Digichart EMR

Pros

Valdosta Womens Health Center, PC is a busy two-physician practice that was established in 1993. Management decided to implement an EMR in 2005 and a full time Microsoft Certified technician was hired to research and launch the EMR. A server-based EMR was purchased and installed, and chaos resulted. The EMR (Not digiChart) was immature and template-driven, and it had issues revery day that required contacting the vendor for support. The so-called technical support involved submitting a trouble ticket email that took up to 14 days allowed to correct. It took 24 clicks of the mouse for the physicians to sign off on a normal pap smear. Updates were offered at more cost. Our IT guy quit in despair. Management decided to abandon the old EMR and migrate to digiChart in 2007. The migration was painless and quick. We have never looked back. digiChart was designed by OB-GYNs for OB-GYNs, not by computer geeks. It is intuitive. Support personnel are friendly and quick to respond via a telephone call or email. User meetings attended were very helpful. The physicians love digiChart, and two other local OB-GYNs also moved their EMR to digiChart after seeing digiChart in action at the hospital. The antepartum record is instantly recognized nationwide, and several physicians have called our office to ask which EMR we use to produce the ACOG formatted antepartum record. digiChart is not perfect; nothing is. digiChart has grown and experienced growing pains. One episode involved slowness of operation that was challenging, but it's now corrected. You get what you expect, and the providers at VWHC expect digiChart to run smooth and quick - and digiChart meets or exceeds expectations nearly every time.

Cons

Upgrades are tough. But, it appears as though digiChart is following the MU lead, which is a challenge in and of itself

10 years of using Digichart

Support is timely and good. They do close at 4 pm Pacific time so if anything happens after that I have to wait until the next day.

Pros

ACOG flowsheet built in, patient information flows easily from one visit to the next, drag and drop MDM is helpful, good task bar.

Cons

Doesn't keep up with current operating systems. We are two generations behind Windows 10 (using Windows 7 Pro) so for providers who like to use tablets, it is difficult to view the patient information. Also, the patient portal is very poor and needs work.

Quirky software

Don't ever believe anyone who speaks in glowing terms about digiChart. It is cheap and easy to learn, but frequently very annoying to use. I finally got fed up with all the problems with digiChart and switched to Greenway-more expensive and more complicated, but much better. Switching from one EMR to another a real pain, but never regretted. Do not buy digiChart-you will regret it.

Pros

Easy to learn and less expensive that some of the other EMRS. Less input required to finish chart so can work through patients faster

Cons

Frequent crashes; frequently slow to respond, especially mid-afternoon; frequent compatibility issues with updates. Less input means less information available when you recall chart.

Needs Improvement

Updates dont seem to change anything for the better.

Pros

Geared toward ob/Gyn, has all the necessary components for proper documentation. Up to date for ICD-10.

Cons

Frequently freezes/kicks user out. Often has prepopulated answers that neither pt or MD has entered and cannot be removed. Often we enter data in one section and its all erased when you move on to the next section. Always runs slow. Bad user interface on patient portal. Time stamps are not in local time, makes documentation problematic.

Digichart review

too expensive. when the customer support person, the after hours on call person, couldn't be reached because "they need sleep too", I was done with anything good to say about digichart. and that was at 9 pm

Pros

I am familiar with it.

Cons

terrible customer support. slow. i spend half my day watching the little circle spin around and around. kicks me off at least once a day "smart applications has stopped working"........sometimes before it has even STARTED working.