[REQUEST] 2-in-1 tablets for a doctor's office

[Kirby]

Okay, I did that walk through this morning and I know a bit more. This is not your usual doctor's office, hence, why their needs are very different than the doctor's offices you are all used to. They don't schedule patients. Every patient is a walk-in and they are busy all day long. At least one doctor takes no breaks from 8 in the morning until 5 at night, some doctors work routinely from 7 to 5 and it's not unheard of for a 12 hour day with no breaks for charging. The removable battery is an actual "need" for their practice to run the way it does. Unfortunately for them, unusual needs means limited choices.

I just don't see the Yoga being a viable replacement in this case, unfortunately. With a claimed 12 hour life that's the minimum I would need to be guaranteed for the battery. Their projections are always rosy and battery life degrades way sooner than 3 years. The big benefit of the Fujitsu is that if you don't put a DVD drive in it that bay can hold an extra battery so it can easily last 12 hours. And if it doesn't you swap in a fresh battery and it's good. I'm going to have to go with Fujitsu again.

Thank you all for all of your suggestions. Even when you disagreed with me vehemently, the things you said still helped me understand the industry better and how "most people" are handling this type of situation, which, in turn, did help me understand how and why they are different. I do appreciate all of your input, even when I disagreed with it. Thanks guys.

 

[Kirby]

Probably not the best link but this says the product you are referring to is almost 2 grand.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Fujitsu-...-Intel-Core-i5-i5-5200U-Dual-core-2-/43951151

If your finding and selling it for under a grand I'd love to know.

You may want to look at Dell. They have a tablet hybrid with a docking station. This would allow them to take it between rooms and dock it which would charge it and allow for an external monitor and keyboard and mouse.

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Interesting. I try to stay away from selling brands like Dell and HP normally, but I will have a look at Dell. Historically Dell has been the "competition" who would dupe unsuspecting customers into paying more money for lesser hardware/warranty than I would provide. And, of course, HP is a Walmart brand. I can sell a customer on an HP ONCE. They'll get "the same thing", as far as they are concerned, from Walmart next time for a lot less money. And then it's all, "YOU recommended this brand! Why is the new one crap?"

 

[fencepost]

Historically Dell has been the "competition" who would dupe unsuspecting customers into paying more money for lesser hardware/warranty than I would provide. And, of course, HP is a Walmart brand.

It's important to distinguish between their consumer product lines and their business product lines. The same can be said about Lenovo with their IdeaPad and other laptop lines, probably even the ThinkPad Edge line which I think has or had a reputation as consumer-grade in a business box. The traditional ThinkPads (X, T, W) should be good, just like Dell's Latitude and HP's (something) lines.

 

[nerd2u]

Also the try of doctor's office you are talking about is called a walk-in clinic.

Would multiple laptops work for them? For instance have 2 sets one on charge one in use?

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[Simplify]

Also the try of doctor's office you are talking about is called a walk-in clinic.

Would multiple laptops work for them? For instance have 2 sets one on charge one in use?

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I was going to suggest the same. My wife works as an Medical Assistant at a busy office. They don't technically need multiple laptops available as they aren't as busy as described above but nobody seems to remember to plug the dang things in until they are dead. All of their patient info is entered into the software they use and it's literally the only program installed on the computers. When one dies, they plug it in and grab the spare, log back into the software and continue on with their day.

They are an office with older doctors that resisted switching to electronic files for as long as possible. I don't do any work for them but I have seen the doctors and staff in action with their laptops. I can only imagine how many broken DC jacks they have had with how they handle them, I can't see them changing batteries out.

 

[Kirby]

Also the try of doctor's office you are talking about is called a walk-in clinic.

Would multiple laptops work for them? For instance have 2 sets one on charge one in use?

Sent from my SM-G870W using Tapatalk

In my small town there are 2 different doctor's offices and we just call them both doctor's offices. Frankly it never occurred to me to consider the particular business model of each to call them by different entity names. They're just the 2 doctor's offices in town. But good to know.

That would technically work, yes, but it would mean buying more laptops than what they actually need and cost is always a concern with any business. Technically I probably could find lower cost, faster computers which would actually save them money to do it this way, but I found that they like the Fujitsu 2-in-1 computers they are using. It doesn't matter what I like because, as I said, I'm not selling them to me. If the customer is happy with Fujitsu and wants Fujitsu then they're getting Fujitsu. Plus the doctors have computers which are just theirs. They don't switch.

They aren't terrible, I guess. The only warranty issues I ever had with them in the last 7 years involved accidental damage, not hardware warranties. So I guess they are pretty solid. I just wish they were a little better on the software end. They randomly develop errors occasionally, always related to some funky driver they're using. And it's not a simple "You have this, this is available" thing to fix it. You download their driver program and it lists 3 or 4 dozen drivers available for that system. That's it. It doesn't tell you what's installed or not, what version you have or are downloading, nothing. Just a huge list, click to download and install it, hope it works. I throw in a lot of service when I sell something, so that sometimes ends up costing me. The first year all service is free. Even virus removal and the like.

 

[brandonkick]

I find it hard to believe that the laptops must run on battery only, must run for 12 hours straight and that the only workable setup is these Fujitsu machines with removable batteries and the ability to run a spare battery in the battery bay (not required, but sounds like even that is favorable here)

The reason I find that hard to believe is that is it really a situation where these machines move around ALL DAY LONG? Each employee carries their own with them from room to room? The machines do not stay in the room, so a machine goes with a doctor where ever they go? It's rare that I've ever seen a setup in which a desktop computer isn't sitting in each office, and when it isn't it's a laptop that is still plugged into the wall.

If these tablets really are on the go 100% of the time, and have no time ever to be charged, then I guess what your already providing is pretty much the only available choice. If these machines are not on the go 100% of the time, then I do not see a reason for it to be this way.

In my experience with doctors visits of any kind, if I'm with the doctor for half an hour, they spend about 5% of that time with the computer. The rest of it, it sits on a desk while they are working with me. At any rate, you've decided what is best for your client based on your walkthrough. I just take a bit of a different attitude when I'm not the expert. I can go into a garage asking a mechanic for an oil change because I believe that's what it needs, and when the garage tells me I need to have the front and rear ends serviced I don't refuse (mainly because my mechanic is my father, who's been doing it for 30 years) because he knows far better than I what my vehicle needs and if or not my google fu answers are reasonable or probable at fixing whatever problem I may have. Sometimes my google fu lands me pretty close, if not right on what's wrong... other times if not for the knowledge and experience my mechanic has I'd have had one hell of a rough go getting things sorted out. Same here. It's not wrong to tell your clients they are wrong, if they are wrong. Most of us are not in a habit of taking their assessment of their needs as correct. Especially if it's a client that we need too or intend to support long term.

But it sounds like your all figured out. I learned something too, I didn't realize such a hardware setup existed any more. I can't think of any direct use cases right now for anyone I do work for, but it's an option I now know about!

 

[glricht]

... Each employee carries their own with them from room to room? The machines do not stay in the room, so a machine goes with a doctor where ever they go? ...

That's exactly how most medical offices around here are setup. Every examining room has a docking station and every patient-facing employee (e.g. doctors, nurses, etc.) carry their laptop with them and when they enter the examining room I'm in, they snap their laptop into the docking station and "do their thing". Actually works quite well.

 

[Kirby]

I find it hard to believe that the laptops must run on battery only, must run for 12 hours straight and that the only workable setup is these Fujitsu machines with removable batteries and the ability to run a spare battery in the battery bay (not required, but sounds like even that is favorable here)...

That was not the norm, it was the worst-case scenario. The office lady did mention one provider by name who saw patients all day with no breaks and one, not sure if it was the same one, who came in an hour early every day. If that was the same provider, that's a 10 hour, non-stop day every day. It's at least 9 hours. But regardless whether the math works out or not it is not my place to question what my customers say their needs are. If they say they need it my job is to do everything in my power to provide it. And they just don't want to plug them in from spot to spot. Yes, they could change how they do things to make me happy. Or I could just do what they're paying me to do and get them what they are asking for. Again, I'm not selling equipment to myself, so what I want is irrelevant.

Unfortunately the newer Fujitsu models after, as far as I can tell, the T902 no longer offer an expansion bay battery, so they are going to maybe have to "hot swap" the battery on particularly long days. It's less convenient for them, but I don't build hardware, so there's nothing I can do about it.