Epic offers a suite of medical practice management and EHR software.
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Kareo Practice Management
Score 6.9 out of 10
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Kareo Practice Management provides cloud-based management
and billing solutions for small medical offices. Some key features include:
Complete Patient Management, Powerful Scheduler & Patient Reminders,
Insurance Billing & Reporting, and Robust Patient Billing &
Collections.
Epic is not priced or designed for the small provider offices. However, if current Epic customers are willing, they have the ability to bring those smaller groups onboard through Community Connect. This allowsthe smaller group to have the full benefit of Epic without the hardware and software costs associated with owning Epic.
I can't imagine who it is appropriate for- unless you could care less if you get prescription refill requests from pharmacies, send portal messages to patients but they have no clue they have a new message to read. It's not ideal for large or small practices. Allow them to overbook your schedule with "new patients" that are on insurance plans you don't even accept for a 15 minute time interval...So if this the flow of your practice- this is the EHR for you. Otherwise, steer clear.
There are doctors' notes templates with prepopulated fields in them. This saves a lot of time.
Epic sends medication orders to pharmacies electronically so that we do not have to call. This saves a lot of time.
Epic has a Secure Chat feature via which we can send HIPAA protected messages to any employee with the patient's name and record attached.
It has a PDMP link. We can look up what controlled medications such as opiates patients have been prescribed and by whom.
It links to MyChart, which is a platform via which patients can look up their own information without them having to call the doctors. This saves a lot of time.
Visual Updates: While Epic is constantly improving the user experience, there are a few features that still need a design refresh. While this does not effect functionality, it does have an impact on user perception.
Ordering: While placing an order for a physician is very easy, a few changes to the workflow could improve the experience for physicians.
You should invest time into taking a training class before using Epic, but once you get the hang of it the usability features are endless! My favorite part about Epic is how it is automated and "trained" to catch user errors that would typically be missed in normal documentation/charting. This ensures accuracy and eliminates errors.
The initial training was good but would have been even better had I been more familiar with the system before taking it. I found learning how to deal with Epic while working in the field at the same time was a (pardon the pun) Epic learning curve. I really think there should be a scribe who does the data entry and others can focus on what they do best.
Epic gives extensive customization options in terms of utility and view. I have found this to be highly useful and efficient EHR as compared to other EHRs we use in our organization.
Kareo is plain and simple. NextGen always says you get what you pay for, however, NextGen is expensive for anyone and Kareo does the same thing for a fraction of the cost. Kareo gives our time management back to the office personnel. Everything is user-friendly, which NextGen could be if it didn't have so many steps to complete on task.
It must have had a positive impact as things get done quicker, leading to easier billing/coding. It must be saving a lot of money and time. I am not aware of a better product.
