New round of discussion needed for EMR, EHR and practice management software

[optics4life]

Does Crystal PM have a module for Optical Sales? Are you still happy with the software?

Our office is looking to upgrade from OM to another software. Looking for some input.

[David_Garza]

[QUOTE=David_Garza;391685]

-Crystal Practice 3 users (all like it)
QUOTE]

It's the best in terms of cost and customer service....I don't rate these things because I looked into them all and visited practices that had different EMRs prior to purchasing. I ended up choosing Crystal b/c no one had anything bad/negative to say about. Been a user since 01/2009 and have no complaints.

Still using Crystal since 2009 and very happy with it & their CS is still great!
Dump OM and call up the guys as Crystal.
It can do anything OM can and maybe even more even Optical stuff.

[Rialeigh]

Here is my 2 Cents

Background: I work in a busy office with one OD. We see a larger than average amount of medical patients and accept only medical insurance (no vision plans like VSP). We have an optical that also has a significant amount of walk in business. We used to use Officemate with paper charts but last year we upgraded to Officemate 10.6.16 and have been using EHR ever since.

The Upgrade: When we made the decision to change over we knew we had to have all new computers (64 bit) and server. We changed the old computers in the 3 exam rooms to run our new digital eye charts. In all we built :

3 exam room computers (dedicated video card to allow faster OCT-scan viewing in rooms)
AMD Phenom II 4GHz quad core processor
8 gigabytes ram
320 gigabyte HD
Radeon HD 6670 video card
Micro ATX motherboard
Windows 7 64 bit

5 office computers for front desk/tech station/optical
AMD Athalon 3.3 GHz quad core processor
8 gigabytes ram
320 gigabyte HD
Radeon HD 6670 video card
Micro ATX motherboard
Windows 7 64 bit

Server
Intel Xeon 2.4 GHz 6 core processor
12 gigabytes ram
2 - 2 terabyte hard drives (RAID configuration)
Windows Small Business Server Essentials

We also were able to save 2 of the newer computers in the office and just upgrade them to Windows 7. We were able to use keyboard/mouse/monitors from existing computers so we only had to purchase 3 additional monitors. I took the minimum requirements for workstations from the Eyefinity website and then found the best deal available on Newegg.com for hardware. Our computers are a little over-kill but I wanted to make sure staff wouldn't get frustrated with load time or lag.

Technology costs approximately $7,000 (not including OM, we already had it)

The Good

• Stage 1 Meaningful Use Attestation completed, 2012, payment received.
• Better security and accountability, staff can no longer just edit prices on fee slips or change prior payments. Manager approval needed for all adjustments.
• Front desk staff does not need as much optical knowledge (easier training), OM 10 pulls the important information for the front desk from EW. Example: When scheduling the front desk can pull recall, RTC orders, diagnosis, and if the patient needs a prior authorization just from the Patient Center. No need to drudge through an exam report.
• We are now completely paperless. This is thanks to using our large Sharp all-in-one to scan in prior records and small bar-style scanners to scan insurance cards. Which also means that our insurance person can look at an insurance card from any computer.
• The scheduler is amazing once you get it set up (which didn't take long). Our system consists of using the icons (set one up for each type of service like full exam, contacts, visual field, OCT, etc..) and colors. The more icons an exam has the "hotter" the color. That way the front desk can schedule based on how red or blue the day looks. It is just more commonsense.
• Copy Exam Forward is a time saver.
• I feel continuity has improved especially with contact lens orders. there have been less mistakes and incorrect orders.
• In optical it is easier for us to pull up the patient's exam to see the whole picture. "Well yes ma'am I know you can't read the bottom line but it says here in your exam the Doctor stated that your AMD has progressed and you might need a low-vision aid"
• Generally speaking, our office looks more efficient from the patient's perspective.

The Bad

• The doctor spends much more time at the end of the day reviewing charts.
• From a computer security standpoint I do not like that any user that runs OM on a computer has to basically have full admin privileges on that computer. In an office setting it is better for users to not have admin privileges so they don't accidentally install a virus. We have just beefed up our anti-virus on the workstations. We use Kaspersky.
• The "stock" ExamWriter is cruddy, so you really have to sit down and modify everything to make it look much cleaner. You only have to really do this once but it does take some effort.
• We had to hire a scribe.
• On the optical side we don't use "orders" at all to keep track of orders and post. We only do 20 jobs a week so the tray system is fine for us. The interface with Frames data is absolutely useless. We still use Excell for inventory.
• The spec/contact Rx view in ExamWriter stinks. It is visually confusing and it takes too many clicks and too much squinting to figure out why we did what.
• Generally speaking, our office looks more hectic from the technician's perspective.

The Ugly

• The eRx that interfaces with OM (Dr's First) is HORRIBLE. It is glitchy, throws error screens, complicated, and at least once a week we are getting a call that a refill didn't go through. However, If you use Dr's First, it automatically brings over patient data and populates your percentages on the Meaningful Use report in OM.
• The doctor says we should have just taken the Medicare fine and stuck with paper.

Conclusion

I think that OfficeMate can work for any office. It has the best tech support and was certified first. Are there other programs that might be better for a different type of office? sure, especially if you don't do much medical. Even though the doctor would like to have stuck with paper, the staff enjoys the upgrade. I will say that i have heard horror stories about trying to complete Meaningful Use Attestation. It was not bad with us using OM. There were plenty of resources to help us get that check.

Side Notes

The digital eye charts are amazing. We went with Acuity Pro and used our older computers to run it. Huge time-saver.

There is a lot of talk about cloud-based EHR right now. I use cloud-based storage and the likes for much of my personal data, that being said, I think it is a horrible idea for EHR. If you wanted to do something similar but keep it in house you build a crazy server and just have your workstations run off the server without using their own computing power. That would save you some money.

[rdcoach5]

We have used Maximeyes for 9 years and recently (last year) added MD Office. I have no idea why because we can't submit eyeglass orders through MD Office so we kept Maximeyes for the optical. This, of course creates a big problem for our Doctors because they don't have access through their computers to Maximeyes records. You can see the problem this creates when a patient from last year has a problem and our Docs don't know what was ordered. Very frustrating ! I know we could have kept Maximeyes and upgraded to enable EMR. Cost was somehow an issue but I am not privvy to that.

Neither system is ideal. A lot of times Maximeyes just won't submit an order and it has to be sent as a paper order. I like MD Office's appointment page to see who is scheduled for the day and it's appointment finder is quick and easy.

[ChavaCha]

If you're a practice that's looking at EHR or replacing your EHR and are reporting for meaningful use. Don't switch in the middle of your reporting period. Also, if you are a practice that sees a fair amount of medical patients consider an EHR that also is vendor for ophthalmology. You'll find that the more charting a provider does the more you'll find time saving features from those vendors that work in both ophthalmology and optometry. Remember also that the cheapest product may not be best because you may pay less up front but you maybe wasting your time down the road with time consuming programs that require a lot of clicking. The last note is make sure to secure your data, back it up and insure your electronic records.

[erichwmack]

We've been using compulink EHR for about 10 months now. I like it for the most part. I would say the learning curve is about 80% done at 6 months and the rest of the loose ends taper off from there. There is another software package not mentioned here. Its Management +. I used the EHR for acouple years at another practice which had OD's and MD's. Did not care for that software.

[Uncle Fester]

Still wondering if we're the only small OD practice on Optiboard running EMRlogic activEHR (formerly OD Pro)?

We find it costly and difficult (some programs much more than others) but are told to muddle through as it is the most integrated for the future in electronic record keeping.

[ChavaCha]

If anyone has questions about the good bad and the ugly of EHR/ Practice Management vendors, feel free to message me because I used to work for a vendor.

[JR]

We are using MVE, My Vision Express. We found OfficeMate support terrible. MVE, has better support but lots of bugs especially in the latest cloud release. I think I would still Recommend MVE over any other software. When we had lots of bugs in the new release I wrote to other emr users everywhere and found out that no one had anything to rave about. To really learn more I started the FaceBook page EMR Terrorism to get input from other users of all sorts of emr software. Most people were hesitant to share openly because they felt like fools having to deal with emr bug issues on a daily basis. However I got a good number of private responses from those who joined and put together and short free story about emr terrorism and the experience of trying to run a busy office while dealing with bugs! If you are curious or want to share, join us.