Athena Ambulatory Review
April 28, 2016
Athena Ambulatory Review
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with athenaClinicals
- Acts as an "interface" with documents that typically would come over a fax.
- Helps force a documentation workflow that helps us meet Meaningful Use.
- Customer service is wonderful with Athena. I can call in anytime and have a representative shadow my screen and walk through any current obstacles I might be facing.
- The ergonomics...the screen is very difficult to view - as the light colors do not provide for contrast.
- The flow of the documentation can be difficult. It works down the screen vs. allowing users to jump easy. The "jump" function is at the bottom of the screen and the dropdown menu sometimes follows below the bottom of your computer screen.
- It's very expensive for the added "behind the scenes" customer service you are getting. Many labs are now offering an interface for free which would put typical items that are faxed into a queue or their appropriate place. Many times the items that are "managed" by Athena are still having to be managed by the office buckets anyway - which is a selling point of Athena.
- The templates that are built are far from intuitive. A point and click system is much easier for a busy physician...something that has a macro and pre-completed notes. Athena makes this process cumbersome, so many physicians are double documenting (paper, then EMR).
- Cerner, Amazing Charts, eCW, AllScripts, NextGen and Practice Fusion
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.