We here at MacPractice have been working tirelessly to provide a superior build of our software that addresses several concerns that have been brought to our attention, as well as improve the user experience. This article briefly covers some of the major improvements that Build 10 has to offer. For an exhaustive list of all fixes and changes included in MacPractice Build 10, please refer to the Build 10 Release Notes.
MacPractice Build 10 is compatible with macOS Sierra, High Sierra, and Mojave.
As always, feel free to contact MacPractice Support if you need any assistance or have any questions!
New Feature - Accounting Ability
We've added a new Ability designed for users who need to review transactional information for the entire practice.
You can easily track all production conducted by individual providers, review the Accounts Receivable by Insurance Companies, track all changes made to ledgers over a period of time, and more.
Please refer to How to Use the Accounting Ability for a rundown on all the features available within the Accounting Ability.
New Reference - Bank Accounts
Alongside the Accounting Ability, we have also added a new Reference to contain Cash Accounts. Payments can then be associated with Cash Accounts, and then you can use the Accounting Ability's Cash Accounts Node to track those specific payments. This can be a very useful feature to organize your incoming payments in any manner you desire.
New Feature - Redesigned Clinical Tab
The Clinical Tab has been redesigned to allow an office to customize their Clinical Tab's contents to meet your needs. You can color code, reorganize, and hide sections with the click of a button.
We've made several refinements to the Clinical Tab after our initial release in early builds of Gen 9. We've also added a Preview button that can be used to quickly glance at certain items without having to fully load them in their respective abilities. We hope this will help improve your workflow.
New Feature - Dental Timeline
In Restorative Charting, we've added a method, the Dental Timeline, to be able to quickly flip between visit dates to visually review all changes on a patient's chart. By using the forward and back buttons, you can cycle between dates. You can use the drop down menu to select a specific date.
New Feature - Jive Integration
We've partnered with Jive to provide integrated telecommunications solutions within the MacPractice software. In Gen 9, if you have Jive enabled on your license, you'll be able to call patients directly from the Patients Ability.
After our initial release in Build 9.x, we've made significant improvements to this integration. Now there's a new Communicator window that will pull up your patient's information with a click when you receive calls from them!
You can read all about our Jive integration here.
New Report - Outstanding Claims by Date of Service (DOS) Monthly
Added a new report that helps a user identify what claims are outstanding, organized by the date of service. Results are split into months. You can read more about the report here.
Changes - Reorganized References Ability
Our References list was becoming a pretty lengthy list. We've decided to split our References into broad and logical categories. We feel it'll be easier to navigate after the initial transition.
References are split into the following categories:
Billing
Charting
Clinical
Communication
Forms
Patient
Referrals
System
Users
Changes - The Drawer is being replaced!
How quickly they grow up! The Drawer, that loyal side window that stores all of your Patient Lists, is going to be moving into the Window Menu under the "Lists" option.
The Lists functionality that was in the Drawer will now be contained in the Lists Window. You can also quickly open the Lists Window by pressing Command-L.The reason we are replacing the Drawer is due to Apple phasing out the Drawer functionality in High Sierra. We're hoping to get ahead of the curve. Very soon, we will be including our streamlined options for the rest of the functionality that used to be contained in the drawer. This includes an easier way to schedule repeating appointments, as well as a cleaner, more straightforward way to create and manage Transparency Blocks and Types.
Enhancements - Dental - Restorative Charting
We've added new Quadrant buttons to Restorative Charting.
Enhancements - Digital Radiography
We've made some improvements to the annotation features in Digital Radiography!
You can now rotate most objects by right clicking on the object.
You can now add arrowheads to line-tool lines by right clicking the line.
We've added the ability to copy and paste annotations.
We've added the ability to add a drop shadow to text for added visibility. Simply select the text and right click. Select Font > Show Fonts, and you can then use Apple's drop-shadow text options in the top right of the Fonts window.
You can now archive Digital Radiography images once you're done working with them. You can also unarchive them at any time.
We've made some significant adjustments to how image filters are handled. Now, instead of seeing all available filters automatically, you'll now be able to select which filters you actually use from the available "Add Filter" drop down menu.
One advantage of this new workflow is the ability to drag and drop your filters in order, which will change the order in which these filters are applied. Most times this won't impact how the image looks, but in a few cases the order can have an effect. This gives you finer control over your image editing.
Enhancements - iEHR Favorites
In iEHR 9.9 in conjunction with MacPractice 9.9.6, we've added the Favorites functionality to the Diagnosis Code Selector. The iEHR application will now pull all codes marked as a Favorite in MacPractice for easy selection.
Enhancements - Inventory
We've created a Reference category, Adjustment Reasons, that can be used to create custom Adjustment Reasons in the Inventory Ability.
If you aren't using an Inventory Category anymore, you can archive or delete them!
The category in question cannot be in use.
Added a "Reason" Filter to the Inventory Adjustments Report, as well as a User filter.
Added reorder levels to the Inventory Audit and the Inventory Current Stock Value report.
Enhancements - Messaging
We've added an indicator icon to Messages for Attachments in the Mailbox. Now you can easily see that a Message has an Attachment tied to it!
We've adjusted received messages to display a referrer name in the mailbox if a Direct Messaging address is associated with the Referrer.
Added delivery date to portal messages.
Added replied icon to messages that have been replied to.
Added printing functionality from the Messaging Ability.
Added a new "Regarding Patient" column in Messaging, to better distinguish at a glance the patient whom a message is regarding. The account number of the patient is also included, so you can distinguish between similarly named patients much easier now.
If you have a particular patient selected, the displayed messages will filter down to only show messages related to that patient, much like the functionality in other abilities in MacPractice.
Added functionality to allow you to double click a record to select the connected patient.
Added functionality to allow you to drag and drop messages to and from the Archived folder.
Enhancement - Patients
A patient's allergies will now display as a red Alert when that patient's record is pulled up, much like other alerts.
Enhancement - Referrals
We've added the ability to mark referrals as inactive on an account. This way, you can retain a patient's referral history while being able to hide outdated referrals.
Enhancement - Server Installer Doesn't Require a Restart
We know how frustrating it is when running updates and having to restart your computer. It definitely slows down the process. Therefore, we've improved our Server installer so that it no longer requires a restart of your computer to complete. You'll still need to quit MacPractice and no one can be connected during the update, but this should save your offices some time when making minor updates!
That being said, we still advise a periodic restart of your computers for the best performance.
Enhancements - Scheduling
Made some improvements in the Scheduling Ability when dragging and dropping appointments. As you drag an appointment, it will visually display and snap to the exact schedule block in the new position. No more guessing that you're on the right block!
Added a new option when right clicking an appointment and selecting "Go To" that allows a user to jump straight to that appointment patient's ledger.
Added functionality to the Appointment Window that would allow you to adjust the appointment start time and appointment length without having to use the drag and drop method on the appointment blocks.
Added a new Follow-Up/Recall drop down in the Appointment window when double clicking an appointment block on the schedule. This drop down will allow you to tie an appointment to a recall before saving the appointment to streamline workflow.
This drop down only displays follow-ups/recalls that have NOT already been tied.
Enhancements - Patient Portal Attachments
We've adjusted the Patient Portal so that you can now send Attachments to Patients via Direct Messaging!
Fixes
We've included hundreds of fixes, quality of life changes, and changes to issues that offices have been reporting. See the Release Notes to review all of these adjustments and changes. These changes encompass almost every area of the software!
Behavior Changes
eStatement Forms: The eStatement Form pop up menu option in Preferences > Forms has been moved to Preferences > eStatements. This option cannot be changed now without the assistance of MacPractice Support, as this shouldn't change once configured properly. This should prevent this option from being changed inadvertently, causing eStatement issues.
Schedule - Appointment changes: Appointments now require an Appointment Type. This can add an additional step to a scheduler's workflow.
You can set a Default Appointment Type by navigating to Preferences > Scheduling > Appointments > Default Type drop down.Send Statement as Test: The "Send Statement as Test" option in Statements Manager will no longer be used. This was used with another outdated process and currently has no real functionality.
Ledger Audit Trail: The Ledger Audit Trail's functionality has been replaced and improved on with the Accounting Ability. You can still utilize the Ledger Audit Trail for your older, legacy ledger data, but going forward you'll need to use the Accounting Ability.
User Group Privileges: Privilege settings for the Accounting Ability have been added. "View Accounting Ability" will control whether a user can open up the Accounting Ability, and "Edit Bank Account References" will control whether a user can editor add/delete Bank Account References.
New Ledger Shortcut to Create Comments: You can now use the keyboard shortcut Command-Control-C to add comments when in the Ledger.
Database Backup when updating from 7.3 to 10.7: MacPractice will now prompt you to create a sparse bundle backup (a database backup) prior to updating from 7.3 to 10.7. This is to ensure the safety of your data and to prevent you from having to restore your database should any issues occur during the update process.
Include Inactive Patients Preference: This preference used to live in Preferences > Patient Ability > Misc Tab, leading people to believe that this preference impacted the Patients Ability sidebar. This is not the case, and has more of an impact in the Schedule Ability when scheduling an appointment and pulling patients from the search window. We've moved this preference over to the Appointments tab in the Scheduling section of Preferences. It's now called "Include Archived Patients when Searching for Patients in a new appointment." We hope this will clarify the purpose of this preference.