Catalyst is either really good at working or really good at pissing people off.
September 07, 2020

Catalyst is either really good at working or really good at pissing people off.

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Catalyst

Catalyst is used by our clinical team to perform charting in an ABA setting. It integrates well with AccuPoint billing software to streamline our note taking for insurance purposes.

Pros

  • The GUI is easy to navigate on the iPad mini, which we use for charting.
  • The options are simple so there is very little room for mistakes.
  • Charting is easy and the setup allows for necessary fields that must be completed so charting stays uniform.

Cons

  • Technical support very rarely has solid fixes for Catalyst problems. Expect to walk through several hoops before being told it's a known issue.
  • The App development process does not weed out problems before deployment. The last round of updates for Catalyst has left several key features broken with no workarounds.
  • New features are being rolled out over the next several weeks/months leaving the staff frustrated that what worked yesterday has either changed or no longer works today.
  • Catalyst is better than pencil and paper data analysis. But the app can be very frustrating when it's not working the way it did last week.
  • The GUI is very simple. Sometimes too simple, like there is no way to go back in and edit SOAP note options.
  • New feature roll-outs are mandatory. I understand that no one would opt in to being the guinea pig, but it would be nice if you weren't the first user to try it.
  • The integration with billing software has streamlined the billing notes and saved us money over having two separate systems.
Well.... when it works... it's good. When it doesn't it is very frustrating for our staff.
Very rarely has support had something insightful to share as a solution. Maybe that is because the system is so simplistic there are no settings to go wrong. Tech support conversations frequently go like this: What are the OS, Catalyst version, and device that you are using it on? Have you turned it off and back on again? Uhh...we will get back to you in a few days.
Catalyst works well, when it works and is very well suited for an ABA environment. But the app development process and the continual list of bug fixes that are never-ending makes this product very hard to recommend.

Catalyst, by EBM Software Feature Ratings

8.0
Management reporting
8
Consolidation and Close ()
Not Rated
Financial Reporting and Compliance ()
Not Rated
8.0
Personalized dashboards
8
8.0
Excel data integration
8
Direct links to 3rd-party data sources
8
8.0
Customizable dashboards
8
Report Formatting Templates
8
8.0
Drill-down analysis
8
Formatting capabilities
8
Report sharing and collaboration
8
7.0
Publish to PDF
7
Data Discovery and Visualization ()
Not Rated
8.0
Multi-User Support (named login)
8
Role-Based Security Model
8
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
8
8.0
Responsive Design for Web Access
8
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
8

Catalyst Support

ProsCons
Quick Initial Response
Slow Resolution
Poor followup
Less knowledgeable
Problems left unsolved
Need to explain problems multiple times
Yes - I've never had a problem satisfactorily resolved by Catalyst support. Most of the time, they decide the bug isn't important. (Yes, they really do that.) Or the rest of the time it's a known issue that they are working on.
No, unfortunately, I cant.

Using Catalyst

ProsCons
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Quick to learn
Convenient
Familiar
None
  • When Catalyst doesn't crash, charting is easy to do, which is the important part.
Yes - All of our charting is through the mobile interface, which is really good. Sometimes it's really good at working. Sometimes it's really good at pissing everyone off when it crashes. For example, the app frequently crashes on our Speech Therapist. Because of a bug in the system, she can only load two clients at a time in the mobile interface. She works with 20+ clients. These crashes take important time out of her day and leave her very frustrated when it occurs.

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