Physician Select Management

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PSM Downloads --> eCW Upgrade FAQ

 

 

eCW Upgrade FAQ

Q. Do you upgrade us automatically or do we have to ask?

Q. How do we know what features are in a newly released version?

Q. Who do we send the upgrade request to?

Q. What happens next?

Q. Are there any possible hold-ups or problems?

Q. How soon can you do the upgrade?

Q. Is there a way to expedite my upgrade request?

Q. At what time will the upgrade be attempted?

Q. Will you notify us when the upgrade is complete?

Q. How long will the upgrade take?

Q. Can we work on the system during the upgrade?

Q. What do we do to prepare for the upgrade?

Q. How early should I come into the office on the day following the upgrade?

Q. What do I do if I come in and the expected upgrade has not occurred?

Q. How does the client upgrade work?

 

 

Q. Do you upgrade us automatically or do we have to ask?

A. You must request the upgrade. eClinicalWorks Corporation releases many versions of their software each year, sometimes to add features or address bugs that are only significant to a subset of their customers around the country. Their official recommendation is that you seek to upgrade only if you know that a newer version specifically addresses problems that you are having or introduces new features that you need. For that reason, we do not automatically upgrade customers every time eCW releases a new version.

Q. How do we know what features are in a newly released version?

A. The person who is identified as the practice "super user" should receive an eCW "jelly bean" message when a new version is made available. The message may also describe changes in features and functionality. If it does not, contact your eCW support provider, SME, or strategic account manager.

Q. Who do we send the upgrade request to?

A. Normally you would send the request to your reseller. If you are an eCW direct client, then the request would go directly to eClinicalWorks, and then either they or your reseller will contact PSM.

Q. What happens next?

A. After you notify your upline of your desire to upgrade, they will contact eCW and ask to have the new version "enabled" for you at eCW's end. This is a critical path element. Unless the upgrade is enabled by eCW, the APU tool will not download the patches and apply them to your system. After the upgrade is enabled, either eCW or the reseller will notify PSM, and then we will schedule it on our calendar.

Q. Are there any possible hold-ups or problems?

A. The biggest potential roadblock is an accounting hold. If your eCW license and maintenance fees are current, the upgrade will proceed. If not, the upgrade will be blocked at eCW's end. Technical glitches can also prevent upgrades from completing. If your practice has a slave database server (only a very small handful do) then be advised that certain management reports may not be available until 24-48 hours after an upgrade.

Q. How soon can you do the upgrade?

A. Typically within a week of receiving your request, but during periods of high activity, allow 2-3 weeks lead time.

Our upgrade availability timezone matrix is below:

Upgrade Timezone Matrix

Q. Is there a way to expedite my upgrade request?

A. If you are willing to shut down your practice 1-2 hours earlier than normal, we can often fit the upgrade into an earlier time slot.

Q. Q. At what time will the upgrade be attempted?

A. PSM performs upgrades on weeknights. If the upgrade is scheduled to occur on Monday through Thursday, it will commence sometime after 5:30 pm in your time zone, and will be completed by 4:00 am the following morning. Since there are multiple upgrades being done each night, and customer databases are of different sizes, there is no way to predict exactly when a particular task will start or finish. If the upgrade is scheduled for a Friday night, it may not complete until the following Saturday afternoon. This is because we schedule more upgrades for Fridays than other days. If your practice has official weekend working hours, be sure to request an exception when you schedule the upgrade. Otherwise, users will be disconnected when the process begins.

Q. Will you notify us when the upgrade is complete?

A. If you provide a contact email when you scheduled the upgrade, you will receive an email notification when it completes.

Q. How long will the upgrade take?

A. Depending on the size of your practice's database, an upgrade may take as long as 12 hours, though the average is about 3. Your system will be offline during that time window. Since we host practices spread across five time zones, we start in the East and work westward. Once it is complete on the hosting side, you may also have to upgrade your local workstations (see below).

Q. Can we work on the system during the upgrade?

A. No. We must take the servers completely off-line to perform the upgrade.

Q. What do we do to prepare for the upgrade?

A. First, contact your support or training team to determine what materials are available for you to familiarize yourself with the new features or requirements. Second, contact your IT support team to make sure your server and workstation hardware will support the upgrade (the server check is not necessary for cloud-hosted clients). Third, schedule as few patients as possible for the day following the upgrade, so any unforeseen issues with the system do not distract from your practice. Fourth, plan on an early start that morning, so the client upgrades can be run without disrupting your workday.

Q. How early should I come into the office on the day following the upgrade?

A. It depends on how many workstations you have in your practice that use the "fat client" to access eCW instead of the browser version or RDP. the longer the local part of your upgrade will take. For small practices, a good rule of thumb is one hour per 8 workstations. For larger practices, your local IT can use tools and techniques to distribute the new client software much faster.

Q. What do I do if I come in and the expected upgrade has not occurred?

A. Don't panic. This happens in about 5% of the cases. Many things can interfere with an upgrade, but most often there turned out to be a hold on your account or a technical glitch was encountered that caused the upgrade to abort. We will work with you to resolve the problem and then reschedule the upgrade. For this reason, a scheduled upgrade task should always be regarded as an "upgrade attempt," not a guarantee. It is important to set expectations correctly.

Q. How does the client upgrade work?

A. For our customers who use the Chrome browser or Remote Desktop access methods, you don't need to do anything. We do it all for you. For those customers using the eCW client "exe" version (aka "fat client"), it's a bit different.

When you log into the eClinicalWorks program, it checks to see that the client version matches the server version. If it does not, you are presented with a prompt to download the updated version. This update is a large file, approximately 150MB in size, so keep that in mind while upgrading multiple PCs over your Internet connection. The upgrade may take as long as an hour per workstation for very slow connections or remote offices. The new version will launch automatically once the upgrade completes.