EclinicalWorks EMR Review – Is 1k per month worth it?
by Andrew Eriksen | Posted under : EclinicalWorks EHR Reviews,EMR Reviews,Selecting & Implementing
I just finished speaking with a client of mine (http://physiciancredentialingservices.com) who we are helping to set up his practice and we had an interesting conversation about EMR/PM software. He said that he was going to use EclinicalWorks as his PM and EMR solution when he opens in January. I was okay with his decision, until he told me that he was going to pay $1,000 per month to “Lease” the system and have it hosted on their server.
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.
Tags : 100k, affordable solution, amp, asp emr, asp practice management, billing systems, clearing house, cost benefit analysis, eclinical works, eclinicalworks, EMR & EHR Companies, EMR Article, important factors, interoperability, lease option, management questions, nextgen, physicians, primary care office, response time, usability, work flow management
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We looked at eClinicalworks and found it to be bulky and cumbersome. I went to a physician in my building who was in the middle of going live and a trainer from eCW was there. It was clear the trainer had no idea on the workings of a medical office. It was also clear eCW was not designed with the physican in mind.
We have been on eCW for the past 2 years. We are a web based application for the moment and quickly moving to bring the server in-house. The web based application works well if you are a solo physician but when you have multiple lcoatiosn and broad number of applciatiosn then you will suffer as a web application. Regarding other choices for EHR sofware, there are very few if any applications today that are physician friendly. There are a large number of choices in which the rest of the staff enjoy the benefits of shared inforamtion thorughout the office or enterprise. eCW is well designed and is built on a modern sofware language that has tremendous versatility. Many of teh problesm and complaints with teh design of eCW by physicains are usaullly due to the fact that they are not taking advantage of its rich feature capabiltiy. eCW does not helo with this and unless there is someon in teh office who is able to get schooled as a Super User or perhaos hire a eCW installer to help with design then you will grow to not accept the basic design out of the box. eCW has a tremendous customizable application that can allow a provider to minimize clicks and to speed up documentation if you take the time to learn, train or pay someone to work with you. I Love this product and all that it is capable of doing. The major problem with eCW is its support but this is an industry problem and not confined to eCW.
Amanda,
I recommend looking at PrognoCIS. It is very user friendly and reasonably priced. We have many users that use thrid party billers so we make data exchange easy and secure.
-Vik
Vik Moharir, MD, MA
vik.moharir@vimiya.com
we implemented Eclinical In NOv 2010. Yes their support is rediculous. Each person you talk to gives you different answers and most of them don’t know what they are talking about. Than at the end they blame you that it is something internally wrong with server etc. IF I had choice again I would not go with Eclinical. I Think EMR it self is ok but support is not worth it. I know We are not using the EMR to fullest and most of the functions we learned by our selves.
They assign project managers to you, mine does not even return call or email most of the time.
Other advise is that if you go with them make sure you use their clearing house that they have integrated with Eclinical(Emron and Gateway). we made mistake of keeping our exsting clearing house (AVaility). When we signed up they said no problem but they want money for everylittle thing and it still does not work properly.
This (eClinicalWorks)is a poor EMR/system. It is difficult and cumbersome to use. The return of information for the effort of getting that information into the system is meager. The interface/interactivity is not intuitive. The options for programming and subroutines is poor. The system was already in place at the office when I arrived. I advised the hospital (which supports several offices of employed physicians) not to use the system and to abandon it. Unfortunately, they have doubled-down and put it into a four man group’s office. They didn’t even look hard at other vendors.
EVERYTHING NEGATIVE YOU HEAR ABOUT ECW IS TRUE. USING THE SYSTEM IS DIFFICULT AND REQUIRES TWO MILLION TOO MANY CLICKS. ECW CLAIM THEY ARE A U.S. COMPANY,BUT EVERYONE I HAVE SPOKEN WITH FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS HAS A VERY HEAVY FOREIGN ACCENT. TECH SUPPORT NEVER ADDRESSES THE WHOLE ISSUE, JUST THE MICRO ISSUE; WHEN ECW MAKES CHANGES TO ADDRESS YOUR ISSUE THEY CREATE OTHER BIGGER ISSUES. ECW HAS A VERY GOOD MARKETING DEPARTMENT.
eClinicalWorks is being pushed by our PHO group. Those that opted to use this EHR found themselves stucked in a very cumbersome system. According to the users it is not physician friendly. The programmers do not really understand how physicians work. The people at the PHO who evaluated this relied on a few users but did not take into account how new users will transition into this.
I am currently doing the work of evaluating other EHR like NextGen, MedgenEHR and Practice Fusion. We do not intend to just jump in and get stucked with an intolerable system. So let us see.
I am hearing way too many problems from eCW users, but the fascinating part is that the physicians will drop and roll over to get on eCW because the hospitals and labs will pay for it.
We have been with Sage Intergy for sometime and have no issues with software itself, it is easy and user freindly. Support is good and the online training is partly a good resource. Most importantly, I have learnt most of this product using the help from within the system, which is also linked with the CBT’s. That makes it extremely easy because you do not have to wait for support or a trainer to respond and you can get about 90% of answers from help itself.
Will be more than happy to share and discuss our experience.
Ruchir Bhatt
813-943-7114
One of my collegues have opted for eCW because his hospital and referring doctors put him to it.
Simply put the software sucks! ECW is one of the worst EMR + PMS combinations that one can possibally buy. It is expensive, they charge astronomically for simple functions like data transfer and training. The support does not know the answers Let me take a screenshot of this… was the excuse given to “onsite” and remote assisted “trainers”. EHR is too detailed with most of the functionalities remain unused as they do not serve the needs for the practice and hence becomes dull to use. I will not recommend this EMR to anyone.
ECW is to proprietary, you may own the server, but try exporting your data out to analysis. Trash. One key to ensuring the quality of the chart, data and overall master file settings is to have to ability to customize export. With out it you are dependent upon usually bad data. ECW had several bad features, such as the collections module, which is useless. The appointments are not linked to the charges, so line item claim detail is not possible, as copays, and time of service payments are no line applied. Unless they open the features up a bit more I would not recommend.
My practice is looking into EMR/PM systems, and have narrowed down our options. I know someone that has been using ECW in his practice and has informed me that it works fairly well for him. I am really stuck now, because I see all of these bad reviews, but they contain words like “stucked” and “learnt”, and another review that is typed in all caps. Not very convincing when the person trashing the product can’t spell or use correct grammar. I guess I will keep searching…
My residency program implemented ECW in July 1, 2011. Till now no one can achieve any task smoothly. The most difficult parts are finding ICD 9 codes for which the tech support added a ridiculous ad-filled online software, ordering labs take all day, sending scripts almost take a week as the the information you put in is seldom recorded by the computer. In short a nightmare. I trained in Allscripts for only 2 days when I began my residency 2 yrs back and did not have much problem in performing anyof the above mentioned tasks. And the on-site trainers for ECW were clueless.
The practice that I work at just recently started training for ECW. So far I am not impressed with my so-called Billing training. It did not teach me anything that I need to know about the Claims Processing with ECW. Looks like others have had problems with this system as well, so I am really thinking this was a bad idea. I will report back here after a few months and let everyone know if its as bad as it seems.
I look forward what you have to say about the billing side of the program. I have heard mixed reviews
Ecliniscal works is bulky and very difficult to learn and use. It is too expensive for wht you get. Technical support is not available when you need it. I feel I locked my practice in a box. Normally you do not know the system till you pay your money and you get training and go live. Then you realize you have to live with it because it is too late to change.
Beware of eClinicalWorks but possibly of all EMR vendors. I have experiences with 4 different EMRs- Epic, ChartMaker, Sage Intergy, and eCW. These are the cons that I found with eCW
-1) It is not user friendly in terms of making modification to suit your practice. Many things the tech support/trainer says you can’t modify or erase even if you don’t need some of the categories and you’re stuck with them. Some things are so cumbersome that even a hired eCW trainer didn’t even know that something could be done about a function, but I tried it and it worked. His advice was just don’t touch anything once the system has been initially set up for the practice. This is not realistic.
-2) Tech support is not good about returning calls or resolving issues. They will take weeks to resolve something or transfer you multiple times to different people over a long period of time to get something resolved. Many of the tech support people have such heavy accents that you do not understand what they are saying on the phone.
-3) They say you have to pay monthly maintenance and tech support fee, which is mandatory. But then when you need help with something specific, such as Meaningful Use, they say that they will charge you additionally because that’s not included in the tech support. I realize now that they can always raise fees or charge you additionally for things, because you have a very little recourse once your practice has signed on and adopted an EMR. Changing your system is not worth the effort for most practices and EMR companies know this. EMR industry may soon have to be regulated, because I see potential for abuse of medical practices by EMR companies. Once you’ve signed on and adopted their system, they’ve got you and you can’t do too much about whatever they do.