Netsmart myAvatar Suite Software

Netsmart Avatar COULD be a good program if only the folks at Netsmart would make it more stable.

Pros

once learned, you can enjoy a couple months of stability in your work day. you can take donut breaks when it crashes.

Cons

it crashes. gives you cryptic error messages (before it crashes). it won't let you log on. Netsmart seems to be building in problems that the city will then pay to keep the platform running.

Pros

This product is made available through our Behavioral Health Organization at no cost to providers until year 2020.

Cons

Clunky, need next generation options, SUD assessment requires cut and paste from Word processing as the fields do not align with ASAM criteria.

Robust feature set makes it very flexible solution

Pros

The feature sets are nice. They provide both outpatient and inpatient features. They offer the ability to customize exiating forms or create your own.

Cons

The solution is java based and can be slow. Could require a lot of maintenance by IT staff if not in a Citrix type emvironment.

Pros

The home viewing screen is use friendly, When the user sees the screen for the first time, It it makes you comfortable for training, simplistic as opening up a paper chart.

Cons

There is so much you can do with it (The Program) some companies who are afraid of electronic charting don't utilize all the functions that it can do that can make the job even easier.

Time is money in Psychiatry as in everything else. This product slows one down seriously.
Everything has to be typed in every time, or has to be manual ' copy and paste ' to 'progress note' site brought in from ' print medical records' 'a slow or I should say very slow process. When you come back to 'progress note' you have to punch in patient name again.
In as much as I know, there is no way to build automatic templates, unless you copy and paste from Microsoft word, which is a process itself for one's gotten used to apple products.
There is also no way to automatically build up on already existing date such as identifying info, social hist., past history, etc unless you transfer the whole previous note and then comb thru each line. Many systems like ' epic 'allow you to update easily to old notes.
The system is old, with no major improvements except one to ' my avatar'.Somehow it has managed to dominate mental health field.
Recommendations--
At the very least build one button templates for different kind of notes psychiatrists write which are just a few anyways.

Likes Best

The software can be customized to meet state and federal requirements. Avatar has the capability to allow individual users to change screen requirements to meet their daily workflow needs and screen shots. Avatar has a forms format that is compartmentalized keeping data protected from view of client or staff that is not authorized for medical history( i.e. receptionist does not view prescriptions and social history). Screens can be adjusted for color blindness, poor vision and put in an work flow order. Customer support was professional and were often able to make corrections with in the day.

Likes Least

The issues we have experienced is some documentation not being put on the server. Difficulty with learning to navigating to find the needed forms. A document may be listed by abbreviation in the creation of document but when looking in the clients clinical record it may be listed differently in two areas, such as to edit or to read current information with different titles. This lead to lots of confusion when the users tried to explain to the IT department which form was not working. There is also a lot of unnecessary repetitive drop downs such as type of note, when it was in schedule and 3 places on the document. Avatar is difficult to have multiscreen shots to see a completed note when following up with a current service. The timers for informing clinicians of upcoming work need improvement this lead to a lot of unbillable services.

Recommendations

The error screens have a place for the user to update IT and many clinicians were able to pull up the document they were working on when restarting the system if they knew that the error occurred.

Likes Best

It is 'robust'. That is to say that if you have the resources to have IT staff dedicated to customizing this product it is very configurable and can house and product data reports to a great extent.

Likes Least

The software is a beast; not supportable in house by people that are not IT brainiacs. Of equal importance is that the Netsmart business model is not financially unsustainable for any operation other than a state or large hospital system, Everything is a separate module, not well integrated either and each have separate implementation, annual user and annual licensing costs. On top of all of this it is not user friendly or intuitive for staff at ALL!

Recommendations

Stay away! Stay far away! This product is over priced, not user friendly and once you have sunk hundreds of thousands into it, you are stuck.

Likes Best

Nothing at all, this product literally has no redeeming qualities.

Likes Least

Completely ridiculous formatting that requires an extraordinary number of extraneous keystrokes to enter even basic information.

Recommendations

Stay away at all costs. Do a google search about the Avatar program and check out the NYT times article about the experience of San Francisco using this software. My experience has been even worse than what was described in the article.

We are a behavioral health company serving all ages. We implemented Avatar in 2009, and upgraded to myAvatar six months ago. The upgrade was very simple and fast (approximately 5 hours), and no problems occurred. They provided a manual for the staff that showed the difference between Avatar and myAvatar, and no other training was required.

We weren’t just looking for the right software product, we were looking for the right
partner. We replaced components of our legacy back end practice management software with MyAvatar’s Practice Management (PM) and Clinical Workstation (CWS) solutions; also modules like MobileConnect, which allows its more than 200 clinicians to take and submit electronic notes securely from the field without having to come to the office. It’s gotten rave reviews from the staff. Netsmart is constantly improving their product and has made it possible for us to move forward and successfully receive "Meaningful Use" stimulus dollars to help pay for our EHR initiatives. They are a very good vendor partner for Henderson.