What PLZ Does

"OK" you're thinking, "I can see how practice management extension
software makes a lot of sense. Can you tell me exactly what
PLZ will do for me?"

PLZ will do these things for your practice:

Bring you new patients
Dramatically improve routine patient communications / internal marketing / patient loyalty building
Give you and your patients more convenient and efficient access to information
Automate the gathering and initial evaluation of data needed to truly manage your practice more profitably

Not to keep picking on your PMS... but it really falls short in every one of these areas.

Its entire focus is existing patients - we don't know of a single PMS that can do any external marketing.

Its "routine patient communications" features (confirmations, recall notices, letters, etc.) are severly limited (no text messaging, plain emails - if it can even send email - no automated phone calls), are poorly designed (we'll continue to hammer on the so-called "recall systems" of every PMS - they're atrocious!), and aren't automated in the least (no messages are ever sent until a human tells the computer to send them: see Automation vs. Computerization for more on that.)

It was designed so long ago (the youngest of the five major PMS's was created more than 16 years ago!) that it has no native ability to work with the Internet or "smart phones". Any such ability it may have is through a clumsy "add on" module.

In spite of its common name - a practice management system - it does very little to help you actually manage your practice. It helps you execute the day-to-day tasks, but when it comes to management, what do you get? A bunch of reports that simply list or summarize data. They don't provide you with any meaningful ratios, they don't show you trends, and they sure don't tell you how you're doing relative to any standard measurements, or compared to other practices.

Unlike your PMS, we designed PLZ from a practice management perspective (see Why we had to create PLZ), and it's written with the absolute latest programming tools, using the most current concepts in software design.

Internet and "smart phone" integration is part of its most basic functionality.

Its patient communications systems use every significant type of traditional and electronic media (email, text messaging, postcards, printed letters, automated phone calls) so that 100% of your patients are reached; all messages are sent automatically - without one iota of human intevention required.

We go to great lengths to ensure that every system we create is going to be effective - that is, it will accomplish its primary objective - and it's going to be efficient - it will take significantly less staff time to accomplish a better result. (examples: appointment confirmations, recall, reactivation, patient loyalty)

We don't wait for you to request an analysis of a particular area of your practice, nor do we assume that you even know what statistics are appropriate for such an analysis. PLZ automatically analyzes every area of your practice that we have data for, compares your results to all the other PLZ users, and sends the results to you each month. And WE MONITOR YOUR RESULTS! If something really sticks out, we'll be on the phone with you to make sure you know about it, and to suggest things you can do to fix it.

"Alright already! I get it! PLZ is way smarter than my PMS. It does things automatically. It uses the Internet and my iPhone. But what does it do?"

Now that you understand that PLZ isn't just another computer program with the same limitations as your PMS, here is the list of everything that PLZ currently does. The columns indicate which of the four things at the top of this page each feature helps with.

** These things happen totally, completely, 100% automatically - NO human intervention required!
++ These features are available from any computer with Internet access - at home, office, anywhere.
	New Ptns	Pat Comm	Data Access	Mgmt Info
Integrated Direct Mail Marketing ** Two types of targeted marketing programs New Home Owners in your selected ZIP codes Specifically selected demographic groups Existing patients "scrubbed" from list initially Email to you when campaign brings in new patient New patients "scrubbed" automatically from subsequent mailings	X			X
RealCall (Inbound phone call tracking) ** Success of any marketing campaign tracked Calls recorded for training and quality assurance	X	X		X
RealCallNow (connect patient phone call to office via link in email, on website, etc.)		X
Appointment reminder / confirmation messages ** Reach 100% of your patients "Save the Date" email sent when appt scheduled "Alarm clock" text message send just before appt Series of reminders if appt made far in the future Different msg schedule for different appt types Postcards sent when appropriate Automated phone calling available as an option Multiple responses for patient flexibility Appointments automatically marked "confirmed" directly in your PMS		X
Intelligent Recall System ** Specifically designed message schedule touches patients as often as needed to insure compliance Reach 100% of your patients via Email, text messages, letters, postcards, phone calls Complete flexibility on schedule of messages allows you to send as many or as few messages as you want Can duplicate any recall schedule imagineable "Request an Appointment" link on all emails allows patient to immediately request their appointment 24 hours a day		X
"Refer A Friend" link on emails, newsletters, website	X	X
"Request Appointment" link on emails, newsletters, website		X
Patient surveys ** Three different survey types: New Patient visit Recent hygiene visit Recent doctor visit Public surveys help boost Internet search rankings Survey results published to your website	X	X		X
Newsletters Write your own content (no charge) Pre-written content provided each month (additional fee) Newsletter automatically created and sent to you for approval prior to patient blast		X
Reactivation letters ** Finds inactive patients every day Opportunity to suppress letter for indiv. patients Automatic reminder to you to follow up w/ ph. call		X
Birthday messages ** Emails, postcards, even text messages - your choice Different images and messages based on age		X
Special messages sent to customer-defined groups of patients Holiday greetings Special promotions Important announcements (moving, new doctor, etc.) Simple export to industry standard text file		X
Daily Front Desk Task List ** Reports important information about each appointment today Missing info on all patients coming in today Identifies patients and family past due for recall Reports various data problems in PMS data			X	X
Daily Automated Accountability Report ** Summarizes completed tasks from yesterday's Task Lists Details incomplete tasks from yesterday's Task Lists				X
Detailed practice statistics on your Practice Portal ** Survey results Patient demographic analysis New / lost patient analysis Appointment activity analysis New stats added regularly			X	X
Appointment book / confirmation list / night call list on your Practice Portal++			X
Appointment book change logging (see every change ever made to schedule) ++			X	X
Appointment list / confirmation list / night call list on iPhone		X	X
Patient search by first name, phone number, email address, mailing address, etc. ++			X
Data synchronization with your PMS every 10 minutes **
Disaster Protection and Recovery ++ When YOUR server goes down, today's appointments, and your entire patient list is still available on your PLZ Practice Portal "Data Recovery Report" can help you rebuild critical information if you discover your last good backup is days, weeks, or even months old (it happens ALL the time!) Has already saved several clients from immeasurable loss of money and sleep			X

** These things happen totally, completely, 100% automatically - NO human intervention required!
++ These features are available from any computer with Internet access - at home, office, anywhere.