Perfect for our Vision therapy Office

Pros

I love how you can record each session you have with a patient and easily see the previous sessions to compare how they have improved. Also it allows our doctor to go through our notes and see how the patients are doing. The Calendar works great! There is a place to put the schedule of each vision therapist so we can see everyones schedule at once. Helps plan who has an opening and if we need to more patients around.

Cons

There has been a slight glitch when the doctor and one of the vision therapist are in the same patient's file the notes of the doctor will not be saved. This only happen a few times tho. Overall great management system!

Crystal EMR

I can finish exams faster by using the preset templates instead of having to write the same similar plans and treatments for each patient all day

Pros

Simple to use. Customizable to allow easy access to the most important data

Cons

Too many pages and clicks to complete 1 exam

Great for PM, not so great for accounting

Pros

It is easy to use and works well for front office. It allows you to show patients their test results quickly and makes scheduling for various doctors easy and well organized.

Cons

The area for inventory is rather burdensome and there are some issues which, if addressed, could make it a smoother operation.

Crystal PM

The best part is there is no cost for machine integration into Crystal PM.

Pros

A customizable software for electronic health records. Whether you have a vision therapy practice or contact specialty practice or both, you can customize the Crystal PM EHR software to your specific needs. You have the option of starting your own exam record template from scratch or building upon and copying someones exam template. Adding or deleting certain parts of an examination record template is easy to do on Crystal PM.

Cons

Because it's so customizable to design your examination record template, the process to design, organize, and adjust your examination record template can take some time especially starting from scratch.

Efficient way to chart

I do like the organization and the fill in the box method of charting. It makes my exams more efficient so I have more face to face time with my patients.

Pros

Scheduling patients is easy and the schedule is nicely color coded and easily readable. I love how the shortcuts makes charting (auto fill, previous exam notes) efficient. The tabs for different part of the exam is organized and grouped well.

Cons

They do not have a way for me to print out a comprehensive exam summary. I currently have to manually print out each tab which is time consuming or I just write it out manually.

Helping the Practice

I would say positive, I can work patients up quickly

Pros

I think Crystal PM helps us to be concise and accurate when working up a patient. The layout is user friendly

Cons

The billing portion of the software can be a little confusing. You can make errors because of the layout

Crystal Practice Management was one of the best choices when we switched.

Pros

They made the transaction really easy for us and they were there for us every step of the way. Not to mention they are paired with a lot of other side companies.

Cons

Our billing is still a little confusing but still better than what it was.

Nice program for all office needs

Pros

It's great and easy to use for scheduling appointments, patient data management, and inventory control!

Cons

I really don't like how it's incompatible with Apple products.

User friendly.

Pros

Easy to enter lab orders, our opticians love CPM. Also scheduling appointments is easier than other EHRs, it will link the guarantors' information, including insurance to another patients record.

Cons

Only one optician can work on entering inventory , for one manufacturer. We wish the "waitlist" , "Current room list"and the "Close" tabs were farther apart on the screen.

Crystal EHR

Overall the system was nice but I would rather invest in a system that has more updated features. Crystal requires a lot of updating.

Pros

The record management is user friendly and appealing to the common user. It was easy to navigate and customize.

Cons

The program lacks some of the more appealing features of newer electronic healthcare systems such as single screen layouts.

I love this program

This program a must for our office. we have been using it for years and couldn't do without it. We rely heavily on this o do our scheduling, billing, etc.

Pros

the ability to update every so often and bring n\more to the table!

Cons

None!

Wish we would have switched a couple of years ago!

Everyone with Crystal Practice Management we have dealt with is more than helpful. We are thrilled to have moved over from a very glitchy and not user friendly program.

Pros

The program is completely customizable. If you take the time to work on what is best for your practice, the ease of use is incredible. Tech support is very prompt and patient with questions. If you ask for something out of the ordinary, most likely your request can be accomodated.

Crystal Practice Management is the only software we use in our optometrist office and we love it!

Pros

Crystal PM is very user friendly. It is easy to input data (patient information, prescriptions, billing, etc).

Cons

I wish it had a more updated and modern look to it, but that is probably the only thing I would consider to be a con.

Great overall, optometrists will benefit from this once they realize how to use it!

owners and staff are helpful and try to make the system work to our liking!

Pros

copied over old data well ease of use can edit exams

Cons

needs more staff trained in Canadian health care to amend the program

Easy to Use

This program is AWESOME!

Pros

The software is easy to use, highly customizable, simple, and very versitile. Customized letters are easy to generate. Scheduling can include billing info that can be pulled into a routing slip and previous diagnoses can be pulled forward to new routing slips as well. Recurring appts are an excellent feature as well. This software is an excellent program for general practices and specialty optometry practices that have unique testing needs.

Cons

The software doesn't have timeclock calulations for employees that work on an hourly wage base, but I don't know how many software programs even offer that feature anyway.

Switching Softwares

The representative who led our demo and has been our main contact point, was helpful, available, and knowledgeable! Thank you!

Pros

This is the most optometry-friendly software our office demoed out of five other softwares. It was the only one to please our optical, medical, front desk, and billing department. The doctors were pleased with how customizable all of the features were, and the front desk/billing department were happy with how seamless having the cloud based system was. 5/5!

Cons

Our office is still evaluating if now is the time to switch systems and if the cost will be worth it.

You are now about to enter 'The Twilight Zone'

Inconsolably Catastrophic.

Pros

Not one thing. Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Does that meet your 40 character minimum?

Cons

That I chose it. Wish I never got it. Utterly devastating to lose it all.

Customer service declining

We started up with CPM in June of 2011. One of the deciding factors was the reviews online showed a strong customer service. They were very helpful in the start up, yes this software is very customizable, in fact you have to create all of your forms and they did help with the process. Unfortunately over the past couple of years we have found that you are no longer able to reach anyone in customer service, you always have to leave a message and wait to be called back. When they do call back, you are treated as if you are a nuisance, never helpful and usually very condescending. Another frustrating feature with Crystal is when they have an update they never inform you as to what the improvement is or even how to implement it, you will find a brief and abbreviated log listing the changes with absolutely no descriptions. Training is not a priority. Buyer beware, if you are very tech savvy you may be fine with crystal, if you need training and a complete program (predesigned) you may want to avoid this one.

If you are looking for software, you are crazy if you don't consider Crystal!

I have used 5 different software programs through the years. Crystal is by far the easiest to used and to customize layouts. Help is always available. Yes, they sometime have to call back, but they always do so quickly. Help has always been courteous and they quickly solve my problems. It is the most reliable system. Previous software from other companies always seems to have glitches. It is also a great value.