Wiki What is the BEST EMR System you have ever used?

[KStaten]

Hello Everyone!

Just out of curiosity, what EMR system(s) do you prefer for outpatient coding (especially for orthopedic / neurological practices)? Pros and Cons would be great!

Thank You in advance!
Kim

 

[Orthocoderpgu]

I have used Nextgen, Cerner and Athena and I really dislike all of them. Nextgen is not "linear' and sucks up all the information typed in using several screens to create the official "documentation" for the visit, but you and the clinical staff WILL get carpal tunnel. Cerner would be OK if they allowed the coders to code and the coders entered the charges. But it really is designed for the medical staff to enter the charges into the system incorrectly and it takes the coder at least 10 times longer to make corrections which would not be necessary if coders were able to just input the codes correctly the first time. Cerner is a huge headache when it comes to corrections, very time consuming. Athena really is much the same as Cerner although it looks different. But making corrections in Athena is easier but not as good as it could or should be. Athena is supposed to put charges in RVU order (surgically speaking) although I don't trust it so I just put surgeries in RVU order just to be safe and it does not tame much extra time to do that really. Between these three for orthopedics (which I code as well) I would go with Nextgen. The only reason for this is that Nextgen is the best at entering in charges. For surgeries after you have entered all the cpt codes (all the lines anyway) you can easily move the entire line with all the modifiers and diagnosis codes attached up or down very quickly. From a coders point of view, Nextgen was the best for this reason.

diagnosis codes, diagnosis coding

 

[KStaten]

Thank you, Orthocoderpgu! I appreciate all of the detail you put into your responses. I have only had experience working on one of these-- GE Centricity. I jokingly say that it is the "best system that I have ever used." (The catch there is I can only say it because it is the only system I have ever used. ) I find it frustrating in many ways, but, as I have no experience with other systems, my opinion really doesn't carry weight. For the same reason, I'm not sure how many of the issues I am seeing that actually overlap with issues of other systems. Just from meetings/ networking, I have heard positive things about eClinicalworks and Nextgen, and, thus far, mostly negative things about Cerner. Of course, opinions are going to vary from practice to practice, as well as from department to department within the same practice.

diagnosis codes, diagnosis coding

 

[Orthocoderpgu]

I did use eClinical years ago but I was kind of in it part time the way were using it. What I have noticed is that EMR's are not designed with coders in mind. Most of the work goes into making sure Admin can pull reports and see how many things coders have in their work queue, vs how many the coder is pushing out. To me this leads to a quality issue and puts the company at risk since coders will not do everything that they should for accuracy, and just push claims out to make their numbers look good. So the bad coders cut corners and push things out that are wrong, and Admin people love this until an insurance company finds out that your coding is not accurate and they ask for medical records which is very easy now and they take back their money since the documentation does not support the codes billed. Just know that whatever EMR you use going forward, it's going to always be far from perfect, not designed with coders in mind, and there will always be huge problems using them.

diagnosis codes, diagnosis coding