Making a decision on what computer hardware to choose is very critical to your practice and for your compliancy. The good news is, computers nowadays are incredibly affordable! You can now get a complete desktop with monitor with as low as $450.00 Most of these computers are windows-based operating system. Your existing medical billing software will definitely be compatible on any of these Windows operating systems. Your medical billing software vendor might just run few updates and patches for full compatibility with your new computers or server or even on your old computers! The same thing if you are upgrading your billing software. The bottom line is, you are about to make a decision to make your practice productive, efficient and compliant with HIPAA rules and guidelines.

Let's start with, if you are a small practice with 2 computers and 1 printer. Well, having a dedicated server for your billing system is not yet a good option.

(1) Buying a computer running on Windows XP Professional is better than the one that runs on XP Home Edition. XP Professional is really intended for business purposes which runs database and other office applications software.

(2) Share your computer via a switch or a router by networking the two computers. Why share? sharing files and documents is very productive. In other words, you can access files from any of these computers.

(3) Share your printer, connect one printer locally and share it on the network.

If you are a bigger practice with more than 3 computers, 2 printers and at least 5-10 staff (including the providers). Then you are better off to go for a dedicated server or a stand-alone server. What does this mean? ofcourse, can you imagine at least 7 people simultaneously accessing the same medical billing software (setting up appointments, taking information for new patients, billers posting payments and the providers putting in notes on the patients), this will definitely slow down your network if you don't have a stand-alone server.

That server is best to run on Windows Server 2003 (Business Edition) or on Windows 2000 Server (Advance Edition). All these 3-8 computers will share resources by networking them using a switch (or a high-end hub). Printers will also be shared on the network, all users may print from any of the network printers from any of the computers.

Consider the following hardware specifications for your server and workstations:

(1) Processor (I prefer Intel-based processors)

(2) Memory (at least 512MB)

(3) Hard Disk Storage - Server (at least 250GB, this is just my suggestion!)

(4) Hard Disk Storage - Workstations ( at least 40GB)

(5) Tape Back Up (you have to have a daily back up of your files!, internal tape back up is more convenient than external back up drive)

(6) Network Interface Card

How about the warranty? most of the vendors sell warranty up to 3 years or even 5 years for parts and repairs. This will cost you another $150-$300 for warranty. I strongly encourage you to get that extended warranty because you never know.

There you go! I hope this article will help you choose the right computers and server for your practice.