ClienTrax Veterinary Practice Management Software

How and Why to use Proactive Reminders…

When new patients are added to your files, do you need certain reminders to be added automatically to make sure they are not forgotten? This is easily done with Proactive Reminders.

Hopefully, when an animal is coming to you from another clinic, they will have a vaccination certificate from which vaccine reminders can be manually entered. But what about newly adopted animals or reminders that won’t be on certificates, such as dentals?

To make sure reminders for certain things always get entered on new patients, you can set the species card to automatically suggest them. To do this. Go to Main Menu and select Species, then double click on the species in the list that you want to set reminders up on.

With the Species card open, you can set certain reminders to be suggested when you add a new patient of that species. Let’s use Canine as an example. We will set up a heartworm and a Rabies proactive reminder.

With the Canine species card open, click on the Edit button on the tool bar. To add a reminder, click on the Add button on the Species Card below the species name. This will add a line to the Proactive Reminders Items list. The cursor will be flashing in the item number field in the edit section below. Type in the item number for your heartworm test or select it from your inventory list at the left. For the Type, select On Month. In the box below Type, enter 3. Take the check mark out of Do NOT add if Expired. Click on the OK button. You just told it to enter a heartworm test reminder to be due the following March (On Month 3) for any new canine patient that is entered into the system.

Now for the Rabies, click on the Edit button, then on the Add button. Enter the item number for your initial rabies. For the Type, select Age. In the box below Type, enter 4 and select Months. Leave the check mark in Do NOT add if Expired. Click on the OK button.

You just told it to enter a rabies reminder for any new puppies to be due when the puppy is 4 months old. You left the check mark in Do NOT add if expired so it does not add the rabies reminder for any canines past 4 months old who may already have a certificate from a previous vaccination. You don’t want the system to automatically enter a past due reminder when you may be entering a current reminder manually based on the certificate the client brings you.

With these reminders set up, when you enter a new patient that has Canine in the Species field, when you OK the patient card to save it, a window will come up where you can choose to accept all suggested reminders to be added to that patient or delete certain ones, or cancel all.

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Upcoming Events...

During the 1st quarter of 2003, we will be exhibiting at the following veterinary conferences:

North American Veterinary Conference
Orlando, FL
January 18th-22nd
Booth #507

Western States Conference
Las Vegas, NV
February 17th–20th
Booth #1252

Midwest Veterinary Conference
Columbus, OH
February 20th–23rd
Booth #745

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Dental Health Card Mailings

Would you like to create reminder cards for Dental Health Month, even if the patients do not already have a dental reminder record? This can be done with an extended transaction QBE.

If you want to print dental reminder cards for all patients who have not had a dental service within the last year, when you are at a client card, click on the Query Win button on the tool bar. At the Query window, click on the Ext Trans button. This will open the Patient Extended Transaction Search window. From here, you can search for patients who have NOT had a dental service within the last year.

To perform this kind of search, click on the Insert button on the tool bar, then set the patient information. If you want to search for just dogs or just cats, set the radio button to Canine or Feline, or leave it set to All for all patients. If you only want the search to find animals over a year old, leave the DOB set to <= and enter the date one year ago. Enter the date in simple digits, such as 123101 for Dec 31, 2001. At the Received section, select No, then enter the date (Since) of one year ago. Make sure there is a check mark in the No Purged Pets check box. If you only want to include animals whose owners have been in at least once within the last 3 years, enter 010199 in the Client Active Since field.

In the item box, enter the first item number for a dental service that you want it to search for, then click on the OK button on the tool bar or press the <Enter> key on the keyboard. ClienTrax will then search for all animals over a year old who have not had that dental service within the last year, but whose owners have been in within the last three years.

Once the search is complete, the animals matching the search will be listed in the bottom section of the window, and it will display the number of matching records found. Click on the Insert button again, then go to the item field and enter an item number for another dental service and click on OK. ClienTrax will then search through the list of animals who have not had the first service to narrow it down to animals who also have not had the second service either. You can keep adding item numbers to the search until you narrow the list to animals who have not had any dental services within the last year.

After you have finished searching for each item number, close the Patient Extended Transaction Search window. The search results will now be handled through the Query Window. It is very important that you do not close the Query window. If you do, your search results will be cleared, and you will need to perform the search again. At the Query window, click on the Print button on the tool bar, then select either Item Reminder or Text Reminder.

Selecting Item Reminder will open the Item QBE Reminders window. At the Item QBE Reminders window, enter the item number for the service you would like to have printed on the card, then enter the due date for that service. Next, set up the text messages that you want to be printed on the reminder cards. Click on the Test Page button on the tool bar to make sure things are set up the way you need them. If this is okay, put your blank reminder cards in the printer, then click on the OK button on the tool bar or press the <Enter> key on the keyboard. Your reminder cards will then be printed.

Selecting Text Reminder will open the Text QBE Reminders window. At the Text QBE Reminders window, set up the text that you want to be printed on the reminder cards. Click on the Test Page button on the tool bar to make sure things are set up the way you need them. If this is okay, put your blank reminder cards in the printer, then click on the OK button on the tool bar or press the <Enter> key on the keyboard. Your reminder cards will then be printed.

This same type of search can be used for other mailings as well. For example, use your item numbers related to heartworm prevention in place of dental services in the search, and you can then send reminder cards for heartworm tests and medications, even if the animal has not had a test done or reminder for heartworm created within the last year.

You can also use this type of search using spay and neuter item numbers to find all animals over a certain age who have never been spayed or neutered. Then use the search results to print letters you designed through Custom Documents to explain why this is an important procedure for the welfare of their pet.

Note: These expanded search capabilities are not a part of ClienTrax Basic. This article explains features available in ClienTrax Standard or ClienTrax Premium. If you are not able to access the Query window, check to see which level of ClienTrax you are running. Please call us at 1-800-416-2815 if you have any questions.

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Customizing LifeLearn Files

One of the great things about Lifelearn handouts is that they are customizable. You can have them print out with your own letterhead or logo, you can edit the articles, you can even write your own and add them to the files!

To have them print with your letterhead or logo, you will need to have a graphic file that you want to use for this. This file should be one of the following file types; .jpg, .bmp or .tif. Once you have the graphic file, name the file Logo.jpg (Replacing .jpg with one of the other types as appropriate.). Copy the file to the C:\Lifelearn folder in each computer the files are installed on. From now on, ClienTrax will automatically print this information at the top of your handouts.

To customize a handout, open the handout you wish to change, then edit the handout to customize it to your needs. Save your changes by going to the File menu and selecting Save As. Make sure you select Save AS, not just Save. Give your customized handout a different name from the original, and make sure it gets saved in the appropriate folder. For example, if you want to customize the pharmacy handout for Amoxicillin, make your changes to the document, then save it with a file name such as AmoxicillinMyOwn.doc, and make sure the new document is saved in the Pharmacy folder where the original is saved.

To create your own handouts, open word and write the handout document. Once you are finished creating the handout, go to the file menu, select Save As, give the file a name and save it in the appropriate category folder inside the Lifelearn folder. For example, if you want to write a handout for prenatal care for mares, you may want to call it prenatal.doc, and you will want to save it in the Equine folder in the Lifelearn folder.

Note: If you have not yet purchased Lifelearn files, but would like to, make sure you call us directly to order your Lifelearn files. Apparently we have neglected to mention this before, and some people have ordered direct from Lifelearn. Although Lifelearn approached us and asked us to integrate with their files, they have also asked us to handle the integrated file sales. The files you would get if purchasing direct from Lifelearn will be stand-alone files, not designed to integrate with any programs.

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Humor Is Healthy…

This month’s chuckle

A baby polar bear asks his mother, "Mommy, am I 100% polar bear?" The mother looks up in thought, and replies "Well, your father is 100% polar bear, and I'm 100% polar bear, so I'd say yes, you're 100% polar bear."

Not satisfied with this answer, the baby polar bear goes to his father and asks, "Daddy, am I 100% polar bear?" The father pauses briefly, and responds "Well, your mom's parents were both 100% polar bear, and my parents were both 100% polar bear, so yes, you're 100% polar bear." The father then looks at his son and says "Why do you ask?"

The son replies "BECAUSE I'M FREEZING!!!!"

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