The search hides two lists, and only one of them needs a new platform
Write the reasons you typed the search. Then sort each one into a column: things a record system does, and things that happen around it. The phone ringing out mid-treatment, patients who had neurotoxin in March and never rebooked, a party that filled three of twelve chairs, a monthly report built by hand. Those are growth jobs. A chart that is slow to open, a consent that will not attach, a checkout the front desk fights with: those belong to the platform.
What AestheticsPro holds for a practice, and what moving it means
In a practice that runs on it, the calendar, the client record, the charts, the consents and the point of sale sit in one place. The chart in it is the legal record of care. Moving it is a project with its own rules: what must be kept, in what form, for how long, and who may read the old copy. Your counsel and your medical director confirm each of those before anything is exported. Balances, packages and memberships move as promises to patients. Each one carries over on the terms Jess was told when they bought it, and what is owed on anything unused is for counsel and your accountant to confirm.
- The export. Ask the vendor, in writing, what format the record comes out in and whether photos and signed consents come with it.
- The import. Ask the new vendor the same question in reverse, and ask for one patient's record to be moved as a test before you sign.
- The overlap. Providers chart in two systems until the last patient booked on the old calendar has been seen and closed out. Put a date on it.
Questions to answer about your own practice before you compare a single vendor
- Which column did each reason land in, and how many reasons were left in the platform column once the growth jobs were pulled out?
- How many providers chart in it today, and who among them has time to chart twice for the overlap period?
- Which numbers do you pull from it each month, and could you pull them from an export instead of a new platform?
- What does the agreement say about term, notice and data export? Read it, then send it to counsel.
- Who signs the Business Associate Agreement on each side, and where would patient information live during the move? Ask both vendors, then confirm with counsel.
- What is on the vendor's pricing page for the size you will be next year, not the size you are now?
What moves, what stays, and who owns the step
| What | Moves or stays | Who owns the step |
|---|---|---|
| The chart and the consents | Move only if the record system changes; the old copy is kept for the retention period your counsel confirms | Your medical director and counsel set the rules; a named person checks the import |
| Future appointments | Re-entered or imported into the new calendar, then checked against the old one | Priya, the coordinator, with a date for the last check |
| Packages, memberships and balances | Carried over on the terms the patient was sold; what is owed on anything unused confirmed with your accountant | You, with your accountant, in writing before the first patient is told |
| The phone number and the text thread | Stay; the answering layer books into whichever calendar you keep | The growth system, with handoff rules to the front desk |
| The comeback list and the dashboard | Stay; both read the visit history out of whichever record you keep | The growth system, read weekly by you |
The growth system runs around the record, whichever record it is
NorthCore builds the growth column on top of the platform a practice keeps, and moves nothing in the platform column. Start with the numbers: revenue by provider and treatment, no-shows, who is past their interval, and the margin on each service costed to the dollar, down to the syringe. From that reading comes the strategy, which jobs to fix first and in what order, and then the system that runs it. A call during a treatment is answered on your number and lands on the calendar with the note. Memberships and parties are priced from the margin, and the week's numbers land on one page. If you stay on AestheticsPro, that is where the system reads from. If you switch, it is rebuilt on the new record after the overlap, and nothing is written into a chart either way. The Run the whole practice page lists the ten jobs, and the AestheticsPro page shows what stays in it.
How to decide in two weeks
- Day one: write every reason in one line each and sort it into the platform column or the growth column.
- Day two: read the agreement, mark term, notice and export, and send the pages to counsel.
- Days three to six: ask the vendor in writing what an export contains and in what format, then export one patient's full record and open it. What came out unreadable is the migration in small.
- Day seven: count the hours of charting twice, booking twice and reconciling, for every provider and the front desk, across the overlap period.
- Day eight: pull last-visit dates for every patient and count who is past the interval for their treatment. That list is the comeback, and it exists on any platform.
- Days nine to fourteen: price the growth column as a system built around what you have, and price the platform column as a switch. Decide each column on its own.
What to do next
NorthCore's Run the whole practice solution builds the ten jobs around AestheticsPro or whatever record you choose, scoped in writing before any work starts. Results in 90 days, or we keep working until you have them.
