Meditech vs epic in efficiency?

[cyanide12345678]

I read two threads that completely destroyed Meditech as a EMR. Is it really that shi*ty?

Is seeing 2 pph with Meditech really difficult because of the software?

Would you rather see 1.8 pph with meditech or 2.1 pph with epic?

How much more efficient do you feel Epic is compared to Meditech? How many more percent of patients are you able to see using epic compared to using something like meditech?

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[Angry Birds]

Well, the cool thing about Epic is that on the week you launch it you get to put up "Epic Fail" meme posters.

 

[bravotwozero]

EPIC, hands down. It takes a little bit longer to learn, but once you do, it's way more efficient. forget 2.1, I've seen 3.0 pph with EPIC. It's also highly customizable, perhaps too much so. With templates and macros, with dragon dictation, you can finish a chart in seconds.

I think it's cute that a stone age EMR system like meditech is actually being compared to EPIC

 

[cyanide12345678]

EPIC, hands down. It takes a little bit longer to learn, but once you do, it's way more efficient. forget 2.1, I've seen 3.0 pph with EPIC. It's also highly customizable, perhaps too much so. With templates and macros, with dragon dictation, you can finish a chart in seconds.

I think it's cute that a stone age EMR system like meditech is actually being compared to EPIC

I love epic, been a fan since med school. Only comparing because I'm Just curious how much other people are slowed down using something like meditech.

I've personally used Epic and paragon. I cant even begin to explain how crappy paragon is in comparison.

 

[bearstanley]

i thought this was going to be a joke thread. are you serious? i feel like i need a nintendo 64 controller to navigate the menus in meditech. it's a joke.

 

[Millennial ER Doc]

Does Meditech have some C-suites on their payroll in Florida? It's the only place where I see jobs listed w/ Meditech as their EMR.

 

[Millennial ER Doc]

And EPIC >> Cerner.

Now if Cerner could replace their FirstNet ER EMR w/ their inpatient PowerChart EMR, then their might be a comparison

 

[Apollyon]

I was intuitive with Meditech - it was like I had been using it for years, from the first time I touched it. So, for me, I could just whistle right on.

But, just remember - it's not which EMR is the best, but, which one sucks the least.

 

[RustedFox]

i thought this was going to be a joke thread. are you serious? i feel like i need a nintendo 64 controller to navigate the menus in meditech. it's a joke.

N64 is too modern.

 

[BigRedBeta]

Let's put it this way, as recently as 2011, Meditech's "top of the line" was still MS-DOS based and you couldn't use a mouse to navigate it. But god damn was I fast using those arrow buttons to get through menus!

 

[scummie]

Epic, hands down, for sure. It's not perfect by any means, but at least its somewhat functional compared to some of the others.

 

[DrOMG]

One huge advantage to having EPIC in an academic setting is for research purposes. EPIC allows you to query patients based on whatever variables you want to check. Meditech lacks the query feature making retrospective research almost impossible unless you already have the patient identifiers.

 

[cyanide12345678]

So really my question to those who have used both systems. What percentage more patients can you see I'm the same time with epic compared to meditech. I know epic is superior, but how superior in terms of numbers?

 

[Dr.CCM]

I’ve used both.

You don’t need a scribe at all with epic and can see 2 pph easily with meditech alone that would be very difficult.

With a scribe 3 pph on epic is a breeze. Charts can get done easily on shift too

 

[GeneralVeers]

I've used Cerner, Epic, and Meditech. Meditech is incredibly bad, and the fact that it is still considered acceptable to use this kind of interface in 2018 is pathetic. The only good thing about it is that i can enter orders incredibly fast compared with Epic or Cerner.

I generally use Cerner the most these days. My favorite feature is the ability to enter comments in the tracking board for nurse like: "PO Hydrate then DC" or "No narcotics!" without having to track the nurses down and issue these orders. With scribes and macros, it's generally a pretty decent system.

I found Epic had generally too many bells and whistles. I found "dot phrases" to be confusing and too hard to customize.

 

[hundreddaysoff]

Does Meditech have some C-suites on their payroll in Florida? It's the only place where I see jobs listed w/ Meditech as their EMR.

Nah, Meditech is currently part of HCA's default software stack, I imagine because it's so cheap. So MT is used in lots of places. FWIW HCA is trying to replace Meditech w/ some in-house system they're building called PatientKeeper. I do not have high expectations for that new system.

I've used both MT and Epic extensively and Epic wins hands-down, particularly due to dot phrases and the ability to have exam macros and other intelligent defaults. MT has absolutely no macro abilities whatsoever and very few useful keyboard shortcuts so it is liable to give me carpal tunnel syndrome in a few years with all the repetitive clickybox clicking.

Re OP's question, for me it's kind of apples to oranges because as I've mentioned I'm incentivized to chart after shift at my current MT-based job. But I'd guesstimate I could see and chart 2.5pph w/ Epic in the same time as I could see and chart 2pph w/ MT. And I'm a relatively slow and over-charting doctor compared to others in my group.

My first thought on exposure to MT was "whoa, it's an MS-DOS based system that's been around for 30 years? Of course it's gonna be fast!" This first impression was completely incorrect. Despite being ugly as hell, MT is also much slower than Epic, even when you ignore the lack of keyboard shortcuts. It's especially slow when you're trying to navigate from one charting section to another or sign multiple charts. MT's only saving grace is I've never had it crash... but then Epic has only crashed once or twice for me.

 

[RustedFox]

Nah, Meditech is currently part of HCA's default software stack, I imagine because it's so cheap. So MT is used in lots of places. FWIW HCA is trying to replace Meditech w/ some in-house system they're building called PatientKeeper. I do not have high expectations for that new system.

PatientKeeper is only for their inpatient services. We ED folks are still stuck with MediSuck.

 

[namethatsmell]

And EPIC >> Cerner.

Now if Cerner could replace their FirstNet ER EMR w/ their inpatient PowerChart EMR, then their might be a comparison

I use Epic at one shop and FirstNet (Cerner's latest build I think) at another. I find FirstNet way more logical and fast/simple to use. Add in dragon and I'm just as fast as I was with the average scribe. As somebody else stated above, Epic can have too many options for it's own good.

A few EDs ago I had a crappy version of Cerner and it was awful. The version of Cerner matters.

 

[dchristismi]

Indeed the version of Cerner matters. The version of Dragon/M-Modal matters, too. (I hate Dragon 360 and the blasted 2 second pause. Don't know if it's just the hospital or the version, but it's annoying as hell.)

My MT shop has an excellent M-modal dictation system and I have saved "insert" phrases, so I can basically dictate "Insert ROS" and my typical ROS pulls in and I just edit. Same for my PE. But... I have scribes for a good chunk of the busy time which also help the MediSuck.

 

[hundreddaysoff]

PatientKeeper is only for their inpatient services. We ED folks are still stuck with MediSuck.

For now. Word on the street at my shop is HCA wants to throw out MT by 2020 or so and have everyone use PatientKeeper.

 

[hundreddaysoff]

Indeed the version of Cerner matters. The version of Dragon/M-Modal matters, too. (I hate Dragon 360 and the blasted 2 second pause. Don't know if it's just the hospital or the version, but it's annoying as hell.)

My MT shop has an excellent M-modal dictation system and I have saved "insert" phrases, so I can basically dictate "Insert ROS" and my typical ROS pulls in and I just edit. Same for my PE. But... I have scribes for a good chunk of the busy time which also help the MediSuck.

Yeah, we have MModal too and it helps the Medisuck somewhat, but still has limitations. For one, you need microphone access to use MModal macros quickly, and this doesn't work for me at home. In theory MModal lets you use your cell as a microphone, but this never actually worked for me. For two, correction in MModal blows goat chunks and never works at home. Wish HCA would pony up for Dragon...

 

[thegenius]

I would rather stick a toothpick in my eyeball than use Meditech.

 

[RustedFox]

I would rather stick a toothpick in my eyeball than use Meditech.

The M-Modal bit does make it a bit better, but yeah - I agree with the sentiment.
Instead of clickity-click box hell, I just have MicrophoneMacros set up for ROS/PE, and go from there.
The medical director at the HCA site where I work (where we have to cope with MediSuck) brings his own laptop and just "copies/pastes" all his stuff from Word documents into the free text spaces in MediSuck and says "damn the torpedoes". That's how bad MediSuck is.

 

[BigRedBeta]

I found Epic had generally too many bells and whistles. I found "dot phrases" to be confusing and too hard to customize.

Unless your build doesn't allow you to create your own, the dot phrases should be entirely customizable. It'll take a little of time to put them together but totally worth it. I have entire notes built for things like bronchiolitis and asthma that only require me to put in overnight events in the PICU, update the physical exam, put in the amount of critical care time and then I'm done.

 

[plick]

On super busy shifts I can do 3 pph with good documentation on MediTech only with the help of dragon or mmodal. I got used to it and figured out a way that works. Without dictation support though, I can barely do 2pph with writing decent charts. Epic though is still far superior for the reasons stated above. I don't generally like monopolies, but if only Epic can reach a market penetrance of >90% of ED's that would make my work life so much easier, especially with the "CareEverywhere" feature of Epic where you can look up a patient's previous medical records from other hospitals.

However I recently had to use Picis (also known as ibex), and that sucks even more than Meditech.

 

[MechEDoc]

Meditech is a piece of junk. I've used it extensively. My default approach is to open a word document, load a template into it, dictate my entire note into word using Dragon, and then paste it into a free text field on Meditech (in the HPI, etc.). On the upside Meditech is so simple that there are only a few things one can do with it. However it requires excessive manipulation of the interface defined basic information and wastes time.

Epic is vastly superior although far from ideal. One can easily configure templates that bring in only the pertinent information, refresh appropriately, and reduce the need for duplicate documentation (e.g. document the clinical impression one place and have a populate throughout the rest of the medical record). It is much easier to be efficient with epic is fewer redundant steps are required to use the software.

Using an approach of describing a note in word and then pasting into Meditech I've been able to see (evaluate, write and HPI, exam, and orders) upwards of 10 patients in one hour. However that was with a good scribe who wrote a good HPI, research basic recent pertinent medical information, while I perform the history, exam, and enter orders on a separate computer. One can concurrently edit Word documents in a HIPAA compliant manner through Microsoft one drive. I would be editing the physical exam while the scribe was writing the HPI. Understandably, I required significantly more time to sort out the results and disposition the patients. This 10 patient in one hour burst was at the start of a busy shift.

 

[deuist]

The medical director at the HCA site where I work (where we have to cope with MediSuck) brings his own laptop and just "copies/pastes" all his stuff from Word documents into the free text spaces in MediSuck and says "damn the torpedoes".

I'm not sure why he would need to do that. M-Modal can save templates. I just say, "Enter normal physical exam" and my templates gets pasted into the text box.

 

[MechEDoc]

I'm not sure why he would need to do that. M-Modal can save templates. I just say, "Enter normal physical exam" and my templates gets pasted into the text box.

One reason for doing so it is you can have multiple notes open at a given time (in MS Word) and add to it throughout the patient encounter (e.g. dictating a new EKG results, patient repeat evaluations, etc.) without having to reopen each patient chart in Meditech. Meditech usually allows only one chart open per instance of Meditech running at a time. When the entire patient encounters over paste the note into Meditech.