It is commonplace now for a lot of doctors to share their practice with colleagues. These group practices have the benefit of being able to share resources and provide cover for each other and patients alike. It's also quite likely that at some point in time doctors may wish to leave a practice, be it to join another practice, go out on their own or even retire. When the time comes for a doctor to leave there are some questions that should be asked and some considerations to keep in mind. Below is a checklist of things you may wish to consider if this is something your practice may have occur in the future.
Before you begin
The steps below outline things that relate directly to your Genie database. However, there may possibly be other tasks that will need to be completed outside of Genie.
Who owns the Genie database?
The owner of the Genie database is known as the licensee. This is the person or company who purchased the Genie software and database and is listed with Genie Solutions as the licensee. They were responsible for signing the Customer Agreement which was issued at the time or purchasing Genie.
Does the licensee give permission for data to be exported?
In order for a data export to be performed the licensee of the Genie database will need to issue written permission advising they are happy for an export to occur. If the licensee of the database does not give their consent then Genie Solutions will be unable to assist with an export. If the licensee is happy for the departing doctor to take a copy of their patient records then the departing doctor will need to
contact Genie Solutions to discuss the process of performing a trial data export, schedule a time for this to occur and to complete the necessary paperwork.
What format is required for the data export?
The format of the data required for an export will depend on whether the departing doctor is going to join another Genie practice, purchase their own new Genie database or will be joining a practice which uses an alternative software. If the departing doctor will be using a Genie database in future then a copy of the Genie data file (Genie.4dd, Genie.4dIndx and Genie.4dMatch files) and accompanying Images folder will need to be obtained. A Genie Solutions trainer will be assigned to assist with performing the export.
If the departing doctor will be using an alternate software program they will need to discuss the data requirements with that provider. The entire Genie database is able to be exported in an XML format. The patient demographic records can be exported in ASCII (text) format.
How much time is required to arrange an export?
The lead time needed for a data export will vary depending on a number of factors including whether the departing doctor will be joining an existing practice or starting their own database. The process is typically completed by a Genie Solutions staff member with time allotted to collect data, perform trial exports/imports and review data with staff before performing the final export. We recommend allowing at least 4 weeks lead time to ensure staff availability.
Are there outstanding Medicare claims?
Medicare Online claims are transmitted under a minor location ID with accompanying location certificates which Medicare uses to identify the clinic. These certificates and ID are unique to each data file. Before departing it is recommended that all Medicare Online claims are finalised (e.g. all invoices have been transmitted to Medicare and those claims have then had subsequent reports retrieved for them) to avoid any potential issues with Medicare making payment for these claims.
Will the doctor need to collect outstanding debts?
A Genie formatted data export (used when the departing doctor will be using Genie at their new practice) does not contain any financial records. As a result it will need to be determined whether they need to chase up outstanding debts themselves at the new practice or whether the existing practice will be responsible for doing so. If the outstanding debts are to be chased up at the new practice then an
Unpaid Invoices report should be run listing all outstanding invoices.
Do patients need to be marked as inactive?
Once the departing doctor has left the clinic will be left with patient records for patients who may no longer be attending the clinic (i.e. they will be following the doctor to their new practice). As such, and in order to keep the patient list relevant, you may choose to mark those patient records as inactive. This will mean those patients can be excluded from future searches. To identify these records, follow the instructions in the
Marking Patient Records as Inactive article.
Do you need to move or delete appointments?
How you handle patient appointments for the departing provider will depend on whether or not the patients will be seeing a different doctor at the clinic or whether they will be cancelling their appointments at the existing clinic and following the doctor to his new location. If the patients will be seeing an alternate doctor their appointments can be moved on an individual basis by selecting the All tab in the appointment book to view All providers and then holding down the Alt/Option key on your keyboard before clicking and dragging the appointment to the new provider's column.
If you wish to remove all future appointments for a particular provider you can do so by navigating to File > All User Preferences and unticking the "In Appts" tickbox for the departing doctor. A confirmation window will appear which will allow you to delete all of these future appointments at once.
Note: If you would like a history of appointments to be retained in your database you should select Cancel to this prompt - these appointments would then be retained.
Do you need to deactivate any practices?
If you have previously created a separate lot of practice preferences for the departing doctor you may wish to mark this practice as inactive to prevent it being selected at the time of logging in as well as on invoices. Before marking a practice as inactive you should ensure all accounts associated with this practice have been finalised (this will ensure the correct information will still print on any invoices/statements). To mark the practice preferences as inactive navigate to File > Practice Preferences, highlight the practice you wish to remove and select the trash can icon. A confirmation window will appear asking you to confirm you with to mark the practice as inactive:
The practice will remain in the list but will now appear in grey text to indicate it is inactive.
Note: On older versions of Genie the ability to mark a practice as 'inactive' is not available. Rather, the practice would be deleted if the trash can icon is selected. We do not recommend selecting this icon until you upgrade to a more recent version of Genie.
Do you need to deactivate any users?
Once the departing doctor has left the practice and their accounts have been finalised it is recommended to mark their user as inactive to avoid the provider being inadvertently selected. Marking a user record as inactive does not remove the user from the database but rather prevents the user from appearing in the login window and from being selected within the application. To inactivate a user navigate to File > All User Preferences and double click on the user in question. Select the Inactive User tickbox at the top right of the window.
In addition to marking the user as inactive you may wish to remove their associated bank codes (again this is assuming that all outstanding accounts have been dealt with). To do this navigate to Open > Bank Accounts. Highlight the departing doctors bank code and select the trash can icon. A confirmation window will appear asking you to confirm you wish to delete the record - select the Delete button.
If you will not be marking the user record as inactive immediately it is recommended that the preference 'Don't send SMS reminders for my appointments' is selected. This will ensure that SMS reminders aren't inadvertently sent out for this provider if appointments have been retained. This preference can be found in the General tab of the User Preferences.
Do you need to contact any providers?
If your practices receives electronic pathology and radiology results you should contact the providers and advise them of the doctors departure. They will be able to update their records to ensure future results for that provider are no longer sent to your clinic. The same goes for if you use an external transcription company - they should be contacted and advised that no further letters for this provider will be being produced for your clinic.
Do you need to remove any templates?
If your practice utilises individual letter templates for each doctor you may wish to remove their templates from your database as they will no longer be needed. These templates may be saved in both the Merged Letters area as well as the Referral/Reply Letters area. In addition there may be Procedure templates saved. For more information about saving templates external to Genie, refer to the
Removing a Letter Template article.
