This is the list to work through with a practice before their first real patient. The order matters: several items are prerequisites for others.
1. People
- Users — an account each, correct role (Clinician / Non-clinician / Administrator)
- Make provider for anyone who should appear on the schedule
- Providers — NPI, DEA, state licence and expiry, specialties, default site, signature block
Accounts and clinical identity are separate cards. A clinician with an account but no Providers entry can log in and cannot be billed for correctly.
2. Places
- Locations — name, place-of-service code, phone, fax number, address, operating hours
- Rooms — per site, named the way staff actually refer to them
Place of service drives claims and the fax number heads outbound faxes, so neither is cosmetic.
3. Time
- Practice settings — timezone, lunch break
- Scheduling → Provider hours — every provider, every working day
- Holidays & closures — the known ones for the next twelve months
- Appointment types and Appointment lengths — two separate lists
- Booking rules — buffer, double-booking policy, minimum notice
4. Money
- Fee schedule — the practice's common codes with fees
- Payers — the insurance list, with the identifiers claims will carry
- Statements & discounts — header note, footer note, self-pay percentage
- Connect Square account — the practice's own merchant account
- Payment terminals (Square) — a device mapped to each location
Then check the two things that silently refuse card payments: Square must be Cleared for PHI in Integrations & vendors, and each location needs an active device mapping.
5. Vendors and the BAA gate
Register every integration in Integrations & vendors with an honest BAA status: e-fax, e-prescribing, eligibility, labs, clearinghouse, messaging, AI model, payments.
Review the PHI column as a whole before go-live. That column is the practice's answer to "who has our patients' data", and it should be reviewable in ten seconds.
6. Content
- Note templates & SmartPhrases — start with the two or three notes clinicians retype most
- Document templates — fax cover, referral letter, patient instructions
- Order & prescription favorites — the practice's real top twenty
- Intake forms — the kiosk question sets, with audience and cadence
None of this blocks go-live. All of it decides whether people like the system by week three.
7. Security — last
- Minimum password length
- Session timeout — match it to where the screens physically are
- Require two-factor authentication — only after people have enrolled
The handover
Leave the practice with: who their administrator is, where the audit search lives, the monthly compliance rhythm, and the fact that reminders are configured but not sending until a BAA-signed vendor is connected. That last one prevents a bad surprise about no-shows.
What usually goes wrong
Requiring 2FA on the morning of go-live. Half the staff cannot sign in.
Provider hours left empty. No slots, and everyone blames the software.
No fee schedule entries. Someone invents an amount under pressure at sign-off.
Vendors registered optimistically. A BAA status is a statement about a contract, not an intention.