BILL PUPKIS, FORMER CEO OF CAPITAL REGION ORTHOPAEDICS SPEAKS OUT ABOUT TRIMED

September 2012 I retired after 35 years in the business of medicine as the CEO of Capital Region Orthopaedics, where I was for almost twelve years. For eight of those twelve years we used TriMed Technologies as our practice management system provider, which I can highly recommend.

Capital Region Orthopaedics had used IDX for over fifteen years prior to moving to TriMed Technologies. IDX is no longer in business, but at that time they were and if we were going to stay with them it would have required a major upgrade of software and hardware, which had a large enough price tag that we began looking elsewhere. We looked at several other companies and the one that interested us the most was TriMed Technologies. Our concern with them at that time was that they were a small technology company and the main question was whether it was safe to do business with them.

The installation and implementation was the smoothest I had ever experienced.

Anyone who has made the decision to transition from one PM to another, you know the devil is in the details. You first look carefully at the software itself, i.e., will it fit your operational needs? Then you seriously consider how they are going to get you from where you are to a successful use of their product, the installation and implementation process. The one thing that stood out with them for us was that they kept clients for a long time, and many of them were large practices, like ours.

The installation and implementation was the smoothest I had ever experienced. They had a complete plan in place and followed it to the letter. We could not have asked for a better support throughout the process and going forward for the next seven years. There was a spreadsheet that I drafted showing our cash receipts by month for the two years prior to going on TriMed and for two after making the move.

Having said all this, we did go away from TriMed for exactly one year, to the day. We felt the need to go to a larger company for an EMR and PM who stated they had more installations. The entire experience with the new company was horrible, and they were/are a major player in the nation selling PM and EMR together. Although I can’t tell you which company we went away from because of legal documents signed, I can tell you that we began to plan to move back to TriMed after ten months with the new one.

TriMed handled the transition going and coming incredibly easy. Our cash flow once again was smooth, they had more tools that were easier to use, and there were fewer keystrokes to do the exact same operational functions. What were the results and what was the effect to our business because we selected TriMed? Well, with the new software tools that they had added between us going away and coming back we didn’t have to add staffing even though our practice had grown.

At the end of the day, TriMed Technologies sets out to solve the business problems of time, money or risk. We felt that if we could mitigate one or more of those three business issues then we could be more successful, and TriMed helped us do just that. I would like to talk with anyone who might have an interest as to how this relationship grew over time.