An EMR solution that no longer delivers on its promises, and has extremely sub-par support
October 13, 2021

An EMR solution that no longer delivers on its promises, and has extremely sub-par support

David Myers | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with eClinicalWorks

eClinicalWorks is an EMR (electronic medical record) system that we are required to use for tracking patient medical information.
  • Stores patient medical records
  • Works on multiple types of devices (PC, iPad, mobile device)
  • Allows for use via a web interface with controls on IP addresses for access
  • [In my experience] the support is atrocious.
  • Policy changes by their upper management are applied and enforced on the end user with no warning or input
  • [In my opinion] most updates focus on more manual labor, rather than automation of processes
  • [In my opinion] integration with other systems is non-existent or clunky.
  • [In my experience] resolution to problems typically takes a significant amount of time, usually in a later upgrade, which itself provides more problems.
  • Meet compliance requirements (Meaningful Use, MIPS/MACRA)
  • Store patient information in a meaningful way and provide access to it at all times
  • Integrate with other systems to provide the maximum amount of patient information available.
  • Be user friendly and automate manual processes
  • Been able to meet requirements for MACRA/MIPS and Meaningful Use
  • System Availability and speed has not been great, which as caused loss of revenue
  • There are a lot of manual processes we've been forced to do which increase staffing and thus cost
When we did the evaluation (about 10 years ago now) eClinicalWorks had a similar featureset, but was designed as a modular cost platform, so if you had certain features you could choose to add them, or not add them which then impacted the total cost. Most of the other products were not mature enough (at the time) or were so outwieldly expensive that they were not evaluated. We ended up getting a deal through a partner which made the eClinicalWorks licensing more palatable, so we went that way.
Now, while NexGen and Allscripts remain very expensive, and other users we know state these two continue to be problematic to use, Aprima has been purchased by CGM, and appears to be quite usable.
The problem with EMRs ultimately is once you're set up with one, you aren't able to transition to another one without a serious amount of time, effort and money.

Do you think eClinicalWorks delivers good value for the price?

No

Are you happy with eClinicalWorks's feature set?

No

Did eClinicalWorks live up to sales and marketing promises?

No

Did implementation of eClinicalWorks go as expected?

No

Would you buy eClinicalWorks again?

No

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.

eClinicalWorks Feature Ratings

Real-time eligibility verification
7
Coding
7
Claims management
7
Patient billing
7
Financial Reporting
7
Rule-based scheduling
3
Automated patient check-in
2
Automated appointment reminders
4
Multi-location support
2
Calendar interface
3
Charting / document management
4
Templates
5
E-prescribing
5
Fax integration
5
Patient portal
5
Mobile/tablet support
6
Speech recognition
5
Integration with other EMR and PM systems
2
Customization
2
Workflow automation
2
Role-based permission levels
3
Data backups and redundancy
3
HIPAA compliance
8
Local mode / networking failsafe
1
Task tracking
2
Specialty-specific workflows
2
Multi-office / multi-physician capabilities
2

Using eClinicalWorks

255 - Providers, nursing staff, business office, transcription, lab, etc
2 - Troubleshooting, as their staff tends to have minimal amounts
Time, to allow their staff to log into your system, for you to show what you have to log into their portal first.
Basic medical knowledge to understand and work through medical concerns and explain information regarding it.
IT skills to deal with concerns regarding network connectivity, installing applications and the like.
  • Provide excellent patient care
  • Coordinate care with other practitioners
  • Accurate track and diagnose medical conditions
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.

eClinicalWorks Training

  • in-person training
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.

eClinicalWorks Support

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.
ProsCons
None
Slow Resolution
Poor followup
Less knowledgeable
Problems left unsolved
Not kept informed
Escalation required
Difficult to get immediate help
Need to explain problems multiple times
Support doesn't seem to care
Slow Initial Response
There is no option for premium support, only base support.
Yes - Rarely. Usually bugs are rolled into a "resolved in the next update" but often times that takes months or longer to happen. Often times they are not followed up on, and so there's no ability to track where the process is, and if you ask your account manager or support technicians they usually just tell you "it's a bug and will be fixed in a future update" but never have any specifics or ability to tell you when or what the fix will be.
No. Going live with the product was a complete fiasco. There was months of planning, and the weekend we were going live we were suddenly told of things we hadn't done that needed done. The week of go-live the trainers seemed relatively unable to help the staff adjust.
Updates tend to be extremely problematic, and new regulations and changes typically are handled as inefficiently as possible, and most of the time when we ask for feature changes to help remove manual processes, we are referred to the "workflow", which is a manual process.

Medical record systems should be designed to make the workflow streamlined for the provider, to make for excellent care of patients. eClinicalWorks makes it as cumbersome as possible, to the point where a paper chart would be just as effective, and much more reliable.

Using 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.
ProsCons
None
Do not like to use
Unnecessarily complex
Difficult to use
Requires technical support
Not well integrated
Inconsistent
Slow to learn
Cumbersome
  • Use the system consistently with good performance
  • Provide excellent patient care
  • Getting mediocre support
Yes - The mobile interface works about as well as the installed desktop version. The same problems apply. The speed is atrocious, which they cannot seem to figure out why, or seem unable or unwilling to change. They state that they want to make things more accessible, but they do so using their own featureset, so the ability to integrate with other remote user solutions, especially those that provide better security are completely limited based on their preferences. You are also unable to get any form of performance reporting or assurances, as they neither provide or allow for anything of the sort.