Using “Roles" enables you to provide access to classes of staff and manage their access as a group. The process to organize your security settings is relatively simple. Once you have created a “Role” you can assign staff to that role. (Please note that it is important that you do not delete any of the defaulted roles)

The Administrator Role

The Administrator role is intended to be the person who has access to everything and can be completely trusted. You should create a role for every separate set of employee functions you may have. Some examples may include:

• Doctors
• Scheduling Staff
• Collections Staff
• Billing Staff
• Nurse Practitioner

Creating New Roles

The first step is to setup a new Role. You can do this as follows:

1. Go to Utilities | Role Setup.
2. Enter the Role Name and Description.
3. Select the Toolbar for this role.
4. Select the check boxes of the desired Privileges for this role.
5. After all Privileges are checked, click Save.

To tie a specific user to their new role use the following steps:

1. Go to Utilities | User Setup.
2. Enter the Login Name, which is the user field when logging into AdvancedMD.
3. Enter the users full name to identify who is using the Login.
4. Select a Role.
5. Check mark the Administrator box ONLY if the office wants this user to view Role and User screens. This means the user can view, edit and delete passwords, users and roles | Click Save.
6. It will prompt the user to now enter the user’s password. Enter in a generic password at least 6 digits long (including at least one number) | Click OK.
7. Re-enter the password | Click OK.

Dashboard

With the 5.5 release of AdvancedMD comes a very useful feature called the Dashboard. It is a concise view of the Key Performance Indicators of the practice. As a matter of usefulness, this dashboard includes what many offices would consider confidential financial performance information regarding the practice as a whole. The Dashboard takes some of the same information that available in the reports area of the system and presents it in a more graphic format—basically making it more readily understandable.

In some offices, the introduction of these indicators has identified a mismatch between user roles and the security settings that the offices have set.

It may be appropriate for you to review your security settings to ensure that you are giving appropriate information to the different people on your staff. For example, you may not want your scheduling staff to have full authority to make write-offs or see full practice productivity reports. Or, conversely, you may want your scheduling staff to be able to post payments and make adjustments, but not run some specific reports. AdvancedMD can not tell you the best structure for your office; however, AdvancedMD has provided a tremendous tool to help you manage your access.

Complete Instructions

For complete instruction on Role Setup and security, you can go to your AdvancedMD help files as follows:

1. Click F1 | Select Utilities from the Contents list | User Setup | Role Setup.
2. In AdvancedMD use the Utilities dropdown | Select Role Setup | Click F1.

We're confident that the advanced Role-based security systems will enable you to manage your practice and business effectively while maintaining the security you need.

Events Watch

The 2007 Fall Annual Conference for HBMA (Healthcare Billing & Management Association) will be Sept. 6-8 in Las Vegas, NV. Bring a friend and come say hello to AdvancedMD.

The MGMA 2007 Annual Conference (Medical Group Management Association) will be October 28-31 in Philadelphia, PA. Mark your calendar and make plans to attend the show!