IT Program/Project Manager

In 2006, a 3rd party integrator (no longer in business) sold NextGen to our organization and since this was their first time installing it, the installation and configuration was barely implemented. To mitigate, in 2011, additional Practice Management training from NextGen and EHR Training/template development resources from Ciscon were engaged to review billing processes and create clinical workflows. Thanks to NextGen/Ciscon, we were able to launch the EHR in 2013. Since then, they have helped us make significant improvements to the clinical workflow (customizing templates) and billing processing. In 2016, the NextGen reports allowed us to start receiving CMS Meaningful Use/ACI incentive funds.

Pros

1. Highly configurable...an organization can develop/program/configure any template or drop-down list box to tailor it to their clinical staff!

2. Software includes everything a clinic/hospital needs...and with NextGen's MirthConnect product, any interface or integration to another system is possible and easy! Besides the EHR and Practice Management, NextGen provides a Patient Portal, ePrescribe capability, Rosetta and MirthConnect (allowing interfaces to any system like LabCorp, Quest, Immunization Registries.), and much more!

3. NextGen Support is awesome...and if there is a new staff member, just request Tier 2 or Tier 3 support techs so your challenges are addressed quickly by experts in every area of the product!

4. NextGen Training is helpful from knowledgeable and experienced staff who have worked in clinical and front office environments. For any upgrades or projects, or if you are brand new, leverage the advanced trainers for additional training for staff and learning how to utilize/configure the system by having them review your configuration.

5. NextGen Development and NextGen 3rd Party Integrators (like Ciscon) are amazing to work with...If you don't have time to develop templates or learn, contact them to obtain a quote. I have been most impressed with support team at Ciscon! They have been able to streamline Provider templates and save tons of clicks so the Providers just adore and appreciate the efforts! They were also able to train all the clinical staff on the new workflows.

Cons

Like any EHR (vs a paper chart), there are lots of clicks for the clinical staff members.
In addition, the graphical user interface was so new to staff, this caused delays in the encounters.
(To mitigate, we spent time, money, and effort on training users as well as building customized templates...This was worth every penny!)

Dermatology Office Using MediTouch's HealthFusion for nearly 1 year

In 2015, I spent countless hours reviewing/sampling one EHR after another to find a good fit for what we needed/wanted in an EHR. We were moving from paper and wanted a cloud-based solution. As a dermatology office, we absolutely need the ability to document patient's skin findings on a diagram. HealthFusion was one of the few that gave this ability and even allowed us to upload our own images which we have designed for quick easy use. Most dermatologists will utilize a more derm-specific product such as Modernizing Medicine's EMA, PracticeStudio, etc, however, another criteria we wanted in our EHR was something that was truly platform-independent and browser-independent -- could work on a ChromeOS computer, a Mac, a Windows machine, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Edge, Internet Explorer, etc. Again, MediTouch's HealthFusion EHR & Practice Management product provided this capability while other derm-specific products did not and continue not to. We also do our billing in-house and wanted a robust billing product. MediTouch is their own clearinghouse which is a big benefit so when there are issues, we don't hear from our vendor "Oh it's a problem with the Clearinghouse", instead MediTouch customer service tells us "Oh we need to fix that". Customer service is overall very good - it is here in the United States (Pacific Coast which is our local time zone) and available relatively quickly. So why not five stars? Well, the EHR itself is not designed very well for a specialty-specific practice like ours so we went through a process of customizing it for our needs. We are happy that customization was available however it was a daunting and time consuming process. While the EHR system allows for some meaningful use and PQRS measures it does NOT collect data for specialty-specific measures so it's basically useless for our PQRS/MU/MACRA reporting needs. Which is very unfortunate and might force us to move to a derm-specific product.

Pros

Platform-independent (works on ChromeOS, MacOS, iOS, Android, etc.)
Browser-independent (works in Chrome, Safari, Edge, Internet Explorer, Opera, etc)
Cloud-based with no need for specific hardware/software in-house.
Local to our time zone (Pacific) with U.S. based customer service
Clearinghouse is in-house with the vendor
Speed of operation - there have been moments when the cloud-based

Cons

Lack of specialty-specific Meaningful Use, PQRS, and MACRA measures
Need for heavy customization for the purposes of documenting specific scenarios (specialty or otherwise)
Extra components within standard documentation unnecessary for most specialties
Integration of PM and EHR could be a bit better

Great potential, but needs some improvement!

Pros

They are improving the product consistently. There have been two product updates since we started with them in March. Customer service has improved greatly as well. 99% of the time someone who picks up the phone and helps you with your problems. They have daily webinars that are free of a particular topic, so you can log in, ask questions, get help, and then log off. The product has a lot of great things such as ease of sending the charges from the docs to the billing department, seeing the exact statement that a patient received so you can talk to them more intelligently, getting lots of detail on the claims, rescheduling a patient from one day to the next, and blocking a portion of the schedule or opening a portion of the schedule.

Cons

You can submit issues via email, but once they respond back, they close the case. Even if they didn't give you the answer you were looking for, you then have to email again and reference the case requiring you to print everything to keep track, because there is no way to follow the status of your case. If you submit feature requests, there is no way to know if they are working on it, aren't considering it, holding it for a future update, etc. There are specific reports that you can get, but if you need something that's not pre-built, there is very little way to obtain the info, if at all. I requested some kind of report writer. The reports all come out as an Excel spreadsheet which is good, because it allows you to manipulate and move around the data, but when you print it's very unwieldy and not pretty. They need to have a way to convert the report to a PDF format once you have it the way you like. Many of the reports don't offer options such as picking providers, locations, payers, so you have to manipulate the report after it opens to delete what you do not need, which is time consuming. The software is extremely dependent on location, which means everything you do has to be done by location creating a lot of work. If you have many offices, your docs do surgery in several locations and they are outpatient or inpatient. Changing or adding something has to be done many times, because you do it by location. It would be easier if there was a drop-down listing your locations and you only had to check the locations to which your additions or changes were applicable. Parts of the software feel as if they are too structured and everything has to fit into their predetermined way to do things. There is not enough flexibility and leeway to change portions that suit your practice. Vendor training was not great when we started and we paid for an outside vendor that works with Healthfusion to come on site and train us. I understand that the help and training portions have changed a bit since then and may be better. It has great potential if they would open up the software and be more flexible!

We are a single physician clinic in rural Texas. My physician is also my husband, and he is a board certified Family Practice osteopathic physician practicing in the same clinic for almost 30 years now. Our clinic is busy, and my staff is small. Employees are cross-trained in medical assisting and clerical duties and often cover each other depending on patient needs and/or staff absences. Having MediTouch PM software has given me a peace of mind, regarding patient care business needs, that I never had with prior computer programs. The system gets the insurance information correct and the insurance forms completed so much better than anything I've used in the past 15 years or more. I have less missed charges thanks to the patient page showing the listing of a patient's office visits. If the charges have not yet been entered, there is an "ENTER" beside the date just waiting to be clicked. This better assures the correct dates are posted. Staff uses the recall options to follow up on patient care and schedule future appointments with less chance of letting a patient slip by without follow up. The Electronic Remittance Advice documents are wonderful - no more paper and everything in one place. The search options allow us to go back to anything as needed. Automatic posting saves time and frees staff for other tasks. At present, we are operating with one less staff member as when we first began to use the system. As the physician's manager and wife, I appreciate that I can work on this day and night (for better or worse) without being tied to the clinic building. I am here at my home desk completing this review right now. I can finish posting claims, follow up on denied claims, generate and print statements all without carrying home boxes of papers. Having the data for both management and health records stored off-site is a blessing to me. The constant fear of system crashes and failed backups is over. I do not have the burden of upgrading to newer and more powerful servers at the clinic, but can use money to by better single computers that can connect with HealthFusion remotely and not to a central in-house server system. I am still learning many aspects of the system, and anything not yet learned is entirely my own fault as HealthFusion has improved the training materials greatly over the past year. They are now easy to find and access. My time is all that needs to be planned because they have done everything else for us. Reports are available if I want them, too. I have seen our clinic income increase; payments come more quickly and less error thanks to the MediTouch PM system. Whenever I do find areas that I think need attention, the customer service is quick to respond and have taken my suggestions into implementation on a few occasions. They are very personable and professional whenever we call, although I tend to use email when possible. The replies are quick and complete. We signed up for the programs in November 2010 based on promotional programs that were offered via the American Osteopathic Association. We didn't jump in to actually using the product until the following June when e-prescribing was required. If I could go back, I would have started the programs' use much earlier. I was simply afraid to jump in and leave our old systems behind. To my surprise, the transition has been easy. Thank you very much for the chance to share this experience. I do not mind providing more details if needed.

I love MediTouch PM Software

Pros

I love the A/R features. I love how fast I get paid by commercial vendors. I love how intuitive it is on helping avoid claim issues. I did not have any issues with implementation. I have had nothing but good experience with support. We have had this EMR for over a year (and I have dealt with a few) and this is by far the best I've used. We have not had any issues with it going down. We have called when we have thought the system was down and they have guided use through issues with browsers, internet speed etc. So we were always glad we called, problems solved when we thought it was on their end. Yes, claim eligibility check is only on some providers but if you get to know how to use it more in depth it can be VERY helpful in further info not just for eligibility but for knowing primary care provider etc. I have had ZERO issues with auto post and yes, I have double checked. I also really like their statement service, I review each statement before I "send" them to them to send for me but no more issues with bad addresses etc and well worth the money. Their "help" section is great. The help sheets are AWESOME. I email support more than I've ever called them and they send me helpsheets when I can't find them.

Cons

I would like a better way to weed out the non paid lines with auto post instead of dumping them all to the appeal bucket. I would like to be able to attach a claim to the billing comments and be able to send them to another employee to review. I wish that I could upload our own forms to save in the system- I do not like the forms library at all, pretty well worthless to us, I would like it if I could upload, name our files and use it that way.

We have been on Nextgen since 2009. We are a pain specialty. We had MAPS templates for paincare we

Pros

The customizations that are possible. WE are a specialty so it is important to capture the data, that is not always PCP. We have needs for rx report to be integrated which is coming in the new upgrade. We need to interface labs so doctors have quick and easy access to results. We have a responsibility to the community to keep them safe from people misusing or selling their medications. The templates and documents are easy to customize. The Nextgen support is helpful. We are excited to hear what the future hold for paincare, through their VAR Itelagen. The integration between EHR and EPM is coming along. Interfacing with labs, HIE. The reporting is made easy captured in the back ground for MIPS. They provide access to websites to become experts in there system. The help desk is not afraid to say if they don't know something and direct you to someone that does. The hosting is made easy. We are told it will be a 30-45 day transition very excited. The application has come a long way in looks it has been designed to be easy to access, it has shortcuts that only need to be hovered over to see data a quick glance. The Patient education was a nice add. It is user friendly and attaches to the encounter as a record it was done. The clinical reconciliation is a great add and makes things easy.

Cons

I wish the upgrades were easier. oTHERWISE i AM VERY HAPPY WITH THE SYSTEM.

NextGen has been easy to learn and has grown with the changes that occur in the medical field.

We transitioned from paper charts to this EHR. The process was challenging but nextgen navigated us through all of the ups and downs it takes to get through scanning paper records and training staff. We have improved all processes since the initial implementation. We have from scheduling on the front end to the billing and statements on the back end we improved those processes. We took our antiquated tickler tab system for prior authorization of our outpatient surgical procedures and moved it to an electronic way to tracked, authorize and then schedule procedures. This cut down on any procedure being schedules before it was approved. This help improve revenue in the long run. The benefits of patient portal are still being realized. Patients can communicate with office staff on their own schedule. After implementing online billing and payment options our payments on account have increased a great deal.

Pros

The ability to track authorizations using tasking and worklog as patient portal and how the messages easily populate into the front desk inbox. Patient portal can easily route the messages appropriately. And last, the ability to customize it to the needs of our specific practices slash specialty!

Cons

The ongoing upgrades although I know that is necessary for any EHR. Also there is no "reschedule" option for appointments. You can cancel then rebook and look at reschedule history but I personally like a reschedule button then follow the sequence needed.

Great experience

This software is excellent in general, it has freed a lot of my time since I have customized it.

Pros

Once you customize documents, questionnaires, custom forms, physical exam information - it simplifies your work and you can be more efficient.
Easy to customize once you learn how - my previous software took me long hours for several months to fix and even then it was not so easy, I had to keep typing additional data for my office notes.
Saves time creating paper super-bills ( with my previous software I had to do it manually for every patient, then give it to the biller to post it), here once you close your note, the claim is actually ready to post... faster payments.
The chief complaint has many set up questionnaires that are easy to use by staff and helps the health provider to quickly review the concerns, facilitates the interview, simplify the provider's work.
Billing - has many ways to see the claims. Recall list for follow ups, blood tests, etc - once you order a test that is a follow up or in your note you document the follow up... automatically show in the recall list. Nice appearance of the finalized progress notes, many of the areas are automatically saving and you do not have to worry about losing your data. At the end of the day, you can review open encounters to make sure you finalized all your notes.
Interfaces with labs and vaccine registries are available and work very well.
Labs show automatically - there are icons on top of the page that make easy to find labs, tasks, messages, prescription requests, etc.

Cons

Unable to see several tabs or pages at once, you need to save and close what you are doing to go some other part of the chart or if you need to open other patient's chart at the same time you are with one patient in the room - same applies for the PM portion and it is time consuming because you can not multitask.