Two of the biggest names in office chairs, Herman Miller and Steelcase, both recently released a relatively affordable task chair, each with its own quirks and charms. But which should you convince your office manager to buy?

First, we have to establish the definition of a task chair. They are, according to this site, meant for medium duty use; they’re the chairs you see gathered permanently around a meeting table, or in front of a desk for guests—as opposed to behind a desk, where the boss sits, in a true “desk chair.” Comfortable, but not exactly meant to be used all day, they tend to have list prices ranging from $500 to $700. Still they’re often used by secretaries or other type of office workers (everyone who isn’t a boss who can’t convince someone to give them a nicer chair) whose jobs require them to get up once in a while. They usually have backs that rise up not quite as high as desk chairs, like the $1000-and-up Herman Miller Aeron and Embody, or Steelcase Leap.

Herman Miller Setu

The $650 Setu might be about half the price of the current top seat, but it is definitely not, as we initially reported, a “poor man’s Embody.” It’s quite different.

The Setu is Lennie to the Embody’s George: simple, straightforward and lacking in sophistication. That is to say, there’s no real customization you can do with knobs and levers, because there are none, save for the obligatory height adjustment. Its “elastomeric” fabric does contour somewhat to the curve of your back, but it’s nowhere as customizable as actually being able to change the angles of the chair’s spine.

It’s as if Herman Miller tried to build a chair with as few parts as possible, making sure each beam, back and support did the job of one-and-a-half beams, backs and supports. However, their frugality regarding use of material has one downside: the seat is too shallow. Imagine sitting with your ass all the way into the back of the seat; even then, the seat would only come forward to about 3/4 of your thigh. It’s not horrible if you’re short or if you’d rather sit on the edge of your seat, but those of you who expect support all the way up to the back of your knees will be disappointed.

Otherwise, the Setu is quite a good task chair. It provides ample back support for a full eight-hour day, and the aerated fabric breathes enough that you can even work shirtless on a hot day and things will be alright. (For you, not your co-workers.) The arms protrude enough to be usable, but not too much to be obtrusive. There’s plenty of give in the seat and the back to feel like you’re sitting with the chair, rather than fighting against it.

Conforms to your back nicely


Great look, great design


More expensive than Cobi


The seat is a bit shallow; doesn’t go all the way to the back of the knee

Steelcase Cobi

Surprisingly, the Cobi is more like the Embody in design and build than the Setu, despite it being from a competing firm. What’s cool about the Cobi is that you can actually customize parts of it yourself, picking the color, whether you want arms and whether you want it in stool form or chair form. Each piece adds a little to its $400 base, and our white-framed, fixed-armed, wasabi green seat totaled to $490. If you were going stool mode—high and sturdy, as in bar stool, not backless and stubby, as in foot stool—you’d actually end up at $720, which is $70 more than the Setu.

The look of the Cobi is definitely more traditional than the Setu, with its round seat, protruding arms and tongue-like lip of a back—and it sits the same way too. There are, like the Setu, no adjustments for the back or the seat or the arms, but it conforms more or less to your back as you’re sitting. The cradling is less pronounced than the Herman Miller, but enough that you’ll still be comfortable as you’re working. And the seat is perfectly fine here, not a few inches shy of optimal length like the Setu.

Priced lower than Setu


You can customize your own colors, frame, arms


Doesn’t conform to your back as well as the Setu

Comparison

Your decision here is one of tradeoffs. If you want to go a little cheaper, the Steelcase Cobi is great, but it won’t spoon your back quite as well as the Herman Miller Setu. If you want stylishness, Setu’s definitely going to impress, but you’re going to have to live with that shallower seat and a slightly higher price tag.

The Cobi is customizable at purchase, but all the design choices lead to a more traditional-looking chair, something you may or may not prefer. The more sci-fi-looking Setu may win in the design department but you will definitely not be upset if you pick the Cobi, especially if you want to create one in your favorite color.

This Battlemodo shows both the benefits and limitations of the task-chair category. If you’re looking for going further in customizability and comfort, it would be worth it to go with the Embody. It’s down to $1099 now, and cradles your ass better than either the Setu or the Cobi ever will. [Steelcase Cobi and Herman Miller Setu]

Over the years, practice management software has changed the working progress of health institutions and practitioners all around the world. While it improved the overall service associated with health care transactions, it also increases the speed and system’s efficiency in several medical institutions. Everyone, at some point in their life, had experienced being a patient in a big hospital. Obviously when you go to the emergency room or get checked in overnight, the last thing you’re thinking about is the preparation that starts at the front desk. After you’ve been released these questions usually start to surface, but the answers lie within the practice management software. All these remarkable changes are brought by practice management software, which hastened the flow of information to improve health care services and ultimately improved the quality of life.

It could take all kinds of accountants, secretaries, technicians, and health care workers to equal the same type of results as the PMS system. These groups of workers are organized into a number of departments, which answers to a specific task. These teams of people tend to transfer, share and exchange patient and treatment information to organize the day-to-day operations of a medical practice or institution. They deal with patient demographics and schedule appointments to guide the patients to the best doctors who can attend to their special needs. They also maintain a list of insurance payers to update billing tasks and quickly provide patients with their billing report.

Practice management in the medical field has been primarily manual work in the past. The accuracy of the reports and efficiency of their work is marginalized by human error. When it comes to health care, errors and inaccuracies to reports or patient’s information is never acceptable. It might lead to serious problems, from simply losing a client to a better performing practice to ineffective treatments due to incorrect treatment assumptions. The issues on human error are one of the important factors addressed by medical practice management software.

The primary goal of practice management software is having the ability to increase the productivity of the health industry. It utilizes a hospital/clinic management system with a full set of features to give you the best benefits possible. With the use of the electronic scheduler, patients are given increased satisfaction by ensuring faster and more reliable scheduling systems. It successfully managed to keep each health care providers fully booked. The computerized patient registration system presented a simple and logical way of obtaining patient information without the need for re-checking or verifications as all the information or data inputs are automatically and logically grouped. When it comes to billing and collection, a charge capture module is linked with the collection module to enable billing to rapidly update and track each account.

With the rising competition in the practice, a new clinic might struggle during its first few weeks and months because of rising prices of supplies. You have to consider the rising cost for supplies, the employee rates and benefits, your overhead, and all the medicine that is involved. Even if you’re a small clinic, there are many benefits that come along with utilizing a practice management software system. Compared to the cost of maintaining a full staff, investing on a reliable software system proves to be a wise start-up investment.

One thing that most people don’t think about when first experiencing the practice management software, is the productivity of your employees. With the convenience and ease of using management software, staff productivity ratings significantly improved. The usual 30 to 60-day time-frame of insurer payment was cut down into 10 to 14 days. Realize that more flexible scheduling, as well as less billing errors will contribute to better patient satisfaction when it’s all said and done.

The whole idea of practice management software is to have flawless customer service. When you focus on customer service, you will begin to receive referrals, each day scheduled to the brim, and return clients throughout the years to come. Making the patients or the clients feel that they are well-treated is one effective motivation for them to religiously follow their scheduled appointments. Keeping the client’s enthusiasm alive will keep them coming back; thanks to the innovations made by practice management software systems.

Today, most of the systems are designed managing medical practice for small to medium-sized offices. The operating software are classified into three; desktop-only software, client server software and internet-based software. The desktop-only software is suitable for offices with a handful of users sharing access. While this can be beneficial, you may need the client server so you can link different workstations to one system. The internet-based software has the advantage of running its own server with no need to worry about security and reliability. Regardless of your decision, it’s important to understand that whatever decision you make will be the right one when regarding a practice management systems.