citrix in a medical office???

[Guest_imported]

I run a medical office with 1 satellite office and also want to be in contact with my office from home/on the road--i have an electronic medical record system which is currently on a 4 yr old server- my local computer provider wants me to upgrade with 2 (now 1 ) server 1 for citrix and 1 for the medical software instead of work stations terminals -- is this the way to go or am i being led up the garden path? easier less expensive options?expensive to maintain in monthly service charges ?reliability( will use win2000)Any info appreciated !!

 

[rgzimmer]

Combined with a good vpn solution over the Internet, citrix servers are great. They take terminal servers to the next level.
You don't mention how you would be accessing the server, though. Would you be using an Internet connection or dialing a RAS connection to your server at work?

 

[cka]

Citrix is a great option, however will you be using it enought to justify the price. I am a consultant and I work primarily with doctor's offices. There might be a cheaper solution for you depending on how frequently you access the system. Let me know.

 

[dilettante]

Yeah, we've had horrible experiences with Citrix, but these were all traced to the fact we didn't dedicate a big enough server for Citrix itself.

With your small volume of users though I think I would look into alternatives too. Citrix seems to have significant overhead for small numbers of users.

If you have decent bandwidth between the locations it might be cheaper to go with Win2K Terminal Services - since you'll probably be installing Win2K Advanced Server anyway. Citrix does have a reputation for better performance over lower-speed connections than MS's product alone though.

This sounds sort of like insane overkill for your situation, but I assume you a dealing with a moldy application that might be even more costly to modernize to use a thinner interface (i.e. web browser). I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the thing is DOS based - there just isn't enough $$ in these vertical markets for major upgrades to come quickly or cheaply.

It sounds like you're considering a SINGLE dialup connection from your laptop. Maybe the best answer would be some cheap or nearly free "remote control" software that dials into your office's desktop machine. Ask your computer guy about that - though he's probably looking forward to selling you that Citrix box!