A few years ago, a dentist friend asked if it was possible to create a
patient registration system to store contact information and treatment history. All the "dental programs" and CRM systems available at that time
were offered as SaaS for a subscription with an annual fee. Therefore, the task was
to create our own system that could be placed on a local or
online server. Based on the available input data, wishes and skills, it was decided to do it quickly based on OpenCart. Thus began
the history of the system, which received a simple and understandable name - Dental Clinic https://dentclin.com
It was decided to remove everything unnecessary from OpenCart and repurpose some
existing standard components into the sections of the new system we needed. So
all extensions, reports, sales, catalog, in short,
almost everything except customers, because they formed the basis of our build. Of course,
you can say that it would probably be better to create everything from scratch and I
agree with you. But at that time the task was to do everything quickly, so there was no time for
designing, developing and testing a completely new system. And
OpenCart is a CMS that has been tested for years, which works clearly and coherently, and
most importantly, has security functions at a high level.
The first version of our system was primitive, but it performed all the tasks set
as the customer required. Later, while working with the system,
some new wishes arose and we implemented them and made updates.
Soon it was decided to try to make a public release of our product. The first clients did not appear immediately, but they did appear
and prompted the integration of new features for the system. Thus,
the functions of uploading files to the patient's card, a calendar of appointments for an appointment,
convenient patient registration, a list of services with costs in different currencies and
automatic conversion to the base currency, accepting payment via QR code and
sending a payment link to viber/telegram/whatsapp/facebook,
improved the
mobile version, added different color schemes, implemented automatic SMS
reminders about patient records, and implemented automatic system updates.
Subsequently, many new functions were added and improvements to existing ones were added - this is
viewing the treatment history on a visual diagram, treatment plans,
registration, statistics, formation and printing of medical documents, treatment reports, bills and certificates of work performed, new filters were added for
convenient patient search, doctors' work schedules, a warehouse of goods and
materials with a history of movements in the warehouse, import and export, integration with
Checkbox, as well as messages between system users.
Currently, the Dental Clinic system operates in several dozen Ukrainian
clinics and even in several foreign ones, although it is being developed and
localized, so far, only for Ukraine.
The purpose of this article is to show how versatile OpenCart can be and
how much we love this system. Improvise, implement, achieve.
