LAN4000

Comlite Systems is now an official vendor for the IDOC Doctor’s Alliance.   IDOC has members in 43 states and is the fastest-growing Doctors Alliance for independent eye care practitioners in the country. IDOC provides a combination of discounts and rebates from over 65 leading companies in the optometric industry, as well as premier business management education through IDOC University. IDOC is dedicated to helping their Members’ practices grow and become extremely successful.

Comlite’s LAN4000 signaling and paging software is a major contributor to professional optometry office communications.  In an industry that is both clinical and retail, providing efficient patient flow and short patient waiting times is an integral part in increasing practice revenues.  Key benefits for IDOC members include:

• knowing how many patients are waiting at any given time of the day
• being able to page technicians and opticians back to exam rooms (eliminates walking or calling down the halls)
• Allows doctors to avoid the dispensary and the extraneous conversations there
• provides timing functions to keep staff on schedule
• reports of timing functions to aid in scheduling and employee training

IDOC members receive discounted pricing for Comlite Products.

Version 1.5.3.0 of the LAN4000 light signalling and text communication software has new features that assist in collecting data for productivity studies.  A Count Down Timer allows staff to leave a room while a timed event is occurring and then get an automated signal when it is time to go back to the room.  The Count Up Timer function logs the time used to perform a specific procedure and provides reporting that can be used for productivity studies.  These studies help identify areas where additional training and/or streamlining procedures can increase productivity.

Timer buttons are assigned in the SetUp process.  A timer button is a non-sequenced button that, when pressed starts a timer.  This timer can either count up from zero seconds until you press the button again; or down from a defined time until you either press the button again or the timer reaches zero seconds.

Timers are defined in the same way that the other types of buttons are defined.  From the Screen tab in SetUp choose Up or Down timer and assign it to the desired button.  A timer that counts up displays a U (as shown below) and a timer that counts down displays a D.

When you press a countdown timer, you are prompted to select a countdown timer and enter a descriptive note:

Select the length of time by sliding the bar between 1 minute and 30 minutes.  The button Tooltip (which appears when the mouse hovers over a button) displays the note you enter on all stations and is logged in a file that can be accessed via the Misc tab.  Press OK to start the timer.  Press Cancel to cancel timing.  When timing, the current timer value displays inside the selected button and the timing can be canceled by pressing the button.  When a countdown timer reaches zero, the button flashes and the chime defined for that button sounds.  Press the button again to turn it off and clear the Note.

When you press a count-up timer, you are prompted to enter a descriptive note:

This note appears on all stations when you hover your mouse over the button and is also logged in a file that can be accessed via the Misc tab. Press OK to start the timer.  Press Cancel to cancel timing.  When timing, the current timer value displays inside the selected button and the timing is stopped by pressing the button again.

The Timer log file logs the elapsed time of all timer buttons.  For example, if a countdown timer that is set for five minutes is interrupted after two minutes, the elapsed time of three minutes is logged.  Timer Logs are accessed from the Misc tab on the Setup Menu.  The logs can be printed and used to determine areas where additional training or streamlining procedures can increase productivity.

On Wednesday, December 12th, 2012 Comlite Systems released an update to the LAN4000 light signaling software.  Version 1.4 is now the current version of the LAN4000.

Below is a list of all the new features and improvements.

1. Added light colors – Lights can now be red, blue, or green.

2. Added Timed button text – Custom text can now be entered when a timer button is set. It appears as the button tip text when you hover your mouse over the timer button.

3. Improved Ease of Use – Station name is automatically selected in Station list when a text is received. This reduces the number of keystrokes necessary to reply to a text message.

4. Improved Ease of Use – Removed requirement that Administrative station be named “Administrator”.

5. Improved Problem Reports and Logs. Log entries are time stamped. Trials can submit Problem Reports.

6. Improved .Net connectivity and connection recovery.

7. Improved Feedback – Displays a “Reconnecting” message when the reconnect button is pressed on a Client. Displays “Reconnected” if the attempt is successful and “Reconnection failed” if it is not.

8. Improved Configuration file – Combined Administrator and Client configuration files into a single XML configuration file.

9. Improved multiple network card handling – Automatically detects multiple Network Cards (NICs) during startup, enabling the ‘Choose NIC’ button in ‘Setup’.

The Comlite LAN4000 light signaling software is more than simply a paging system.  While it will allow you to page your staff back to your rooms it also allows you to see the status of how many patients are waiting for you at any given time and to send specific text messages to staff that facilitates the proper handling of these patients.

Additionally, we understand that you are running your business while you are treating patients.  The LAN4000 helps you to manage incoming phone calls and time procedures and manager your patient flow.

Oh yes,  it is also a very efficient and discrete paging system.  Your staff will show up where you want them when you want them!