AN EMR DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR BEHAVIORAL HEALTH THAT DOES EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO PRACTICE.

We have been using the ICANotes program for 4 yrs. The customer service has been exceptional and courteous. They offer webinars and training for all aspects of the program and include tutorials on their website which is great when hiring new staff. ICANotes has assisted us with issues and accommodated our needs when modifications/adjustments were requested to suit our practice needs. The team at ICANotes has responded and implemented several options we suggested to improve our service delivery to clients. In addition, ICANotes has added many features to the program to meet the growing demands in the field of behavioral health. I love the fact this EMR was created by Dr. Richard Morgenstern, a psychiatrist. This program was specifically designed for behavioral health and not a modified version or altered from a medical model template. It is also a plus that one of the offices of ICANotes is within 30 min from our agency. Their staff was available to visit us and provide support when we opened in 2012. I have seen this company grow rapidly in 4yrs. since using this program which as benefited us in our growth as well. I gave ICANotes for every category primarily because it is well deserved for their hard work in keeping up with integration and the ever changing guidelines with coding, billing, and documentation etc., in behavioral health, which has made my life so much easier with running my business. However, the I gave for the value of money is a double edged sword.....And in no way do I want this to reflect as a negative connotation to the program. The rating is not entirely due to the cost of ICANotes program but also includes regulation guidelines set forth by many Insurance providers. The reimbursement rates set by insurance providers are not increasing at a rate they should be to providing services in behavioral health field. An increase in rates would tremendously help offset the additional costs accrued for agency's to remain in compliance with state, federal and local regulations thus, allowing agencies to add additional features that could really benefit service delivery. **Just an idea.......maybe to see some type of incentive programs offered to exist ICANotes customers who are growing and continue to add clinicians and features to their ICANotes program. That would be great. All in all, this is a phenomenal program, and I would highly recommend it to all behavioral health clinicians and practices.

Pros

The program does everything we need. All tasks can be completed with the features encompassed in the program.

Cons

Minor issues......
1- I find the appointment book is extremely slow. I was told it would improve several months back but, the staff reports this most often and is the most reported issue that becomes time-consuming for staff scheduling and is frustrating for clients waiting on the phone.
2- Populating the Treatment Plan - when completing a follow-up treatment plan it populates every treatment plan into the new one created. This becomes costly if you have a client for 3 years +
Ex. A treatment plan every 6 months for 3 years and an average of 4-5 pages per plan x 6 treatment plans printed for a client, the last treatment plan cumulates to 30 pages. It doesn't allow the plan to start over with a fresh slate for a new treatment plan without including the old ones as well. (Unless I haven't figured it out, which may be the case) :)

Finally, an EMR worth discovering!

I have been working within ICANotes for approximately 2 years, having transitioned from two different EMR systems. Overall, I have found ICANotes to afford a much broader spectrum of clinical flexibility for progress notes and new assessments. Care procedures, symptoms, medications, and historical data are all-inclusive and well organized for ease of use, which is vital for a fast-paced environment such as the one I work in. My particular job involves scribing for psychiatrists during back to back assessments for an acute psychiatric care hospital. This involves obtaining important historical data, current client concerns, daily medication changes, progress, and treatment plan options, all which have to be captured as quickly as possible as client is seated in assessment room. Having such an organized system helps me maintain an accurate and quick speed, which is crucial to my work. This is the first program I have used that caters to this need.

Pros

I appreciate the ability to build algorithms, to quicken my pace, and ICANotes affords me this ability. The various chart screens are easy to maneuver and contain clear and thorough guideline categories that require just a click of a button to incorporate into the notes. The medication areas are user-friendly and contain a broad selection of medications to choose from. At each chart front page, it is easy to see allergies and medical concerns in one glance, which promotes safety and easy recall to providers, when necessary.

Cons

A primary concern has been connectivity continuity. Our office has had to switch to a web based launch, as opposed to remote log-in, due to considerable interruptions and stalls, which were were very time consuming and frustrating, given the pace that my work requires to be maintained. However, the connection options we have now are much improved, overall. For the purpose of creating a tidy note, I also would prefer that categories to be left-align in each section so that the headers would not appear to be floating in the middle of the page. This may seem like a small thing, but, when creating over 30 notes a day and spending time left-aligning each category of use, this can be a time hindrance.

ICANOTES REVIEW

Overall I would give ICANOTES high marks for ease of use and customizability .ICANOTES operates much faster than I expected even though the computing is done in the cloud. I had feared it would be like Allscripts prescribing system which is quirky and slow. I anticipate that using ICANOTES will allow me to go fully paperless within a year.

Pros

I have found it very easy to use and learn very quickly. I was able to complete almost all my notes during visits with patients by the second day of use. I also found that typing personalized information was actually easier than handwriting notes .As I see a fair number of Workmans Comp patients it insures legibility and makes for a more refined note which has to be submitted with claims. I have not yet used the customizable buttons yet (I've only been at this one week) but expect that using them will make my notes seem more like what I naturally write. I also like the ability to upload documents into patient charts. I had been exploring the possibility of moving to electronic records a number of years ago and kept coming back to ICANOTES. I had not pursued till now because I expected the learning curve to be steep and long. That has not been the case and I wish I had done this years go.

Using DrFirst prescribing system with ICANOTES is a plus as it is integrated and quick.

Cons

It was a little difficult to be able to upload patient data - not because of ICANOTES but because other systems do not setup data to enable conversion to excel or csv files (Therapist Helper, for example). I also found that prescribing systems do not share information either (Allscripts). I fortunately did have enough data from my scheduling program(Scheduleview) to get the baics put in. I was getting a little panicked at the thought of having 700 patients entered manually. The scheduling program in ICANOTES is a little underpowered as I would like to see it have the capacity to send out reminders which I understand is being investigated.

Yes to Icanotes

I have been using Icanotes since 2012 and do not regret the decision to go with Icanotes. I had researched numerous EHR's and found this one to be most affordable and customizable. There have been little problems along the way, but support has been right on top of correcting any problems. It also is a do it all EHR, including progress notes, billing, patient portal, etc. I highly recommend it.

Pros

It is easy to learn to use. First day I used it, I was able to keep up with notes throughout day. E prescribing is integrated with Dr. First which makes for easy record keeping and taking care of renewals. Icanotes is also customizable by creating buttons which will insert appropriate language where needed.

Cons

Initially, there were some quirky things about navigating , which have since been corrected.

Best EHR for the mental health professional!

I believe ICANotes represents the best value in EHR for the small two medium-sized mental health practice. No other system offered is as well tailored to providing the type of medical charts kept by mental health professionals. The vast majority of EHR systems on the market were designed for standard medical practices geared towards labs/procedures/meds and are ill-suited to the needs of the mental health professional.

Pros

Built from the ground up for psychiatry needs, and quite customizable. Allows the quick creation of patients notes without the need for much typing. Integrates EHR with billing and calendaring to provide a complete solution for individual providers or small to medium practices.

Cons

Visual interface is dated, some tasks take many clicks to accomplish. However, both of these are being worked on by the company.

Software blessing!

Since I am an individual in private practice, I cannot speak for how well this works for groups. Yet, I can tell you it is a Godsend for myself and my billing agent, who is also registered on my account and can simply look at the appointment schedule for the week, see who came in, and go do the billing for those sessions. We no longer have to make time to meet, dragging along files and flash drives. I love that it takes only 5-20 (max) minutes to document anything, from initial evalutation to routine follow-up sessions. I certainly do recommend this software for any therapist who would enjoy appropriate documentation without reinventing complete notes from scratch after each session. At professional meetings I share with colleagues routinely about this software. My mentor, now retired, exclaimed (while sitting at my side, observing the ease and speed of utilization), "Where was THIS when I was in practice?!?"

Pros

I shopped for months to find an affordable and adequate program to assist me with keeping my documentation up to date. When I found ICANotes I was very pleasantly surprised to find it has exceeded my initial expecations. Once I got caught up with documentation, I found it takes only minutes to document after each session, adding the individual's unique comments and my observations easily to the appropriate sections allowed in the format. So easy to edit, save and print. I am a very grateful therapist!

Cons

Since I am one who does not enjoy reading manuals, I was happy to learn from videos provided by ICANotes. However, I would have preferred to have just "explored" the software and figured it out, I did sit through a few hours of video training to discover how to do what I needed to do. (I must admit I am happy to have those videos available for swift research, when needed.)

One the best EHRs I have ever used including the "big names".

Simply the best customer service of any company I have had the pleasure of working with. Throughout the whole company everyone is constantly working to accomplish some not so simple things (well as I see anyway) and this is to work for the providers to meet all the requirements of federal, state and private insurance sources while accomplishing meaningful use standards to get the provider paid appropriately for the level of services medically needed at all levels of Mental Health Service. Some companies just talk, not this one. They are always there when I need them and I have been with them for 4 years. Now I am just one provider but so far as I can see this company ICA NOTES could handle all you needs no matter how large. Michael Southern Board Certified Psychiatric APRN Garden City, Kansas. elementsofchangemsouthern@gmail.com.

Pros

So many things but the biggest pro for me as an individual provider is not having to type and still reach the highest medically correct billing. The ability to auto post payments from the clearinghouse right into ICA Notes is worth gold to me.

Cons

The only con to this program is it does yet have the ability to let customers self schedule or reschedule but I think this may be in the works.

Very Basic Program , could be great but needs to be updated

It is easy to use and easy to train new employees to use it.

Pros

Overall it is simple to train new Mental health techs for our Mental health rehab ( community based services) It is easy to access from the field, but clicking is difficult because of the way you must click when using it on a tablet or smart phone. The system is relatively easy to use for those new to the industry. It is less expensive than many of the other integrated programs, BUT once you realize you now pay for the ehr/billing program and now you are gettiing a seperate bill for the clearing house and you are having to pay a monthly fee for each mental health tech and each licensed person both to icn and to a clearinghouse, it is suddenly much more expensive than using a high end integrated service.

Cons

The billing software is a horrible, with repeated problems and errors, very limited audit trail, very limited ability to speak with the best clearing houses, relegated to smaller, less advanced clearing houses, lots of lag, slow at times, notes that are saved disappear, lots of weird glitches that tech support has no clue on how to resolve the issues. It is too busy to look at, if you are dealing with it all day long, it is fussy and cluttered. The report system both on the ehr side and the billing side are weak at best. There are many reports that we used in our previous software that are not available, There is no end of day processing and end of day report available. It is built on an old coding platform and needs to be modernized, it could be the best in the industry, it does a lot of basic things right.. Uploading files and downloading files or reports is not easy, you have to log into a different website, which is again time consuming if you are attempting to run reports, export them into excel etc, it cant be done on the main website, you run the report, then rather than just export it, you have to click export then go log on to a different website to retrieve it. It needs more integration. Everything feels like it was added on and just hanging on in piecemeal fashion to the original ehr.. the ehr is solid, good and great to use. I wish it was abit more flexible where you could add fields or have a form uploaded and then be usable in the system

Great product overall!

Our office began using this software 3 years ago when we first opened and ICANotes has been great ever since. The support team is excellent and they are always updating to make new features and improve user experience. If ever there were questions, they were quick to answer all of them. Impressed with the software. It was easy to use for everyone from new employees to seasoned veterans, young and aged. :) Only improvement I would make is to the calendar, but I know they are working on that. :) Great product, highly recommend.

Pros

Ease of note completion, preset prompts and questions for notes and assessments, e-prescribing, support team