Robust Software

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.

Nursing Perspective

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.

Avoid Avatar

Without question the worst EMR I have ever used. Time consuming, clunky, inefficient, and extremely frustrating. Our system is actively seeking a replacement and it cannot come soon enough.

Pros

Avatar has a wide variety of features, but the steps involved to complete even simple tasks and the incredibly cumbersome and counter-intuitive interface makes the whole experience a nightmare.

Cons

Absolutely awful program--trying to enter a simple medication order requires a dozen steps, poorly designed options, and navigating to multiple screens. Labs are difficult to find. There is no way to cut and paste a note within the program--it has to be accessed as a PDF, saved and converted to an editable Word RDF document, and then reformatted into Word, edited, and then cut and pasted back into Avatar. The examples are endless. . .and you want to use Word for notes, as the program crashes with depressing regularity.

No support

Used to be good now it's poor

Pros

When we purchased it, it was very good but now not so much

Cons

Cost, no support from Netsmart, not able to make font size adjustment so you can read the home page. Many other fields that can't be changed

Designer clearly never worked in the field

I can't imagine why anyone would want to buy it.

Pros

???? Cool name? I can't think of anything this program does that is not better provided by other software.

Cons

The 72 hour deadline ensures that most people are putting in poorly witten and spelled garbage, because in real life emergencies happen and you can't always plan enough time for documentation on a giver day. The program is unwieldy to use: there is no way to set defaults to save time or enter multiple notes on one client without have to search the client, and enter all the same information again. You can't easily correct or add to a note once submitted. It's not user friendly- the software is sloppy. It is very difficult to find anything once you have put it in unless you know who entered it and the exact date. For the first time in over 30 years in the field, I almost never check notes , because it is no difficult to find anything. More than half of the note that comes up is repetitiuos garbage in tiny print, if you do make the effort, so it is hard to find the info that was input. If you enter anythingincorrectly in the calendar, you lose all the data and have to start over. In some reports you have to enter your last name and first initial, on others you get an error message if you enter your first initial. Some common client names are glitchy and do not come up when you search, so you have to look up their record number.