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Why Dr. Olson Switched From Dolphin to Tops
Q: When you decided to open your own practice, you initially contracted with Dolphin Cloud. What influenced that decision? What made you question the decision after the fact?
A: I was first turned off because I had to use an application called Remote Desktop which allowed me to run Dolphin on my Mac computer and found out that Dolphin operated on a PC system. However, I didn’t care for that at all. About that same time, my wife purchased a MacBook Pro for my personal use. She has been a Mac user for many years. She convinced me to switch, and once I did, I was essentially converted.
My initial intention was to use Dolphin as a cloud-based program for my office. However, I liked the stability of the Mac OS platform when compared to PC’s Windows. I also liked the idea that I could always upgrade to the newest OS X, and not have to pay as I would for Windows. I contacted Dolphin, and they hooked me up with a demo for Dolphin on the cloud. Let’s just say my first demo experience was extremely slow and unstable. My first attempt at using Dolphin on the cloud was extremely unreliable and disappointing. I knew then that I needed to look for a native program for my Mac... hence Tops!
Q: During your residency, what practice management systems were you first introduced to?
A: We used Dolphin in residency at the University of Maryland for clinical charting purposes, as well as imaging. Scheduling and financials were not handled directly by the residents,and the university used a separate program to handle these aspects. Dolphin was integrated on the computers in the clinic. As a new resident, we were given manuals to learn the different aspects of the management program, but we were thrown into it and we figured it out on our own or asked the senior residents.
Q: What other practice management systems have you used in your professional career, if any? Please share your experience with those systems.
A: I used OrthoTrac for 4 years. I can’t say for sure what was more frustrating, OrthoTrac, or the PCs used to run Ortho-Trac. There were many bugs, crashes, computers that locked up and the program shut down at times. We were always calling the IT guy for help. Even after upgrading to new PCs,the system still crashed. Overall, I was not impressed with OrthoTrac. That was the original reason for switching back to Dolphin upon purchasing my own practice. However, that was a mistake.
Q: Did you know anyone using Tops? Did you use Tops at all in the past?
A: A few of my co-residents used Tops... I heard nice things about Tops, but I never used it before. I hadn’t thought about it in the past, because I was a PC guy. So I am brand new, not only to Tops, but also to Mac.
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Q: I guess we should also thank your wife for buying you your first Mac. Can we switch a bit and talk about your sales experience with Tops?
A: Okay, when you are contacting the sales rep via email on Thanksgiving Day and she responds within 5 minutes. Enough said? (smiles) It was top notch.
Q: Can you tell us about your experience with our Transition Team? I believe you worked with Missy, our Transition Team Manager to guide you from your hardware purchase to network installation and everything in-between.
A: That’s right. I never hired a technician. With Missy’s help, I was able to purchase all the equipment and get the guidance needed to do everything myself. I’m not a computer guru, and certainly new to the Mac. She really came through and made the experience smooth and relatively easy.
Q: How about our training team? Kelly loved coming to your practice and training you and your team.
A: The training was great. Kelly was awesome! She went above and beyond anything I would ever expect. My staff is still the original staff for the previous doctor. Some have been here for 40 years! They can now use Tops and they’re discovering new ways to do things and becoming more efficient.
All of the training, pre-training and onsite was very effective in getting us up to speed with scheduling, charting, and imaging. We had a little hiccup with financials, but that’s only due to the way the office set up contracts in the past. Tops has sorted things out for the front desk. We have completed our post trainings. Most of those were for financials.
Q: Tops is installed and your practice is running smoothly. How has the support experience been since going live on Tops?
A: Support has been great! With Tops support, you can essentially conquer anything! Overall, I would highly recommend Tops simply due to their friendly support. The product itself is top notch, the support is critical. Having a friendly and knowledgeable voice on the other side of the line is simply the icing on the cake.
Q: Thanks, Dr. Olson. We sincerely appreciate your time. Did we leave anything out?
A: Actually, yes. Did I happen to mention the overall cost of Tops is less than Dolphin or OrthoTrac? Others will say Macs are more expensive, right? Not when you figure the life of the operating system, the computer and the savings in IT support... it will pay for itself a few times over. Sorry, PC. I did the math.
Dr. Tom Olson
Olson Orthodontics
2206 E Market Street
York, PA 17402
Practice locations: 1
Education: Dr. Olson is a 2010 graduate of the University of Maryland School of Dentistry. His office has completely transitioned from paper to digital. Total conversion time was approximately five months.
Tops customer since: 2015
“The thing that I love most about my job is watching a patient transition from being self-conscious to self-confident when it comes to their smile."
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