Comments on: EclinicalWorks EMR Review – Is 1k per month worth it?

By: Jessica

Jessica — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:26:58 +0000

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.

By: Marvin Adkins MD

Marvin Adkins MD — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 07:07:16 +0000

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.

By: Andrew Eriksen

Andrew Eriksen — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:07:58 +0000

I look forward what you have to say about the billing side of the program. I have heard mixed reviews

By: Anna

Anna — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 02:00:22 +0000

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.

By: Das

Das — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 05:55:31 +0000

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.

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:05:11 +0000

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…

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 06:02:26 +0000

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.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 21:42:39 +0000

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.

By: Ruchir Bhatt

Ruchir Bhatt — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:40:44 +0000

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

By: Victor Adams

Victor Adams — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:15:01 +0000

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.