Jordan Mercer
· 6 min read
Switching software is the project most clinics put off for years. The current system is slow, it doesn't text patients and the front desk works around it all day, but moving feels worse. What if charts go missing? What if the schedule breaks on a Monday morning? What if the team hates the new system?
Most of that risk is decided before you sign anything, by the questions you ask. A vendor who answers them clearly, in writing, is a vendor you can plan a move with. One who can't is telling you something too.
Here are the questions to ask, grouped the way the move happens: your charts and notes, privacy, the schedule, your team and the contract. Then a plan for the week you switch.
Start with what's not working today
Before you look at anything new, write down why you're leaving. Ask the front desk and the doctors separately. Their lists will be different, and both matter.
Common answers: typing the same details into two systems, a separate app for texting patients, no online booking, reminders patients can't reply to, slow charting and too many logins. Turn the list into a short set of must-haves and a few nice-to-haves.
Then use it in every demo. Don't let a vendor show you their favorite features. Ask them to walk through your own day: a new patient books online, gets a reminder, reschedules from the text, checks in and gets charted. Watch how many clicks each step takes. Include the patient's side too: how they book, which texts they get and how they pay.
Questions about your charts and notes
This is the part that keeps clinic owners up at night, so get specific answers.
What exactly moves over? Patient details, visit history, future appointments, SOAP notes, intake forms, uploaded documents and account balances. Ask for the list in writing, and ask what doesn't move.
What will the notes look like after the move? Some systems bring old notes over as searchable records, others as attached files. Either can work, as long as you know which before you sign.
Who does the move, and is there a fee? Find out who exports from your old system, who imports into the new one and how long it takes.
How will we check it worked? Agree on a spot check before the move: pick a sample of patients and compare their records side by side afterward.
Can we keep access to the old system? You may need to look something up after the switch. Check how long your state requires you to keep records, and plan for it.
What happens to our data if we leave you? Ask whether you can export everything, in a format another system can read.
Questions about privacy and security
Patient records come with legal duties, and the vendor shares some of them.
Ask whether they'll sign a business associate agreement (BAA), where your data is stored and who on their side can see it. Ask whether each team member gets their own login, whether you can limit what each role sees and whether the system keeps a record of who opened which chart. Two-step login for every user should be standard. Ask what happens if something goes wrong: how fast they'd tell you about a breach and what they'd do next.
Have your compliance advisor review the answers and the BAA before you sign.
Questions about the schedule during the move
Patients shouldn't notice that you changed systems. Ask how the vendor makes that happen.
Do future appointments move over with their visit types? A care-plan patient booked for the next six weeks should still be booked after the switch.
Will reminders keep going? Find out whether reminders pause during the move, and who sends them in the meantime.
What happens to our online booking link? If it changes, your website, Google Business Profile and any ads need the new one on day one.
Do intake forms come with us? New patients booked before the switch may already have forms waiting. Make sure those still reach the clinic.
Can we keep our texting number? Patients recognize the number they already text. A new one can look like spam.
Does the calendar sync? If your doctors live in Google Calendar or Outlook, ask whether the sync goes both ways.
Pick a go-live date in a quieter week, not the first Monday after a holiday or the end of the month.
Questions about your team
The best system fails if the front desk doesn't trust it.
Ask what training is included and who it's for. Front desk staff and doctors use different parts of the system, so they should learn them separately. Ask whether someone will be available during your first week, how you reach them and how fast they answer. Ask whether there's a phone app, and what it can do.
Find out what happens after the first month, too. Will your clinic have one person to call, or a general support line?
Questions about the contract and the cost
Read the contract before the demo excitement fades.
How long is the term, and how do we cancel? A long contract with no way out leaves you stuck if the system disappoints.
What's included, and what costs extra? Texting, online booking, reminders, extra users, data migration and training can each be priced separately.
Will the price change after the first year? Ask now, in writing.
Do we pay for both systems for a while? You'll likely overlap for a short time. Plan the budget for it.
How does insurance billing fit? If billing stays where it is today, ask how the two systems will share what they need.
Plan the week you switch
A good switch is planned to the day.
Set a cutover point. After it, nobody books or charts in the old system. Before it, everyone does.
Hold a short huddle every morning. Five minutes to raise problems before patients arrive.
Put a cheat sheet at the front desk. The ten tasks your team does most, step by step.
Name one go-to person. Someone on your team who collects questions and talks to the vendor.
Tell patients what changes. If the booking link, the texts or the forms look different, a short message ahead of time prevents confused calls.
Get your team comfortable fast
Give everyone time to practice before go-live, using made-up patients. Start with the tasks they do every day: booking, rescheduling, checking in, charting and sending a text. Leave the rarely used features for later.
Pair a confident user with a nervous one for the first few days. Coworkers explain things in the clinic's own words, and questions come up that nobody would raise in a formal training session.
Keep one shared list of problems and questions, and go through it with the vendor at the end of each day in the first week. Then check in with the team again after two weeks and after a month. Small annoyances fixed early stop the team from building workarounds.
Look back after the first month
A month after go-live, look back with the whole team. Were any appointments lost or doubled in the move? Did a patient's chart or notes turn up missing during a visit? Are reminders and texts going out as they should, and are patients replying to them? Are online bookings coming in from your website and Google profile?
Then compare against the list you started with. Is the front desk typing things in once instead of twice? Are there fewer logins and fewer apps open? If something from your must-have list still isn't working, raise it with the vendor now, while the move is fresh and everyone remembers how it was supposed to work.
ChiroBooked's setup is done for you: we move your patient list, past charts and SOAP notes over, or connect to the system you use now and keep notes in sync, and training for your whole team is included. See how our charting works.
Jordan Mercer
Jordan writes about the front desk and the tools behind it: a full schedule, service pages that book visits and software that fits how your team works. Habits your team can start this week.
