Epic vs. NextGen® Practice Management Solutions

Epic is very good on the medical side and continues improving mental health and dental care. Having integrated telehealth via Zoom was a game-changer. During COVID, it was vital to have telehealth options and to ensure it was completely HIPAA Compliant and easy to document inside their health record.

Incentivized

To start, Nextgen PM is NOT well-suited for companies who are looking for a could-based product—you will be required to house this software on your own server (this will force that company to maintain their own infrastructure). The solution is great for a company looking for a PM/EHR combo that communicates well with each other. The two modules are owned by the same company and does not require a costly API/bridge to be built between the two programs.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Ability to save favorite phrases and templates to make charting more efficient for providers.
• Ability to interface with Question Diagnostics for certain laboratory tests.
• Ability to send and receive tasks to other user(s) on the system as well as send future tasks and reminders to yourself.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• More robust online scheduling solution
• Integrated solution for online payments
• More Robust AI solution for AI charting for providers

Incentivized

It is beyond measure the best EHR on the market.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Overall, a very easy and robust system to use for small practices. It enables us to keep billing in house and connectivity with various databases keep the providers "in the know" about what's going on with their patients. Some solutions - such as the patient portal and online scheduling are cumbersome and we have difficulty getting patients to use them.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Well-vetted lesson plans that teach you what you need to know for success.

Incentivized

While not as effective as in-person training, it is still adequate.

Incentivized

Epic has a regimented implementation process that ensures a successful go-live.

Incentivized

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.

We feel that Nextgen does not stack up very well against the cloud-based software on the market. Housing the underlying tables on your own hardware requires COSTLY man hours. We are in the business of providing health care services to patients, not database administration. Introducing cloud-based products has had a tremendously positive effect on our business.

Incentivized

• Being able to track and document all of our services in the same place has made an exceptional improvement in continuity of patient care, both internally across departments (medical/dental/mental health) and externally with specialists and other healthcare organizations on a national scale.
• Continuous improvements in Data reporting and analytics make tracking and implementing quality improvement measures throughout the year easy.
• Massive improvements to the ELLA training platform, combined with detailed and interactive training materials for all system areas, make onboarding and staff training much easier!

Incentivized

• Nextgen did a good job of transitioning our practice away from paper health records.
• I believe that the Return on Investment would have been much higher had we gone straight to a cloud-based tool.
• By getting our feet wet with Nextgen, we have a pretty good understanding of Practice Management software. In other words, we could plug and play with most systems on the market.

Incentivized