Pharmacy perspective on med/care charting software

The program is cost-effective, especially compared to competition. It is used at a variety of LTC locations through our pharmacies- 5 bed group homes to 100+ bed assisted living facilities. The ECP staff are incredibly helpful and friendly. There has been minimal downtime and countless improvements made since I've been involved with the program.

Pros

Ease of use is the most common praise from LTC facilities. The in-depth care charting tailored for LTC really sets the program apart from other software; its assessment and reporting tools are highly flexible and capable. People like the resident pictures and simple profile setup, and straightforward charting layout and process. Integration with the pharmacy software while not perfect is good and ever-improving. Medication orders go across as expected and reorders and problem submissions to the pharmacy are simple and effective.

Cons

I wish there were more alert features in the website. There's a dashboard in the mobile app, but it would be incredibly useful to have something similar that staff can check for new or updated medication orders pending verification, controlled substance count discrepancies, unified with current available overdue charting views. Startups can be labor-intensive as every medication order has to be verified, but this also gives security against error and flexibility not found in other pharmacy applications.

NEW USER

While we are still newly transitioning, they try to be very flexible in working with us and our schedule.

Pros

We have not gone live yet, but I have had a little experience with ECP in a prior job. I did not get any training at that time, and this software is friendly enough, that I still was able to jump right in and go. Anytime I had questions, I could call customer service and they were available right away and helped me get to where I needed.

Cons

We are still in the integration phase. I wish we could have someone in person helping us through the initiation phase and not remotely. I do not like that the 'classification' for medications is just to help trigger rules. There really should be a true Drug Classification. The Drug Info link also is difficult to find the drug class. This is how the CBRF Med Administration course teaches, based off of drug classes, as well as nursing. Pharmacology is split into drug classes because indications for meds can be variable, the drug class tells you how the drug will affect your body. I really wish this was on there.

Excellent for non-skilled personal to use yet still versatile for skilled nursing

Very good. Customer service is the best.

Pros

The versatility and customizable abilities for each community.

Cons

Minor work flow challenges that don’t seem intuitive.

ECP

Overall I have had all good experiences with ECP. It has made my world as Administrator much easier. The ECP team when you call the office are nothing but friendly and will work to help you solve your issues. I never feel rushed and to me that is important to learn things slowly

Pros

I come from old school where everything was hand written and kept in resident charts. This is so much easier and neater, easy to find history on anything I am looking for without having to dig through years of files. I am able to monitor how the residents are daily, I can monitor medication passes to make sure things are being done.

Cons

There is really nothing that I dont like, I just think there is so much I dont understand and could really use some training on things to better utilize all areas. One area I would really like to learn is using ECP for ISP's. Right now i had write all of them

ECP-Easy to train...easy to use

Pros

If you can browse the internet or shop online, you can use ECP. It is easy to teach staff how to use, it is user friendly to customize, pharmacy integration saves valuable nursing time, customer service is excellent. We have been very happy with ECP overall.

Cons

The program is not always stable while using a Chromebook. The demand causes the computer to freeze and require restarting.

A Spectacular Product that Meets Multiple Needs

As an owner / administrator of four communities and as a consultant to new and current small AL providers, I highly recommend ECP without reservation.

Pros

ECP allows us flexibility through customization options. It is simple to learn as an Administrator of the whole program or as a new caregiver learning electronic documentation for the first time. Easy to retrieve information - which proved itself invaluable during a state survey. Local physicians and EMS personnel comment about our professionalism in presenting data to them - which is also very simple to produce quickly. The ECP developers really listen to end users and have implemented the ideas offered to them and are constantly improving and growing the capabilities. We have reduced med errors and med follow up problems and have been able to attain compliance with documentation issues and can give direct care staff clear, concise directives right in front of them. I can easily retrieve data whenever and wherever I may be which keeps everyone on their toes! It's very cost effective.

Cons

Any "con" I ever experienced was addressed and resolved with "live" people helping me through!

Great Customer Service

Love being able to monitor remotely. Being able to have the information at your fingertips and be able to run reports is great.

Pros

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Cons

Wish all webinars were on website for users to watch.

Easy to learn, intuitively designed and is very customize-able.

Pros

I like how easy it is for new staff to learn because of how intuitive the display is. I also like how good customer support is at getting back with a solution or in creating new features that are being asked for. The software integrates wonderfully with the pharmacy that our community uses. Needed information and data is easy to access with all of the options for creating reports. The pictures of residents on the screen is great and the optional use of letters/colored borders to signify different things about the resident is a great way to see a lot at first glance. Consequently the ability to quickly put the screen into or out of a discreet mode is great as well.

Cons

Web-based is great but when the network goes down it is challenging as we rely on ECP a lot.

Great customer service

I have had very good customer service experience with ECP. They will answer any question and tackle any problem.

Pros

The ease of use is great. So is the ease of using off sight.

Cons

I wish we could do a resident report with pictures

ECP is "User Friendly"

This is a very good, user-friendly and affordable product that has great value for the cost and good customer support. The software continues to improve and be updated per what we were promised. This is our 3rd. software in 3 years and is by far the best and a keeper.

Pros

-Very user-friendly -Exceptionally customizeable -Good customer service -Levels for types of users helps to make it easier to train on (there is not a lot of extra stuff that makes it confusing) -Interfaces well with our pharmacy's software.

Cons

-The customization process can feel daunting but is worth investing time into. -Would be nice to have some sort of apartment tracking module (future update I'm sure : ).

User friendly and customizable.

We use ECP for our EHR, our EMAR and most of our clinical applications across our 11 large Assisted Living/Memory Care communities. They are so good to work with and their customer support is extraordinary. I email about once a month over something or other which is usually an upgrade in the software.

Pros

I like that I can customize assessments for the team. ECP offers assessments for most states that are state required (like in Utah) for Assisted Living. Most of the team can teach themselves the software really easily. It is very user friendly.

Cons

Every software has it's limitations and there are a few things that are a little wonky with ECP. I wish there was a way in the assessment that you could say if you select yes to an option, it opens up more of an assessment but if you say no it doesn't show up. Its a small thing. I anticipate this is an option ECP would develop someday. However, ECP is so good to work with that if this was something that was absolutely needed, they would make it happen.

Questions and Behavior Cares.

All resident information and medications in on place is very helpful. Being able to access ECP when not in the building (on-call etc.) is extremely beneficial. I like having contact information in there as well. If there was a way to indicate when a resident is on home health vs hospice that would be helpful

Pros

All documentation for all residents easily accessible.

Cons

Some features are not as user friendly as I would like. The Behavior Management Plan has to be typed into both locations on the form. The Questions work around is better than initially set up, but if you have to edit an existing question it has to be deleted and reentered as a new item so a little cumbersome there. Also have to type in the questions again so that is 3 times entering the information. Streamlining that would be helpful.

Multi-Building Usage

I would recommend it for any company. It is really nice for multi-building properties that share management teams. Management has an easier time keeping up to date on items, rather than having to go building to building to read nursing notes and get updates.

Pros

Easy for all staff levels to use. Easy access to all buildings from one log in. Ability to create all forms on program and reduce paper usage. Fast/Easy way to update care plans and ensure staff are knowledgeable about every change in condition. Report Generators take make it easy to see patterns.

Cons

Set up time. Unable to upload state required forms, so we do them on paper then upload them into files on ECP.

Director of Operations

Overall, I am very happy with ECP. There are things that I'd like to see different but everyone probably has their own ideas of how things should be in a program. In general though, when an idea is brought forward, ECP does a good job of implementing when it is small. Larger projects take more time but this could be lack of available team members to implement new parts of the program. I would and do recommend ECP when others ask what we use as a program.

Pros

Always looking for better ideas and features. Like that it is always improving.

Cons

Report features are not very user friendly. Would like to see more ability to create own reports from system.

Feedback for [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN]

Pros

The ease of use and the ability to catch mistakes.

Cons

Nothing we've noticed so far but it's a new program to us

Great Product

Pros

I love the ease and convenience of the product.

Cons

Trying to remember all the steps without having to go back to the training module

Made life easier

Overall I am very pleased with ECP I would recommend it to other companies.

Pros

Very easy to use, made many job duties quicker, freed up staff time so they can spend more time with the residents, easier to reorder meds, easier to track resident vitals

Cons

Care plan is a little tough to transition to, had some minor issues with linking to the pharmacy, still waiting on the employee schedule section of ecp to be up and running

Review

HIghly recommend for any asssited living facility. Allows administators to monitor what is happening in their facilities at any level, from documentation, ISP's to medication administration and narcotic counts.

Pros

Easy to use and understand. Decrease in staff charting time. Increased accountability for staff performing tasks and med administration.

Cons

Would like to be able to print all POS with one funtion.

ECP RECOMMENDATION

Highly remommend ECP

Pros

Easy access to information Web based and can access from home the use of reports Medication identification Pharmaceutical link accountability check and balances

Cons

intrnet outage