athenaClinicals EHR from athenaHealth

athenaClinicals EHR from athenaHealth (http://www.athenahealth.com ) is web based so all information is available to the entire staff. This means the workflow can be measured and monitored by the entire network. This is an integrated solution that allows patient information to be seen at the point of care; plus many other capabilities such as online record keeping.

Features

The athenaClinicals EHR has an innovative five stage patient encounter feature that gives multiple charting options and collects clinical data. AthenaHealth is constantly integrating government mandates and provisions into their software. This is done automatically and with no cost to you. This system allows the entire staff to be able to access patient information and clinical data quickly and efficiently.  The software seamlessly integrates with their billing software which is one of the best in the industry.

System Requirements

athenaClinicals EHR is a hosted web based system that doesn’t require additional hardware. This software is compatible with Windows XP Professional, Vista and Windows 7. It is recommended that Internet Explorer 8 or higher is used. Dragon Naturally Speaking version 9 or higher is also compatible with this software.

Implementation and Deployment

The technical experts at athenaClinicals will assist your practice in implementing and deploying your system. They will assist you with all aspects of setting of the application and training your staff to use it. There are many online resources available for support and training issues.

Recap

The cloud based architecture of athenaClinicals means there is no need for additional servers or maintaining servers. AthenaHealth hosts all data and software in their very secure data centers. All information is contained in a centralized single database including clinical guidelines, payer requirements and government incentive programs. The five stage patient encounter feature optimizes time to make the workflow run smoothly and efficiently.

Pros

Customizable

Innovative features and tools

User Friendly

Excellent billing platform

Integrated EHR/PM

Cons

The EHR is used in conjunction with their billing service which can be costly.  The implementation fees are a little high and billing percentage is not always competitive depending on your practice size.

My Opinion

athenaClinicals is a robust system that is very user friendly. It has drop down menus that are easy to understand and use. I liked the fact that most things were automatically inputted into the chart such as lab results. This is a web hosted product that can be used my any type or size of medical practice or clinic.

ADP AdvancedMD (www.advancedmd.com ) is an integrated EHR and practice management system that is web based. It is designed to improve revenue capture, reduce errors and to simplify the entire process of managing a medical practice. This software allows all practice and patient information to be seen in a user friendly interface and is compatible with a variety of specialties.

Features

ADP AdvancedMD has many innovative features including a physician dashboard that gives you a customized view of all aspects of your medical practice. It gives the provider easy access to staff and patient scheduling, test results and patient charts. This system includes hundreds of customizable templates that can be used by physician in a variety of specialties. This system makes it easy to navigate through the various features and puts all information at your fingertips.

System Requirements

This software runs best on Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer and Office. It is recommended that each work station have a Pentium 4 or better processor. Windows 7 and Windows XP business version are supported. Windows Vista is supported but not recommended. You will also need a broadband Internet connection and Internet Explorer is the recommended browser.

This system can also be used with a Tablet PC. For the reports feature you will need Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010 for HCFA claim forms, letters and statements. For exporting reports Microsoft Excel 2007 or 2010 is required and Microsoft Access is needed for the data export feature.

Implementation and Deployment

The experts at AdvancedMD will work closely with you in every step of the implementation process with only a minimal disruption to your medical practice. Each medical practice is assigned a training professional to guide them through the deployment process. They will implement and deploy the system, including electronic data interchange, customizing paperwork and integrating outside suppliers.

Recap

ADP AdvancedMD has an array of innovative tools and features. It has a built in unified messaging system that allows all staff members to communicate easily. The Patient Portal is a secure web based communication system that can be used by the medical staff and patients. It has a robust document and image management system that stores documents, audio, video and images. The pricing varies depending on the size of the practice. This is a complete system that can be used by any type or size of medical practice.

Pros

Excellent design and layout

Innovative technology

Customizable

Cons

Additional add-ons and services may boost the initial cost of the software

My Opinion

ADP AdvancedMD is a complete system that will handle all aspects of patient documentation and practice management. I was impressed with the design of the interface and how easy it was to navigate throughout the different modules. The Physician Dashboard is a great feature that allows the user to have all information at their fingertips. I would recommend this software for any type of specialty and any size of medical practice.

Request information on Greenway: Free Demo – Free Price Quote

Positive Review of Greenway Review:

Kris says:

I just happened to come by this site and was surprised by the negative comments regarding Greenway. We implemented Greenway in January of this year and have had a very good experience so far.

Ours is a 15 provider practice in South Carolina. We implemented the Practice Management first and the EMR next. I agree with the comments that a user made in one of the earlier posts, there is no software out there that is going to be a perfect fit. Having said that, Greenway was the closest to a fit that we could find. Below are some of my experiences with our Greenway install and life since:

- Integrated seamless integration of the EMR and PM components with single login (I don’t recall seeing it in any of the other products we demoed – Allscripts and Nextgen included)
- Intuitive use
- Extremely knowledgeable salesperson in Nick. His knowledge of the product made it so much a easier sell for us as we knew we had an added resource to go to once we went live. I don’t think he ever mad a promise or sold a feature that the product did not have. Now there are features that were supposed to come in a future release that are not out yet and we might have had some expectations that they would have been out sooner.
- We were at 100% of our volume on day 3 of implementation
- A 10% increase in revenue due to better tools in tracking patient visits, insurance verification, insurance claims, and patient balances
- Training expenses and training billing could have been managed a little better from Greenway’s end.
- Knowledgeable help desk on both chart and pm side. Rarely have I called the help desk and not got someone on the line that did not know the answer to my question or could not get it resolved within a few hours.

My belief is that any successful software implementation has 6 components to it
- Good Software
- Good Training
- Good Processes
- Able employees
- Good Data during transition
- and most important of all a strong leader who can manage the project and control the demands and manage the expectations placed on the implementation. This perhaps is the number one reason implementations go sour.

As long as a practice keeps its side of the bargain, I don’t think they would have an issue implementing Greenway. I would recommend Greenway to any practice but make sure you have your ducks in a row and don’t expect a plain software switch to solve all your problems.

Having said all this, is Greenway perfect? They are a fast growing company and have had their fair share of growing pains that at times have been a frustration to us but at the same time has been insignificant when compared to the gains in patient care, productivity, and revenue.

Now I will post one of the negative comments left on our original review.  You should always do your own analysis of the programs to ensure that they will work for what you need.  References of similar practices are also very important.

Erik says:

Would have to fall into the camp of those who have been thoroughly disgusted by our choice of Greenway for our gastroenterology practice. I am young and new to my group, with experience of having used 3 other office EMR platforms prior to moving to my present location. The group (none of whom had EMR experience) purchased it both for clinic and ASC, totally based on a few brief demonstrations and a BUNCH of promises as to what could be put into place for our practice. I can tell you that unlike any other company I have EVER dealt with for Endowriters, EMR, or other computer projects – I have never had some many promises made where the company’s promise was based on the sole expectation that YOU as the practice would have to build/create/write in all up in computer language yourself. It’s been kind of like buying a car, where Greenway has many beautiful models on the lot, says “yes we do/yes it can” to anything you might inquire about what the car can do, only then find you have no spark plugs, battery cables, transmission fluid, belts, or gas line with which to be able to make the car get off the lot. As docs we are as human as the next guy, and there is truth in terms of us having realistic expectations about how life with an EMR is to be very different. Having used several EMR’s before, there may be a few weeks to get one customized to my style, but I have always been able to jump in from day one using it. We are still 3 months out and can’t make it work for our office or endo.

The company now admits that they have absolutely no endoscopy programs at all, in their library or otherwise (contrary to what was said in initial discussions). What groups use it for ASC’s have apparently had to hire an IT person on the side to come in and try and write them for the groups. We were told on front in that having Greenway in the office and in ASC would make everything seamless — YET Greenway is one of the few EMR’s that is still lacking in the ability to interface with anyone except just a few lab organizations…..they don’t even interface within themselves!!! All the regristration data that our staff have to enter on our practice side have to turn around and be re-entered into the ASC portion of Greenway because the two parts don’t talk to one another. If we stick with Provation or go with GMed then that takes care of endo programs as we are currently doing but requires continuation of having to scan the reports into both the ASC Greenway and the also into Greenway PM.

These are just the major and financially painfuly headaches. While practice mgmt part of Greenway seems to be OK, it has been awful in the clinic. Everything takes an overly complicated amount of mouseclicks to get to where you need to be, with buttons in what are not obvious places to be found and with cryptic symbols that you have to remember (little to no right-button functions). I cannot tell you the number of minutes and clicks it takes just to print off a paper copy of my daily schedule!

For some specialties, where scope of practice is very refined and repetitive, a template-driven EMR makes sense and should work fine. I would imagine that for OB, where most visits are checklists of things anyway, template notes would work great and do little to drain a docs efficiency. For any practice where there is considerable variety in the types of patients that are being evaluated, you will never be able to create enough templates to run smoothly (and if you do you will waste huge amounts of time sorting through the hundre or so trying to find the “perfect template” for that patient. Face it, folks–medicine is part science and part art. Patients are not like an automobile, and they don’t lay out their stories in the same sequential fashion for each disease. You can forget trying to do a note in the actual exam room–unless you demand that a patient keep quiet and answer only the pre-determined set of questions that you are fed on your template as the boxes scroll across the screen. I think most of us as providers would be sadly disappointed to see medicine reduced to such a level.

I agree with prior comments about anyone out there exploring options for EMR. GET ALL YOUR WANTS IN EXPLICIT WRITING before signing contract. Be very leery of Greenway right now until they listen to their customers and get their act together. If you have an EMR that is not delivering what would be a reasonably expected thing to deliver — give ‘em hell about and continue to press them hard – even legally if need be. I wish a few practices would start banding together in taking on Greenway, in particular, as I am afraid that is what it is going to take before they come back down to reality.

Brian Blake says:

I am an IT Admin; MCP, A+, Net+ and Linux+ certified. I’ve been working on computers since the early ’80′s and networking since the early ’90′s. I’m currently the MIS Director for a non-profit organization in central Florida. Many of my side consulting jobs are with doctors – one of which uses eClinical – and it’s the biggest mess I have ever encountered.

For starters, his original server is a 6 year old Gateway that was running out of space on it’s RAID 5 array. I was able to add another drive to the array, extending the server’s life for a while longer. The problem was, he was adding 150MB of data every week, so it was a temp fix. We recently installed a new server for eCW and requested info regarding migrating the database and application to the new server. What a mess this turned out to be.

At first, eCW demanded a fee of $1,000 for them to do the migration – which is completely asinine. The doctor was finally able to get them to talk to me about it; during the conversation all they would say was they have a certification program for IT Professionals to become eCW certified – but would not discuss with me how to go about doing this. When I asked them what would be different with this migration than any other database migration he stated there should be a backup done before hand and it was quite involved…

At this point, I explained to him that I really didn’t appreciate being talked to like I was clueless. I’ve moved many databases and their applications, and the process is usually quite similar. I also discussed my opinion that there was fine line between running a business to make a profit and outright greed. Charging someone $1,000 to migrate a database, when they are already paying $500 per month for the software and maintenance fee was crossing that line.

By the time I was done, the doctor got the migration for free. The process took two days – why? When they began working, they copied almost 90GB of data from the old server to the new one – all of the contents of the data drive. That was day one. After installing eCW and Tomcat on the new server, they went back and removed much of what they had previously copied. What they did not do was point the doctor’s laptops to the new server – which I had to call them and ask them for info on what to do. Simple process, but, a little documentation goes a long way.

And since he’s used eCW for several years, he’s not looking to change right now. However, they are giving him the run around regarding ‘Meaningful Use’. Several other local practices are inquiring about eCW, but, eCW is telling them they cannot use eCW for Meaningful Use. All of that’s beyond my desire to understand, but, why would a practice pay the money for eCW to manage their practice if it couldn’t provide the necessary services?

Today, I still am no closer to getting the certification info from eCW than I was on that day of my initial conversation with eCW. And knowing what I know now, I’m not sure I’d want to pursue that anyway.

“I will let you know that Greenway has been an huge and costly disappointment. We purchased the EMR for our office and ASC Endoscopy Center. The sales person made several promises and assured us that the product would work like our current one and that we would be able to continue taking pictures during our procedures. He also assured us that we could go completely paperless along with several other promises.

I don’t even know where to begin. At our go live the pictures didn’t work and we were unable to take pictures. The templates which they stated were in their library were not even close to being adequate and they had us build them, when they were supposed to be training us on the system.  Greenway sent trainers that had very little experience with the company, in fact one had only been with them for 4 weeks! Two of our Physicians worked 40+ hours on templates and the nurses had to completely build our templates, because they had none for the procedure room nursing notes. The Medication system uses the non approved abbreviations that have been in effect for years, so we would have to change every one of them. Then they did not send the paperwork for the third party billing and we received no payment for 45 day and finally we went back to our old system until we get this resolved. No one has called us and we had to have our lawyers send a letter. We finally received a copy of contract, which they never sent back signed by their President, with items underlined such as “use the Greenway library at your own risk”. I would hope if they were first in KLAS they would make sure the customer who is making a huge investment would be better taken care of. Communication is bad and the service is worse.

Talk about hidden costs. They charge for emails, phone conversations and some of the training staff stayed at reasonable hotels, while others stayed at very expensive hotels and ate like kings and we are the one footing the bill. We did get it in writing that they would have pictures by go live, but it seems they write their contracts, so that they have several outs. They have 30 days to fix all the items and I hope they do, but at this point it looks like they have taken us for a ride. Get everything in writing that they promise before signing.”

Again, please let everyone know of a similar or different experience regarding this or other EMR/EHR vendors.  We are trying to compile reviews, both Good and Bad, to produce a compilation that will be available for download.  Our goal is to equip everyone with the information to make an informed decision before jumping on the EMR/EHR bandwagon.

I think the thing that bothers me most about most of the EMR companies out there is that the EMR/PM sales reps are complete idiots when it comes to practice application and work flow issues.  It is really pathetic when you sit through a demo with a PCP practice and the EMR company is showing you how great the program works to schedule surgeries.  Or how about, sitting through a presentation in an ASC with a sales rep who is showing you how the great the program works in a hospital setting.  These “minor” issues just go to show, in my opinion, how little most of these EMR reps really know about the work-flow differences between specialties and facilities.

I have experience working with them on the billing and practice management side but have not heard rave reviews of their EMR product.  I have seen a few successful implementations and have heard horror stories from others.  I have also noticed on the billing and practice management side that they are slow to release the promised upgrades like E-prescribe.  I hope to find out more about potential work flow issues, support characteristics, and overall product capabilities.   I would say as with all EMR programs, that you should be very diligent in the application of a well thought out selection and implementation strategy.

If anyone has any wisdom or insight to share, it would be greatly appreciated.

Please share by posting a comment below.

We will not go live until December, but I am curious if anyone can post a comment on their experience with Intuitive Medical’s Urochart EMR. I am helping with the transition to EMR for the practice and would like to know if there is anything specifically that we need to be aware of.  You can also use the rating system to rate your overall experience with the program.

Thanks in advance for your help.

He felt that this was an affordable solution for his new primary care office.  He told me that he was quoted over 100k from Nextgen, so the 1k lease option sounded like a really good deal.  I do not like to single out systems to  dissuade someone from purchasing, but 1k per month is not a good deal in my opinion. Oh, I almost forgot, that does not include training which is another 5k.   Am I alone in thinking this is crazy? 1k per month in my world will cover the total cost for 4 physicians including licensing,  hosting , clearing house fees, and support with one of the best ASP Practice Management/EMR & billing systems currently available.  Usability and cost are the most important factors when considering an EMR/PM solution and I am curious if anyone else feels that 1k per month doesn’t pass a simple cost-benefit analysis.

If you are a user of Eclinical Works, can you please use this post to rate your experience with EclinicalWorks. I have demoed the software and was not too impressed with their level of support or response time to my interoperability and work flow management questions.  I (and my client) are curious as to how some current or past users feel about the software.