athenaClinicals vs. eClinicalWorks

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
athenaClinicals
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
N/AN/A
eClinicalWorks
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
eClinicalWorks headquartered in Westborough offers their EHR / EMR solution, which can be upgraded to a full practice management solution at higher pricing tiers.N/A
Pricing
athenaClinicalseClinicalWorks
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
athenaClinicalseClinicalWorks
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
athenaClinicalseClinicalWorks
Considered Both Products
athenaClinicals
Chose athenaClinicals
eCW allows for customization on the provider level whereas athenaClinicals requires standardization by specialty. Meaningful Use and other quality programs are more challenging on eCW. eCW templates are quite different looking from those that are in athenaClinicals and the flow …
Chose athenaClinicals
Again, I would recommend Athena second on this list...and it's all practice specific. If a practice can afford Athena, then it's an ok system...but do not expect an intuitive system such as Cerner that can be fully customized and follows a physician workflow better.
eClinicalWorks
Chose eClinicalWorks
Ease of entering data and scheduling.
Chose eClinicalWorks
eClinicalWorks is above average for primary care outpatient services. It is not my favorite but it is not the worst either. ECW was selected by the group prior to my arrival so I cannot speak to why it was selected. I had an easy time adopting it but I have an extensive …
Chose eClinicalWorks
At the end of the day, the EHR systems do many things similarly. How each system does things may vary, but what stands out to the providers, clinical team and administration are the following few things. The providers and clinical team want to have an ease of use in the …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
athenaClinicalseClinicalWorks
Billing and Claims Management
Comparison of Billing and Claims Management features of Product A and Product B
athenaClinicals
8.4
8 Ratings
9% above category average
eClinicalWorks
5.1
18 Ratings
41% below category average
Real-time eligibility verification9.38 Ratings5.117 Ratings
Claims management8.38 Ratings4.715 Ratings
Coding9.07 Ratings5.416 Ratings
Patient billing8.38 Ratings5.416 Ratings
Financial Reporting7.08 Ratings4.715 Ratings
Patient Scheduling
Comparison of Patient Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
athenaClinicals
8.2
8 Ratings
3% above category average
eClinicalWorks
3.4
22 Ratings
81% below category average
Rule-based scheduling7.76 Ratings4.221 Ratings
Automated appointment reminders8.38 Ratings4.417 Ratings
Automated patient check-in8.37 Ratings2.117 Ratings
Multi-location support8.38 Ratings1.720 Ratings
Calendar interface8.36 Ratings4.617 Ratings
Electronic Medical Records
Comparison of Electronic Medical Records features of Product A and Product B
athenaClinicals
8.9
9 Ratings
20% above category average
eClinicalWorks
3.4
25 Ratings
72% below category average
Charting / document management8.99 Ratings2.925 Ratings
Templates8.99 Ratings4.323 Ratings
Patient portal10.08 Ratings4.020 Ratings
Mobile/tablet support8.47 Ratings6.015 Ratings
Fax integration9.99 Ratings3.222 Ratings
Integration with other EMR and PM systems7.69 Ratings1.618 Ratings
Workflow automation8.89 Ratings1.623 Ratings
Speech recognition9.04 Ratings5.015 Ratings
Customization7.29 Ratings2.120 Ratings
E-prescribing9.99 Ratings3.123 Ratings
Medical Security and Privacy
Comparison of Medical Security and Privacy features of Product A and Product B
athenaClinicals
8.4
9 Ratings
0% above category average
eClinicalWorks
3.8
23 Ratings
75% below category average
HIPAA compliance8.39 Ratings8.022 Ratings
Role-based permission levels9.99 Ratings3.122 Ratings
Data backups and redundancy8.39 Ratings3.120 Ratings
Local mode / networking failsafe7.08 Ratings1.117 Ratings
Workflow and Scale
Comparison of Workflow and Scale features of Product A and Product B
athenaClinicals
8.8
9 Ratings
12% above category average
eClinicalWorks
2.1
22 Ratings
115% below category average
Task tracking8.39 Ratings2.119 Ratings
Specialty-specific workflows8.38 Ratings2.120 Ratings
Multi-office / multi-physician capabilities9.99 Ratings2.121 Ratings
Best Alternatives
athenaClinicalseClinicalWorks
Small Businesses
Epic
Epic
Score 8.3 out of 10
athenaClinicals
athenaClinicals
Score 8.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Qualifacts CareLogic EHR
Qualifacts CareLogic EHR
Score 9.9 out of 10
Qualifacts CareLogic EHR
Qualifacts CareLogic EHR
Score 9.9 out of 10
Enterprises
Epic
Epic
Score 8.3 out of 10
Epic
Epic
Score 8.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
athenaClinicalseClinicalWorks
Likelihood to Recommend
6.8
(9 ratings)
2.0
(25 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
2.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(1 ratings)
2.1
(4 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
4.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
1.0
(3 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
2.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
4.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
athenaClinicalseClinicalWorks
Likelihood to Recommend
athenahealth
Works well for family med and peds primary care. Would not be well suited to wound healing/hyperbaric medicine practice in current configuration as the specific documentation requirements of wound management and hyperbaric treatments don't mesh well with the layout and forms that I observed.
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eClinicalWorks
eClinicalWorks should be used in most medical situations. The program generally speaking works the way it should keeping track of patient records and the like. They have recently added an inpatient module for ASCs. Seems to work pretty well for smaller practices that don't require a lot of additional features or integrations.
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Pros
athenahealth
  • Quality programs - able to see what measures are outstanding for the patient
  • Reporting - able to report on multiple financial reports as well as clinical information
  • Standardization of clinical information - the system forces users within the same specialty to use the same templates (as a starting point), therefore it is easier to standardize protocols and treatments of care
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eClinicalWorks
  • One of the strengths of ECW can also be a weakness depending on the user's perception. ECW has a lot of redundancies. There are multiple pathways to perform a task. It can be appealing to advanced computer users because of the versatility. I have found that it tends to confuse lesser experienced computer users.
  • The creation of templates is very easy and any provider in our system can create one. It definitely makes documentation more efficient. By creating a set of templates for the clinic, we are able to standardize the orders/procedures along established guidelines.
  • We have converted our scheduling to open access. ECW allows us to set the follow up time and the end of the visit and then an alert is created. Front office staff can run the report and schedule patients closer to the actual time. It has improved our no show/cancellation rates.
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Cons
athenahealth
  • The schedule needs to be improved. You should be able to see the schedule in a day, a week , in a month view and be able to schedule directly from the schedule.
  • It's difficult to name items because they are traditionally corrected very quickly
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eClinicalWorks
  • Meaningful Use Reports should be capturing data in real time and generated fairly quickly instead of the MAQ dashboard extraction process.
  • Their support teams are not very helpful at certain topics such as the definition/logic of Meaningful Use calculations. These are generally difficult to determine but several cases in regards to Meaningful Use take several days before it gets addressed.
  • Training videos would be helpful on their support website.
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Likelihood to Renew
athenahealth
No answers on this topic
eClinicalWorks
If we had an option to easily switch to another EMR product we would. However, an EMR keeps you invested solidly in it - once you've started you're then going to be stuck with it. The investment into the data in the system are such that you have no real option to back out of what you are in and move into something else. Again, if we could, we would immediately move to another EMR. The ability to use it and be supported by the vendor has decreased nearly to the point of inability to use.
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Usability
athenahealth
Overall the system is good. Actually, this was supposed to be the universal EMR when it came out during the Bush administration.
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eClinicalWorks
[In my opinion] the features allowed by the system are not designed for providers. [I think] the systems are inefficient, and new features tend to be "bolt on" features either as products purchased and added from other providers or simply a module created and strapped onto the software. There doesn't seem to be much idea around making things easier for the provider, though they like to state that provider burnout is something they are working on.
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Performance
athenahealth
No answers on this topic
eClinicalWorks
I often cannot assign a proper diagnosis under the assessment section; and as mentioned, sometimes (about once a month) the dictation just freezes because "the request has timed out" (even restarting the iPhone/ laptop does not help).
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Support Rating
athenahealth
They are always there. Friendly and organized.
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eClinicalWorks
You put in support cases through a support portal. [I believe] for no apparent reason, the company decided that their support cannot have access to actual patient records and as a result, it's required that they have to connect remotely to a computer system in our network, and log in as one of our users to do anything. This also entails that they are completely incapable of diagnosing problems and require significant amounts of user input and time to try and begin any sort of work on the problems. [In my opinion] this takes away from patient care and other concerns. Also, while you can put in as detailed a ticket as you want, when you are called, you have to go over the ticket again, as they don't seem to read or care what you put in, as it's more important to them to go over everything in painful detail. Often times you must explain to the tech how the process works. In the past month, we were upgraded overnight with zero warning, which caused issues the following day as we had to update every single computer in our network (over 300) and it requires administrative privileges so couldn't be done by a user. This also doesn't update any information in the programs list, so there's no way to tell whether the update happened or not.
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In-Person Training
athenahealth
No answers on this topic
eClinicalWorks
Paid for training, did not help. They trained prior to go-live, but it was so long ahead that users weren't able to function well when it actually happened, they seemed unable to provide adequate support. [In my experience] further support is typically very boilerplate, and is thus not useful, and has additional cost.
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Implementation Rating
athenahealth
No answers on this topic
eClinicalWorks
It's very important to limit your schedule during the weeks after go live but it is equally important to have a resource that is the lead at the practice that ensures that milestones are met leading up to the go-live date. Someone must be the point person at the practice otherwise milestones will be missed and the implementation will run into problems.
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Alternatives Considered
athenahealth
For a surgery center application, it is much better to use a system that is uniquely designed for surgery centers. Using Athena as a less than desirable work around has been a frustrating experience.
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eClinicalWorks
I was attracted by the final note format of ECW. I said then and still say that most EMR's clinical notes are terrible to try to read and follow in orderly fashion by comparison...BUT the devil is in the data entry and that is where "you live" as a clinician. Incredibly frustrating software because of inflexibility and restrictions of multi level data fields that can only be opened one at a time (i.e. no "toggling" between windows... ooen read and close...then reopen other data entry window....then close and repeat if you need to refer back to original window of data. This applies throughout the software and is due to its reliance on SQL architecture from what I have been told). Kills productivity.
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Return on Investment
athenahealth
No answers on this topic
eClinicalWorks
  • I will just share one area that our organization saw the ROI in a very short time period. That is the elimination of a dictation service for most of our specialty group doctors when we introducec Dragon Medical. This functionality brought a tangible benefit and a significant ROI in a short time period.
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ScreenShots