If you decide to move your practice into the electronic age for the first time, make sure you have adequate technical support. Jim Bolling, M.D., an ophthalmologist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. found that the staff there needs at least three levels of technical support:

• Hardware support
. If you have a hardware failure, somebody must be able to come on-site the same day to fix it.
• Software support.
You need to be able to pick up the phone and have a question answered immediately.
• An information and system specialist.
This is someone in your practice whom you designate to make all of the calls to vendors and other technical people. After a period of time, this person will usually be able to answer a lot of questions without going to the vendor.