BACKGROUND
The general function of document management solutions is to automate workflow and paper related tasks. Determining whether to purchase a purpose built solution such as DocuTrack or an ASP based solution is a clear decision once differences are understood. Purpose built solutions have been specifically designed for their industry and require little to no customization. ASP solutions are generalized products that can be made to function in, but are not tailored to, any one industry. As with most generic products, ASP’s require extensive custom integration services in order to meet basic customer needs. Purpose built products address end user needs during development, therefore delivering a more comprehensive, functional solution.
KEY DIFFERENCES
The key differences between the products revolve around the differing business models and baseline product objectives. DocuTrack was developed by Integra as a robust and scalable platform to automate pharmacy workflow. It was specifically designed as a “shrink-wrapped” software package to be used in conjunction with an external pharmacy information system. As a result, DocuTrack is easy to deploy, learn and use, and handles most commonly encountered pharmacy operations without customization. Furthermore, DocuTrack is being continuously enhanced, creating new features made available to all customers in conjunction with their annual support contracts.
In contrast, the generalized ASP solutions are being re-sold by an extensive network of value added resellers (VARs) who install the base product along with an array of 3rd-party integration tools. These resellers earn the majority of their revenue by providing custom integration services in order to adapt the product for use within a specific marketplace. While most of their offerings represent products built for the general-purpose back-office document management needs of banks, finance companies, insurance agencies; they are far from optimal when it comes to the very specific and regulated processes present within pharmacy operations. Specific features and differences are described below.
INTEGRATION
DocuTrack provides a direct code-to-code interface design whereby 3rd party pharmacy information systems can bi-directionally communicate. DocuTrack has over 23 pharmacy system interfaces in place today with many of them supporting two-way directional communication at the client and server level. Server level communications require secured network environments to maintain compliance. Within ASP environments maintaining regulatory levels of security is more difficult and often decreases performance.
Fax server integration is fundamental for pharmacy operations as well. DocuTrack provides a full turn key solution avoiding complicated phone switching requirements and issues. In contrast, many ASP environments have to route incoming fax lines and numbers through a telecommunication company local to their area. ASP models increase setup complexity and downtime for your pharmacy, requiring the pharmacy to switch all fax numbers to the pharmacies local lines in the event of failure.
Other solutions support putting a fax appliance or server at the pharmacy and routing those faxes to the ASP provider. This may reduce downtime in the event of failure, but places unnecessary burden on the internet connections to the ASP provider.
In contrast, DocuTrack is a full solution built for your pharmacy requiring only a network and telephone lines. If something goes down, you only need to plug a fax into those telephone lines and continue working.
NETWORK UTILIZATION
DocuTrack resides on a server within the pharmacy. Due to this, you are not limited by bandwidth on how quickly or often you would like to access your documents. ASP solutions require much more due diligence within the pharmacy to control bandwidth utilization as a single download from a fast server has the potential to slow down system access.
PRODUCT FUNCTIONALITY
DocuTrack has many unique features specifically tailored for pharmacy operations. For example, DocuTrack streamlines source/facility number management allowing incoming faxes to be automatically filed by facility. In contrast, generalized systems treat fax imports as a non-critical feature which results in the same process being overly complex and often requires the pharmacy to maintain phone number mapping directly within the database. This creates the need for a high level of IT knowledge and greatly increases the complexity of making simple adjustments to your import rules.
DocuTrack also works to bring stability to fax communication problems. It is not uncommon for 1% to 3% of all incoming and outgoing faxes to fail. Faxes can fail for reasons ranging from line noise to extended busy signals at the facility. DocuTrack automates resolution of these issues by automatically notifying the fax sender and/or pharmacy that the fax was or was not received.
Other pharmacy specific features include our direct code-to-code pharmacy system interfaces. The code-to-code nature of these interfaces allows more data to come from the pharmacy system. More data streamlines document searching as well as automatic form fill-in, e.g. therapeutic interchanges.
DocuTrack also integrates with 3rd party delivery services as well as having specialized modules allowing electronic signature and real-time delivery monitoring for pharmacies with their own drivers. Whether using a 3rd party service or our modules, electronic delivery manifests are automatically filed into DocuTrack and are retrievable by any of the delivered prescriptions.
As summarized above, DocuTrack’s tailored features and range of functionality demonstrate a significant benefit over ASP based solutions. One of our biggest differences relies on the fact that DocuTrack doesn’t have to be everything to every industry. This has allowed us to take the best technologies available and create a system nearly anyone can administer. Due to this we can streamline workflow management training into a few hours rather than requiring two week training courses or paying the VAR for every workflow modification a pharmacy needs. Furthermore, our focus on intuitive design has ensured that DocuTrack end user training typically takes less than 15 minutes.
Over 300 pharmacies use DocuTrack in their operations today. No pharmacy has ever uninstalled this system and many former generalized solution users have successfully converted to DocuTrack.