Setting Up an LNC home office

cmcelyea · Dec 23, 2012

Im in the same boat!! Have you found anything? let me know!!

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Dec 24, 2012

I have two nice big monitors, the better to see two documents side-by-side (like my report on one side and the medical records on the other, two documents with the same date and time to see if they match, or whatever else would work). I'm a Mac person (as you can tell by my icon) but everyone I know does this if they have room on their desks.

I have a Consumer Reports top-rated MFC laser printer-scanner-fax, B&W, not that expensive and very handy. Scans big piles of papers into PDF for Bates stamping, OCR so you can search, reordering, subdividing, etc. Excellent (and free) customer service prn, not that I needed it much.

Headphone! No neck strain. The folks at 1-800-HEADSETS have been super, great customer service.

Software: My bias: I like easy, simple, intuitive, and inexpensive. I do hope this isn't construed as advertising, really, really. You asked, I answered.

I use Apple iWorks because it's way better than Word/Excel/PowerPoint for all those operations.

FileMakerPro for my medical record reviews and client databases, resources, contacts, and any other database needs you can think of (Mac and PC versions available).

Adobe Pro for all its useful features, including converting PDF forms to fillable/savable, Bates stamping, and so forth.

eFax for faxing from my desktop, no extra paper.

Dropbox for auto backup of everything I do, so if my house burnt down tomorrow I could be back in business as soon as I got over to the Mac store and bought a new computer with the insurance money. iCloud backs up everything for cheap, too. Redundancy is sometimes a good thing.

Harvest to manage my time tracking, expenses, and invoicing (and my accountant loves the reports I can give her right out of it). Sure, you can do your own billing and stuff, but at some point you will realize that a professional-looking invoice gets paid faster than one that looks like you did it on your kitchen table.

YouSendIt for secure file transfers of files that might be too big to email.

Dragon Dictate because I am a lousy typist and I can whip through reports faster if I dictate them.

I have had my website done by amateurs and pros, and pros are better. If they charge you $600 to set it up and $15/month to maintain it, and it brings you one case a year, it's paid for itself. Mine is awesome and it gets me cases often. There's a link that says "Call today!" and it also notifies me if anyone downloads the sample reports I have there.

My toll-free number costs me $20/month-- there are a number of providers who can set you up. Forwards automatically to my office phone at my desk; I also forward the office phone to my cell whenever I'm away from my desk and after hours.

I have an accountant with online access to my business credit card (used ONLY for work-related items, travel, gas, office supplies, recurring charges for phone, etc., and I get miles with it for travel) and bank account. I tell her when deposits are made, she withholds money for my quarterly taxes (Fed and state) and her fees, then pays my credit card and puts the rest in my personal checking account as payroll. Sooooo much easier than when I did all that myself, and the accuracy is worth the cost.

I advertise my services on a couple of expert witness sites and on the AALNC website for "find an LNC," as well as my other professional organization for my primary specialty. Again, one case and they're paid for.

Maybe more than you were asking...but hey, we do support each other. Are you turned on to the local AALNC chapter? They have awesome CEUs and networking, and that's where I learned a lot of these things.