Andrew_Doan said:
This was posted on the AAO Forums. If anyone has experience with this software, then please give your input. Thanks!
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We are a 5 location 6 MD, 3 OD practice in upstate New York. We are stongly considering going with Compulink for practice management and EMR. We have ruled out Nextgen and Medent, but would like some feedback from MD's who are presently using Compulink (8.0) and what you feel are the pro's and con's of their service.
http://www.aao.org/Forums_final/Clinical_Challenges/index.cfm?frmid=3&tpcid=58
Compulink has had good reviews in the practices that I have worked in. I've also reviewed several packages as part of my journalistic endeavors for Boucher Communications.
I would like to comment overall, though, on the architectural landscape of PMS (practice management software) and EMR/CPR (electronic medical record/computerized patient records)
1. "fat client" vs. browser-based - In the next iteration of medical practice, you will have multiple geographical sites. While fat clients works well in a local setting (or one physical location), it becomes unwieldy in a multi-site environment.
2. Fat clients are difficult to administer. Because of their footprint, there is no centralized or simple way to roll out updates. Someone has to visit each individual machine to upgrade. You may "centrally" push out the upgrades, but this presumes that all PC workstations are identical in configuration.
3. Fat clients require horsepower. I would recommend over 1GHz with at least 512MB or greater in RAM. I would also recommend at least 20GB of "free" continguous space for these clients. XP Professional SP2 recommended! No Win 98/98SE/ME junk. No Win NT junk. Win 2000 Professional SP4 probably is safe.
4. Interface Issues. In the future, communicaiton with some health system's HIS (Heatlh Information Systems) may be required. Is your vendor HL7 fluent and capable. Do they understand ADT (admission/discharge/transfer) agents and software.
5. Can the system accommodate digital dictation, front end and back voice dictation, and digital transcription with automated report distribution.
6. Look at the number of visits per provider per week. At some point, are the providers amenable to "change"?
Finally, Compulink is one of the stronger vendors out there. Their ophthalmology package is good. The front desk staff who have worked with it are happy. The backend EMR is a new component, I think, of their complete PMS/EMR strategy.
Interestingly, few large vendors in the EMR / PMS market such as HBOC, Siemens, EPIC have difficulty integrating EMR and PMS smoothly themselves. It would be interesting to see if a small vendor such as Compulink or for that matter any others in this marketspace can likewise integrate the two components easily and efficiently.
IMHO of course,
Richard
