the size of the database and when the last re-index was run, it can take from a couple of seconds to a couple of minutes.
- Once the re-index is complete, you can resume system use as normal.
Archiving your appointments diary is the next step to speeding up your live system. It basically takes the older appointments and places them into a secondary file, so when you initially access your diary, it doesn’t need to load up all the past information. You can still access your archived appointments from the client log and the archived appointments list, along with running reports on the archived data. PLEASE NOTE: You cannot un-archive your appointments diary.
- Go to Tools > Database Maintenance > Archive Appointments Diary.
- Select the date range that you wish to archive, for example, anything over 40 weeks old.
- You will now be prompted to make sure that you wish to archive your appointments. Click Yes to continue.
- The Appointments will now be archived. Click OK to be taken to the main screen and to continue using PPS in a normal manner.
You can set the re-index procedure to archive you completed activities for ‘x’ amount of weeks. Typically this is set to around 26 weeks, but the more often you archive completed activities, the more the improvement to your network speed of PPS.
To configure this option, go to Tools > Options > General System Options and alter the ‘Auto-Prompts’ Area as shown below.
If you have duplicate clients or third parties on the system, you can use this feature to consolidate and merge the details of duplicate entries into one single entry.
- To access this feature, you will need to navigate to Tools > Database Maintenance > Client/Third-Party Consolidation Utility.
- Firstly you will need to select the third party type if you are merging third parties. Once selected you will need to select both entries that need to be merged together. You can select both of them by using the Search button. The first entry will be deleted, whereas the second entry will receive all of the data from the first.
Note: When merging client details, please take note that unlike third party details, not everything is merged. Medical History records will not transfer, and third party contacts are not transferred from the deleted selection.
- Once both selections have been made, you will now be required to click on the Consolidate! Button to merge the first entry into the 2nd entry.
- Click OK to proceed with the data merge.
- Your data will now be merged together, with information containing the number of records transferred from the deleted entry into the modified entry. Click OK and then re-index your database as soon as you can to make sure everything is fully updated.
Sync server re-indexing is a new feature to PPS. Its main purpose is to check all data files that sync, and to ensure that they all have their own index keys. Without an index key the appropriate data will not sync. If you are ever unsure that information on one machine has not been synced across to other systems, then please contact PPS Support as this will need to be run under supervision and investigation may be needed before this utility is used
Activities
Activities in PPS are a way of keeping a record of contacts, telephone calls, letters, etc. that you have with your Clients or Third-Party contacts. Activities can all have a specific PPS User, and Practitioner assigned to them, and can be scheduled for completion in the future or immediately. Activities appear in the Client Log for each client, as well as on the Activities List and the Task List. A System of colours is used to denote activities that are: Due – Green; Not yet due – Orange; Completed – Purple and Overdue (task list only) – Red.
See Also: Activities – Activity Types Appointments Diary
The PPS Appointments Diary allows you to record your client appointments, and manage your available appointment times. There are a variety of diary view styles to suit your needs including single day, whole week, single or multiple users etc. You can access the PPS Appointments Diary from the PPS Menu: Appointments – Appointments Diary, or by pressing Ctrl-A on the Keyboard. You can also click on Appointments, or Diary on the Task Bar. The diary has a toolbar to give you access to common functions such as adding appointments, and when the diary is displayed, clicking on an item in the task bar, or selecting from the PPS menu will normally be related to the currently highlighted appointment. For example, if an appointment for Mrs Smith is highlighted, then clicking on the Accounts option on the task bar will show the accounts screen for Mrs Smith.
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A Practitioner on the PPS Appointments Diary is referred to as a “Diary User”. This is to allow the diary to be used by more people than just Practitioners in your practice. You can select to set up and use your diary either by Diary Users, or by Treatment Rooms – this can suit they way that you are used to booking your clients into the diary.
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See below for further detailed information relating to the various Appointments Diary functions in PPS. Audit
PPS maintains an audit of all updates made to the database in several key areas. As further developments take place to PPS, these areas will be expanded to include database updates in all areas of PPS. Currently, audit details are recorded for the following areas: Appointments, Client Details, Clinical Notes, and Activities. The audit details captured will allow the PPS system administrator to make audit enquiries to see which PPS user has carried out which updates to the database, and precisely when. This audit enquiry option will be available in the near future. In the meantime, support staff at PPS are able to extract all the required information from your audit should a serious need arise. Client
Client records are the hub of your PPS database. PPS refers to these records as “Clients” rather than “Patients” because PPS is used across a variety of business and clinical disciplines, some of whom use the term “client” and others use “patient”. A client record can have either minimal details entered, such as first name and surname, or can be a comprehensive range of details including full address/contact details, alternative addresses, DOB, sex, “known as”, full profile details including “source of introduction”, occupation (plus a range of entries you can set up yourself). In addition you can associate a variety of third-parties to clients such as doctors, insurance companies, etc. The more comprehensive the details you store for each client, the greater the opportunities to use these details in your reports and mail-merge operation. For example, by recording the “source of introduction” for each client (such as yellow pages, local advert, recommendation, etc.) you can run almost any report in PPS to show a breakdown by “source of introduction”, for example “practice revenue” by “source of introduction” will show where you earn the most money from – thus where you should concentrate most on your advertising! Complete
The term “Complete” is used in PPS for both Appointments and Consultations. You can select to Complete an Appointment – where is it marked in Purple, and you can then raise the charge, book another appointment, etc., and you can Complete a Consultation – where you can decide if the Treatment Episode is completed, or how many more consultations are required, you can raise the charge, produce a Discharge Letter etc. The term “Complete” is also used for Treatment Episodes that have an “End Date” entered – see: Completed Episodes. Data
Data is a general term that refers to all your records. In computer terms, data is any piece of information that you can change, so this includes your normal records (client records, billing, appointments, etc.) and other information such as letter layouts, invoice templates and so on. PPS allows you to “back up” your data, which means to make a second copy of all your data. See: Back Up; Database for more details. Database
The PPS Database can be stored in a separate location on your computer/network from the main PPS application files. This would apply to a PPS installation on a network where the PPS Application files are installed onto each computer, and the database is located centrally on the network. There is the option to change the database location as part of the initial installation of PPS, and there is also a separate “database only” installation available if the database is to be installed onto a computer such as a server where PPS will not be used on that computer – servers often reside in a “back office” and are not used as a desktop computer. Details
This is a generic term used to describe the information stored in any particular part of PPS. For example Main Client Details is the information you enter to this screen. In addition, there are several “notes” type fields that allow you to enter further “free text” details against a record – these are also sometimes referred to as Details. Diary
See: Appointments Diary History
See: Medical History List
List is the term used to describe information that either appears on the screen or on a report in rows and columns. The term List is also used in PPS as a list of items such as menu, or list of entries such as a look up table. See also: List style diary. Log
See: Client Log. Maintenance
See: Database Maintenance. Network
You can run PPS on your PC Local Area Network. If you need to run PPS across a “wide network” or across the internet, then you will need to talk to your PPS supplier for details of how to do this.
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If you would like to run PPS on your local network, then make sure that your PPS licence includes the appropriate number of “concurrent” users required (the number of users who can log into PPS at the same time). Extra concurrent licences can be purchased from your PPS Supplier. You are sent a new PPS Registration File each time you purchase more licences.
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In order to install PPS on a PC on your network, first make sure that the location that the main PPS database is installed is “shared” on the network, and allows “other users to update files”. Doing this ensures that the “network installation” of PPS can locate the database across the network and successfully log into the database.
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Also See: Installation New
Look up this under the type of new record – e.g. appointment - new Options
PPS has a screen on the PPS Tools menu called Options. This screen can be used to set up a wide variety of system settings that affect the way that PPS works. You can make your changes to these areas and press the OK or Apply button to save your changes. The Options screen has four tabs along the top: General, Custom Client Fields, Set Up Client Contacts, and Clinical Notes. See the entries under each of these sections for more details, for example Options – General. PPS
PPS is the acronym for “Private Practice Software”. Reports
PPS includes many different reports that you can run that present information accumulated from various parts of the system. There are two main reports options: Summaries and Statistics, and PPS Reports and Mail Merge. In addition to these two main options, there is a variety of other print-outs that you can produce from PPS that are not included in the category of reports. These include: Printing the Diary, Client Details, Medical History and Clinical Notes. You can access the PPS reports options from the PPS Menu: Reports. For more details about the Statistics & Summaries type reports, see: Statistics & Summaries. When you select the PPS Reports & Mail Merge option, a reports selection screen appears – this screen is divided into the various categories of reports that you can run. Most reports (certainly client-based reports) can also be used for mail merge purposes. Select a report from any of the categories and use either the Run option (see: Reports – Run) or the Open option (see: reports – Open). When you select Open, you will be guided through the Report Wizard (see: Report Wizard) to allow you to make your specific selections for the report before choosing a report output option (see: Reports – Report Output). See also: various entries in this reference guide under Reports for further details. For details of individual reports, see: the entry under the report name, for example Charges Report or Aged Debtors Report. Search
You can search for various records in PPS: Clients, Appointments, Third-Party contacts etc. Some screens include a <Search> button on the toolbar. The main PPS Client Search screen includes options to search on a variety of fields: for example Surname. This screen can be accessed from the Search Button on any of the client screens (main details, log, browse) or by clicking “Search” on the PPS Task Bar. The Search screen allows you to enter all or part of a value into a selected field, then when you press Enter a list of results that match what you have typed in is displayed. The most common information to search on is Surname. In the Surname field on the search screen, it is possible to enter all or part of the surname followed by a space, then all or part of the client’s First Name. This way you can narrow down your search results – useful with popular surnames. For example, you can search for Joe Smith simply by entering SMI J in the Surname field and pressing enter. All clients whose surname starts with SMI and whose First Name starts with J will be listed.
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You can search for existing Client Appointments or Free Appointment Slots using the <Search> button on the Appointments Diary – see: Appointments Diary – Search for more details. Select
A term used when you choose something on the screen. Some PPS screens have a <Select> button, this normally means that you pick an option, or entry in a list, then click the <Select> button. This will “select” your chosen entry and proceed to the next screen, or return to the previous screen with your chosen entry selected. Sync
See: PPS Sync Time
See: Activities – Time; Appointments – Time Tools Menu
Options on the Tools menu are listed alphabetically in this reference guide under each Section e.g. Look Up Tables.
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