athenaIDX vs. RevolutionEHR

I couldn't recommend IDX to anyone. Most of the reviews on this site appear to be for the program that broke off from Athena IDX, Centricity Practice Solutions (CPS). CPS is a much more capable program managed by Unlimited Systems (a separate company) that should NOT be confused with Athena IDX (managed by Athena Health). It's possible that Athena IDX was usable in the 90s compared to other peer programs at that time, but there are so, so many better, modern solutions available now for far less money. This software is priced at the enterprise level with a level of quality that is below budget tier with an ancient feature set to boot.

RevolutionEHR is a great product and it out performs many leading electronic health record systems. Some questions to ask about the software should revolve around how your practice operates and where you would like to be in the future as far as efficiency and technological advancement go. Other questions to consider would be wheather or not you are trying to adhere to Meaningful Use (MU) guidelines set forth by the federal government.

Incentivized

• One of the best things about Centricity is it is flexible. We are able to add a data point behind a term (CPS calls this an observation term) and track any data needed. These observation terms also allow us to pull information forward and display information needed to make a good decision or used to decrease errors. For example in our history forms given to the patients one of the questions is side of injury. This affected side displays on our EMR forms which helps providers and prevents mistakes.
• CPS integrates with other programs. We are paperless and use DocuSign to send each patient their history, ROS and all new paperwork. This allows us to import the history into the forms and has saved us from adding extra staff (FTEs) to room and take history. The history form can be completed at home or in the waiting room. Each section has a observation term behind it and allows it to be placed into the note at the correct section. Since we have a fully integrated product we do not have to have another program to enter or transfer our charges from the EMR to the PM side of the program.
• Our notes look great! We did a lot of customization which gave us the detail and look we wanted. It seems like a lot of work at first, but the outcome has so much efficacy. We increased our providers without having to increase our staffing and it is due to he efficiencies we gained by using the EMR.
• One other note, Centricity is flexible but that means it is complicated. You can not have flexibility without it be complicated don't let that stop you the end results can be great.

Incentivized

• Management of patient charts to create detailed accounts of each individual patient.
• Management of optical and medical orders per patient that can be kept as records to refer back to at a later time.
• Business reports that can be pulled on the fly to assess the day-to-day business functions along with real-time data for business performance.
• Business reports that can be accessed at any time to see daily, weekly, quarterly, and yearly data.
• Saves time and money by eliminating the need for paper charts and paper order forms.

Incentivized

• Statements print only current open accounts, would be nice to print a total statement for patients so they can see if payments are split between open and closed/zeroed out accounts
• Ability to create custom reports

Incentivized

• RevolutionEHR occasionally crashes due to server maintenance. This is highly uncommon but it can prove to be a hindrance when an entire office is dependent on the software.
• RevolutionEHR leaves little user customization when it comes to optical ordering as there is no way to add proprietary products that you use to the drop down menus.
• Exam charts are preset and cannot be customized to how your office does exams. Information bubbles and sliders are not able to be customized by the user.

Incentivized

I gave it an 8/10 because there is a earning curve in which you have to spend some time with the software to gain some footing. Once you are past the learning curve it gets significantly easier. Revolution EHR does have a sandbox mode where staff can work in a safe mode without risking real-life data entry errors.

Incentivized

Training consists of overly specific points with no general process considerations. Trainers will regularly go 'into the weeds' on pointless edge cases while the meat of the training still needs to be addressed.

Athena IDX is more reliable than other platforms. It rarely has latency challenges where it has to be intermittently shut down or updated. It is accessible on multiple devices and overall, easy to use and navigate.

Incentivized

RevolutionEHR is a full practice management software that will take your office above and beyond any goals you currently have set. It helps manage every aspect of your office and allows for streamlined work flow. it is very easy to use and understand and requires little downtime to understand the basics of RevolutionEHR

Incentivized

The pricing structure is outlandish for how old and feature poor this program is.

Zero ownership. Zero responsibility. Zero desire to build something good.

• Extremely expensive software for the limited feature set. We're talking millions of dollars with off hours support (anything outside of 8-6EST) that starts at $1200 for the first hour and $300 for each hour afterwards.
• Multitasking isn't a thing unless you assign more licenses (thereby increasing your costs). Users can quite literally only have one IDX window open at a time unless you assign more licenses. This slows down everyone as there are plenty of times where examining different parts of a patient's profile is useful.
• Reporting has been nearly impossible as we use modern reporting software. IDX's analytics site is firmly stuck in the 1990s and lacks decades of innovation present in something like Power BI.
• Nickel and diming philosophy. A limited API server costs ~$10k/month. Setting up a new facility in IDX costs you and requires a 4 month lead time. Many more instances of this.