EMRs

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salami bahama

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I'm curious if anyone feels particularly strong about their EMR. I've looked at Modernizing Medicine, Compulink, Nextech, and NextGen for a small practice needing EMR/PM software for both the clinic and practice management (no optical shop). There are a lot of options, and each EMR has its strengths and weaknesses. Would anyone be willing to comment on what they like and don't like about their EMR? Thank you!

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I am interested as well.

I used Mod Med and hated it. I found it especially annoying as some who likes to write detailed notes.

NextGen is terrible and painfully slow.

iMedicWare is decent, can be nimble in the right hands, but I've heard that their support is terrible, very slow to respond.

Have heard good things about Office Ally.
 
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I use MDI (nextech). Very user friendly, ophtho specific and billing is a breeze. Company is ok but sometimes a bit slow to implement changes. We don’t use their practice management so no experience with that component
 
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I use Mod Med and I like it, but I find myself free texting a lot and ignoring the rich data fields (which I did in other EMRs like EPIC previously). The PM is pretty good
 
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I use MDI (nextech). Very user friendly, ophtho specific and billing is a breeze. Company is ok but sometimes a bit slow to implement changes. We don’t use their practice management so no experience with that component
Pretty much the same experience with Nextech here. Overall happy with it and no regrets going with them when our practice had to decide between various EMRs in 2016.
 
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Not an ophthalmologist (yet, fingers crossed for Feb 1) but I worked as a tech/scribe in an office for 2 years before starting medical school. We used Integrity EMR, which is specifically for eyes, linked with AdvancedMD for practice management. It is a web based platform, so no software was required for back of office or remote access. AdvancedMD required some installations for front of office. Documentation was really straightforward and easily learned by scribes and technicians without prior ophtho experience. It uses a digital printer to upload documents directly for diagnostic machines (we used Cirrus OCT, Zeiss FA, Zeiss Topo, HVF). Billing appears to be straightforward, but it didn't link until after I left for school. The comments I frequently hear when I visit is how much better the system is now that it is integrated. As far as I'm aware, in the past 6 years they have only had 3-4 days of downtime.

I haven't the slightest idea what it cost, but it was a medical retina practice seeing ~60 patients a day.
 
Resurrecting this old thread- can you tell me what you disliked about modmed? My practice is considering it.

Let me give you an example. This is what I have to do for the typical routine fully optimized glaucoma suspect patient on the ipad where I always do a fundus photo and am having return for visual fields.

Click on exam
Click on eye exam
Scroll down and click on search box under OD lens description
Click on copy to OS if applicable
Click on Post Seg
Click on box under OD C/D ratio and select C/d Ratio
Click on box under OS C/D ratio and select C/D ratio
Click Done
Click Overview
Click OK for leaving VE room
Click pancakes button
Click Protocols
Scroll down to glaucoma suspect and click on apply protocol button
Click Save
Click Pancakes button
Click impressions and plan
Click Resume fundus photos
Click ON
Click enlarged c/d ratio OD
Click enlarged c/d ratio OS
Click Done
Click quick impression edit
Scroll down to resume on diagnosis comment
Click on box under comment and type the real impression and plan
Click Done
Click quick impression edit
Scroll down to plan: F/U for next visit and click resume
Scroll down and click on what you want to do next visit
Click save visit note
Click plans
Click follow-up
Click date offset and scroll to select date offset
Click unit and click months
Click on box under other instructions and type what you want them to come back for
Click save visit note

It only gets worse if it's a follow-up or you try to do something different or document a specific exam finding.
 
I ended up going with Nextech, and it's worked out well overall for the past 2 years. The issue I had with ModMed was that it was very click heavy. It takes some effort to set-up templates with Nextech, but between some templates and using a Chrome extension called 'Text Blaze,' I can chart pretty efficiently. I like that Nextech's flow and layout make it easy to chart for straightforward patients quickly, but for more complicated patients, it's relatively easy to put together a more extensive note. Letters back to referring doctors are easy to work with. I like how the imaging review works. I'm happy overall.
 
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Let me give you another example.

I saw a patient for a day 1 postop who I did cataract surgery on the first eye 2 weeks ago.

Click on pancakes (new window)
Click on protocols (new window)
Scroll down to Postop Cataract Day 1 OS and click on apply protocol
Click on waffles (new window)
Click on Impressions/Plans (new window)
Click on close to close quick impression edit
Click on exam
Click on view/import previous (new window)
Scroll down to important postop cataract plan from their 1 week postop and click apply
Click on exam
Click on postop eye exam (new window)
Scroll down and click on postop exam of OD bulbar and palpebral conj to "activate" the conj exam
Scroll down and click on postop exam of the OD slit lamp of the corneas to "activate" the corneal exam
Scroll down and click on the postop exam of the OD a/c iris to "activate" the ac exam
Scroll down and click on the postop exam of the OD lens to "activate" the lens exam
Enter PCIOL well centered into the search button of the OD lens description
Click done (new window)
Click quick impression edit (new window)
Scroll down and click on resume Plan: postop evaluation cataract (new window)
Click on week 1 and click on week 3 to switch from week 1 to week 3
Click on week 1 menu and unclick continue regimen
Click on week 3 menu and click continue regimen
Click done (new window)
 
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