Opiniones de athenaOne

Very easy to pick up and get going.

Puntos a favor:

The user interface is very friendly and everything is set up to guide you through easily while entering patient information.

Contras:

Sometimes the add on software like the label printer and document printer would stop working, but that is rare.

Athena Review

Comentarios: Athena one is such an easy site to use from a healthcare standpoint. Scanning in orders is so convenient and everything is easy to sort through.

Puntos a favor:

I have used so many different electronic health sites and Athena is by far the most user friendly and hardly ever has tech issues.

Contras:

Sometimes when the site is down there is no communication about it and you have to figure it out on your own.

Report Data is NOT true data

Comentarios: Overall experience is one of much dislike to having to "vote" to get improvements. If they wanted to build a practice customizable EMR, they missed the mark gravely. Changes happened in November to the UDS reporting capability. Reports for clinical data were a mess, unreasonable, and horribly incorrect. They need much help with writing the logic in their reporting criteria.

Puntos a favor:

Facesheet shows all of the pertinent information on each patient before an encounter is open. AS LONG AS the clinical staff have updated the chart correctly.

Contras:

I am stating this as a personal opinion that does not represent my present or past employer. I have used this EMR for FIVE (5) years in front office. back office, management, and reports. There are too many workarounds for the providers and support staff. Their logic in reports is insane. Data does not pull accurately, so charts have to be manually checked to see if a measure is actually satisfied. Calling the CSC in FIVE years, has resulted in ONE (1) helpful specialist, the others always have to put in a further review case, which never gets answered logically. I ask specifics and am given back elusive answers that leave me feeling inept, and I know it is this system, not my experience or understanding. ACO and UDS reporting is LOGICAL. The number of patients in a measure, like tobacco screening and cessation, is the denominator. The number of patients that have been screened for use and cessation education is the numerator. Easy to understand. Except Athena report logic doesn't pull accurate data. I have had to manually look at charts to see if the work was done by the clinical staff and change my data reporting that way before I report it out, and as of yesterday, out of 564 charts that "need data" in this report, 75 out of 100 satisfied the measure within the chart but not within the report. This is one example of the problems with the Athena logic, and why I would never recommend this to any FQHC that needs to report data to CCPM, ACO or HRSA.

Patient care in your hands

Comentarios: It has been awesome to manage patients information, appointments and telehealth visits

Puntos a favor:

Easy to manage patient information and user friendly for teleheath appointments

Contras:

It does not work properly sometimes (15%) with Safary/IOS users and there seems to be no answer from athena.

User Friendly

Comentarios: Overall, my experience has been good. No complaints

Puntos a favor:

It is user friendly. I like that it alerts you when patients information needs to be updated.

Contras:

It is not easy to update patient insurance information.

Tread Carefully and do not believe the sales rep

Comentarios: The EMR is ok to work with. I think combining with the RCM has really made the experience terrible. Please do not use their RCM or their billing service, you will lose money, miss deadlines for timely filing. They don't notify the practice if there is a large patient balance so you can't collect on time. They are so slow in updating patient and insurance payments so you don't know on time if your claims are denied early enough to take corrective action. This has been more frustrating. Once I took up the billing myself, life was so much easier. They also said you could downgrade at anytime, well there are stipulations to that, DO NOT BELIEVE WHAT THEY TELL YOU. They say you'll have CSM (customer service manager) to help make sure your billing is going well; well, that's if you ever get one to speak to you. They were supposed to reach out monthly to ensure you are getting all the money due to be paid to you, no one reached out to me. 3 months in, I started wondering so I reached out, then they switched me to someone else who was trying to sell me more products. I would not recommend their billing services or RCM at all. Just get your own biller.

Puntos a favor:

The EMR has good templates, the patient portal is pretty good. Implementation was the worst, they use these people who live in other countries who have the most minimum knowledge so implementing this was as stressful as using their RCUM. I had to ask for someone else because my go-live date was due and this guy could not answer my questions.

Contras:

The RCM and billing service is the worst. Don't even attempt it.

Not a good choice for Behavioral Health (psychology, psychiatry, counseling, etc.)

Puntos a favor:

It is fast; automatically saves most of what you type in; does not crash very often (3-4 times/year); email support requests usually answered within 24 hours; online help knowledge base is comprehensive and it has a good search engine.

Contras:

Not designed for mental health EHR, patient management, communication. Primary care clinicians say it's "pretty good" although "EPIC is better". Most behavioral health clinicians do not like Athena (based on support forum polls and Athena even admits it if your decipher the corporate-speak.) Athena rarely designs workflows, templates, and processes for Behavioral Health. They cobble together features and processes used by primary care clinicians and staff and tell us it's designed for Behavioral Health. If Athena employs mental health professionals I've never seen them on video presentations or as authors of "how to" resources or anywhere else.

Best EMR out there, but pricy

Comentarios: I did like the system. It was wonderful working with during my PMHNP preceptorship.

Puntos a favor:

The ease of use, ease of charting, ease of e-prescribe

Contras:

Setup cost is insanely expensive. Also, telemed is strange.

Promises broken.

Puntos a favor:

Obtaining insurance eligibility and getting immediate feedback to correct claims prior to submission. Billing software is very good, but then you lose control of the claims since Athena has payments made to a bank account they control.

Contras:

Patient notes -- very difficult to make your own templates and what is pre-installed is awkward and missing options. The team that does the billing is unresponsive when there are issues. Support is slow we also had an issue since January, unsolved. System limitations--you can't message a patient directly--that simple feature is missing. You can't fax most documents from the software, only certain items. Cannot export chart to a fax number--has to be with a pre-existing contact in the software (must ask permission with a form to add a contact).

A pleasant experience

Comentarios: Overall I'm very pleased with the app itself. I would definitely recommend to my peers.

Puntos a favor:

It's very easy to navigate and explains things in a professional way.

Contras:

The pages took a little longer to load.

AthenaHealth meets our needs

Comentarios: My previous experience is with a large health organization with a home grown EHR. As I was involved in the design of that system, I was initially worried about moving to a vendor product. Thankfully that design experience helped me in the transition over to Athena and allowed my organization to anticipate and mitigate issues with data conversion and implementation that many organizations struggle with when changing systems. Overall our transition was smooth and resulted in minimal loss of productivity.

Puntos a favor:

Easy to use with an intuitive interface that works well for ambulatory providers Company is responsive to issues and "flow-busters" Near zero downtime Revenue stream up significantly

Contras:

Athena may not be tailor made to my specialty, but that is a small trade off for up time and interoperability

Nickels and Dimes!

Comentarios: Some good, but everything is too automated and what's important easily falls through the digital cracks.

Puntos a favor:

Admittedly, the software is easy to use and offers meaningful use suggestions. The five step patient visit is simple to understand. The patient portal is nice, however, the patient facing portion could look more modern. Billing is easy from a practitioner standpoint. It also is starting to integrate with other EMRs so occasionally we can pull labs and imaging from other participating systems.

Contras:

Setup was arduous to say the least. Also, once claims are submitted, that's another story. I was sold that this software was all-in-one. They LIED. This is NOT the software for a small practice. They act as if I have an army of billing people when they told me that Athena was all I needed! For example, there was functionality that we needed to be aware of to find an important document from medicare. NO ONE told us and this document languished in some digital box. If we were a hundred person organization, I could pay someone to sit and manage the 20 or so boxes where they put communication. As a result, we got kicked off medicare for THREE months until I found out and remedied the cause. I was assigned a 'customer success rep' and had to find out who it was because she never scheduled a call. The previous THREE other reps were no better. They treat small practices like we don't matter. If you have less than 100 employees, FIND ANOTHER EMR. I'm in the market for another.

Great all around

Comentarios: Overall, my experience has been very positive with Athena.

Puntos a favor:

Athena asks for client feedback (often and in different ways) and actually acts on those suggestions. In this way, Athena develops a product that is more useful to the users.

Contras:

CSC interactions. Support is not tailored to the sophistication of the user. Often times, we contact support as a last resort after trying various methods to solve the issue. CSC starts at the most basic level of response and then takes additional time to escalate the issue to a higher level of support.

Better than the rest

Comentarios: Our practice has been using Athena for our practice management software for over 10 years and we implemented the Athenaclinicals EMR in 09/2012.

Puntos a favor:

Athenaclinicals has made Meaningful Use a manageable task by providing us with resources such as a checklist, status list and recommendations to meet Meaningful Use. Also they stay informed about the latest regulations and changes so that we can focus more on treating our patients and managing our practice. The billing functionality has definitely helped improve our A/R as well as assist us in tracking encounters to ensure we bill everything our providers do. Their credentialing functionality has also been helpful in assisting with enrollment and credentialing verification. The EMR and charting functionality is very comparable to other available software.

Contras:

The biggest issue we have run into in the past year is with regards to customer service. Athena has changed the way they handle issues that cannot be resolved by your initial CSC call. The only way to "speak to" or contact the people working on your issue is via Athena email. Unfortunately, this leads to miscommunication, confusion, frustration and delays in resolution. Completing certain tasks are more cumbersome than necessary, at least based on the opinions of our providers and staff. They feel they have to click more "buttons" and complete more "steps" to get to their end result eg. check-in, processing documents, charting. Athena has so many different features and functionality that it is difficult to make sure you are utilizing the software to it's fullest capabilities for your practice and specialty.

Sea change

Comentarios: When we selected athenaOne, we requested an (unreasonable) implementation within one month. They (appropriately) warned that this was not recommended but went along with us and WE DID IT. There were definitely issues that had to be addressed going forward but it was accomplished fairly quickly and smoothly and we were moving onto process improvement within the two months of implementation. We did identify and make improvements. Implementation for our Ortho group was 3/1/2019 and for the GYN group was 5/1/2019. In 10/2019, our accountant reported that we were better than we had been in 20 years! This is the sea change that occurred. The amount of clinical work and number of patients was not significantly different and despite high staff turnover, a location change, and a new EHR, the improvements that we were able to identify and implement moved us from being underwater to riding a wave of success.

Puntos a favor:

The most important features of athenaOne which have produced a SEA CHANGE for our practices are 1) easy access to demographic, clinical, scheduling and billing information regardless of your role, 2) remarkable and rigorous data collection and report functions that allow optimal decision-making and tracking of business functions, and 3) an optimal platform for developing and implementing PROCESSES which improve efficiency, reduce human work and reduce human error.

Contras:

The only thing I don't like is that I don't optimally use all of the features because I haven't learned what they are yet! We have been using athenaOne for a little over three years and there are still a large number of features and processes that I could implement or use in our small practices. There is always a better way!

Unhappy user of this least bad EHR

Puntos a favor:

It is integrated EMR, Billing and Care Management that does help address PCMH, MU, and other complex Government/Insurer issues. First pass billing and payment process works fairly well and seems efficient when there are no errors (see below). Cost is reasonable for the services provided.

Contras:

The base code is absolutely awful. This leads to repeated problems with your interface, incompatibilities, and slow response. If you surf employment sites you will find this a recurring theme noted by ex-employees. The product has many features that increase the chance for human error and patient harm, and the company refuses to admit or deal with these issues, in fact compounding basic problems in the years I have used it. This user interface would be unacceptable in the aviation industry. Isn't healthcare supposed to be as safety-driven as aviation? Medication lists are not presented in a user friendly way and don't show the difference between what patient was taking before the visit and what has been changed or started/stopped in a meaningful way during and after the visit. This is one of the most dangerous aspects of this software, but by no means the only patient safety issue. When you get a request for a refill, it takes several clicks and screens to find the med history before you make the refill, encouraging you to skip this vital workflow, and penalizing you for following this standard of care if you do follow the workflow. The support center includes a "community" where you can share your problems and solutions with other users. But it is basically an echo chamber, as the company openly bans anyone who makes repeated negative comments about the product. If you don't agree to their draconian Terms of Use you can't even access this area to get help or learn about the latest updates. My documentation time per patient after the visit is about 10-12 minutes on average. I refuse to boilerplate my documentation - I deliver personalized care. I have tried to get dictation software from the athenahealth partner Dragon which I believe would shorten this to about 1 minute, but 2 months ago I made my first request to Dragon and still have not heard back after 4 additional attempts from within and outside of athenahealth. If you by Dragon direct, you don't get full interoperability, according to athenahealth. Right now I have zero interoperability. Too many clicks. I quote another provider who switched to another EMR locally when I asked why he switched out. Patient Portal does not allow patient to upload a graphic. "Hey Doc, is this a mole I need to worry about?" "Here's what my incision site looks like, is it OK?" "This is the pill the pharmacy gave me, it looks different" and "What the heck is this rash?" are questions you can answer quickly saving patients and you time and effort with other EMR portals. Not athenahealth.

5 Star Review

Comentarios: Our office went live with Athena Communicator and Collector in September of 2013. We had previously used 2 other billers and schedulers/management systems at that point and I have to say we are all glad that we chose Athena. The customer service department and our implementation team were beyond helpful. We appreciate that Athena is ever changing, and always looking to improve the ease of business and quality of care. As we know, no product is ever perfect, but Athena comes pretty darn close. The team at Athena actively listens to concerns and suggestions from their customers. I have dealt with many companies who "understand your struggle" but can't do anything about it or "are very sorry, but that's just the way it is". Athena, is NOT that type of company. They have interactive message boards that you can talk to other practices having issues and also Athena team members, so together a plan can be created to alleviate the problems you are having. Not to say EVERYTHING can be as perfect as you want it, but there have been enough changes in Athena where the direct action was taken from a concern or complaint that makes us as a customer feels valued and understood. A real testament to Athena should be that we looked at their Clinicals product in 2013, but our provider didn't see enough of what he was looking for to change from our current EMR to Athena Clinicals at that time. However, at the end of 2016 we revisited the idea and did some more demos, the Clinical product has changed so much (in a good way) that we have chosen to switch and are looking at implementation in March of 2017. All of our office staff and our providers feel that Athena is a solid product that helps us streamline our workflows and provide better patient care. We are very excited to embark on our next Athena journey and couldn't be happier with the products and support.

Puntos a favor:

Ease of Use, Rarely any system downtimes or system issues, Receptive customer service and account managers, Transparency you can see everything that has happened and who did it

Contras:

This product is the most costly that we have used, however, we have definitely made more in revenue by using Athena than not.

year 1 of pure and utter hell

Comentarios: i am so sick of apologizing to patients, looking like i am a moron and staying hours later ( sometimes 1am compared to previous (functional) ehr where 730pm was the record and i’d occasionally miss the gym before closing...now i have suspended the gym membership). do not get. if you have any standards and clicking boxes does not suffice for your standards, or if you expect reliability and functionality, this ehr will drive you mad!!!

Puntos a favor:

it’s search feature was useful ONE TIME compared to our old ehr. ..the training team was nice and appeared competent. appreciate e-prescribing controlled substances WHEN IT actually WORKS AND ACTUALLY GETS THERE AFTER YOU’VE BEEN ALERTED THAT IT HAD!!!!!!!!!

Contras:

I am facile in computers and code to some extent. i am picky about my notes but am creative and work around a lot of garbage and always have without as much as a groan and am considered quite agreeable. HOWEVER, the word ATHENA incites rage in me. portal doesn’t work. can’t preload notes until pt checked in. this is bad for new patients in my specialty. when highlighting text, it does not overwrite. you have to press delete and type. finding documents is a frickin scavenger hunt. 5 or 6 clicks before you can even start seeing a pt. viewing labs is torture. viewing med list is torture. documents get redirected capriciously when scanned. one hopes and prays an rx went through when it said it did. we have initiated a boatload of safety concerns to our quality department but get tired of doing it. customer support...god help me. portal does NOT work. can’t dispose of certain things on your dang list until weeks of dedicated manpower exhausted. when things supposedly fixed, they will not tell you what the issue was or how they fixed it AND IT STILL DOESN’T WORK. Feedback on labs from provider ( and pretty much anything) involves an archaeological dig to unearth. reminders for appointments via text cannot be adjusted so for a 15 min earlier arrival ( thus pts get rather upset)...i’ve been told of billing quirks (it was supposed to be our savior or something). communication with other healthcare systems blows as no one else was stupid enough to get this. problem lists are imported from the previous (functional) ehr and translated into things like “rage and unsocialized behavior in an adult” when original dx was something like “anger issue”...leaving some pts in tears before you talk them down...some documents sent to you are never received. so hard to differentiate to a pt the origin of an error. you look like you don’t know jack to a pt when using this ehr saying things like (after several deep breaths)...” if they said they sent it, it’s very possible they did; however i do not see it ...i would recommend that they mail the document to me as if they fax it, it will be hijacked by the system....here is an addressed, stamped envelope for them to send it in...i greatly apologize for the delay this has caused in your treatment.”.

Doing very well with athenahealth as our EMR

Puntos a favor:

I like that athenahealth is always getting ahead of new changes in the medical community so that we are easily transitioned into, say, ICD 10. I like that athenahealth is really pro-active in helping the medical practices to streamline their office to meet these changes head-on without fear of being left hanging out to dry on, say, getting paid on time. I like that athenahealth provides you with a terrific support group of CSC folks who will take your calls or read your questions/inquiries and find the answers for you. I mean, honestly, I usually don't have time to go and look for the answers myself in the library and training videos (although for those who do have the time, these are great tools) so I am so very, very glad that I have a great support team behind me. I like that athenahealth allows us to share medical information for our patients, after their consent, to other medical practices and/or hospitals easily because the patient's medical care is the most vital aspect in this service community. I like that athenahealth is really very respectful of the fine line between helping the practice flourish and not stepping on toes or overstepping their role.

Contras:

Lately, when using the message board for asking questions that aren't too urgent, I find that the response takes more than a couple of weeks. It used to be that the turnaround time was a week at the most. When the response is so late, I forget what my questions were and I have to go back to re-investigate so I can resolve the issue. I've read a lot of other posts about calling in and being put on hold for a long time. When we first started with athenahealth, I did not have that trouble and I was calling upwards of 10x a day on a daily basis for a while. Lately, I rarely call but thankfully, I haven't been put on hold for more than 5 minutes. And I still do like having the ability to call when my question is urgent and I can get the help I need right away.

Look at all EMR/EHR options

Comentarios: We have been with Athena now for about 5 years. This is the first and only EMR I or my staff have experience with so we have nothing to compare it to. As with anything, Athena has its pros and cons. When you call customer service, hold times are typically short and you speak to helpful people. When we first started, and up until recently, Athena was very easy to use, intuitive, and everything was at the tips of your fingers, as far as the chart and scheduling, until they implemented what they call Streamlined. It's not streamlined, at all. It's terrible. It is very difficult to use, to find documents, and it's not easy to use or intuitive. And they force you to label documents which are very time consuming and our office doesn't benefit from it. Streamlined has slowed down everyone from the doctors to the administrative staff. It has added an additional 5-8 minutes to tasks. When referring patients to other doctors it was extremely simple until streamlined. Now it is extremely difficult. Check in takes way to long with the many many clicks you must do. They have changed the insurance packages and combined many that shouldn't be and it makes it very difficult for claim follow up and to run reports. The billing aspect is a bit more difficult, always has been. You must watch the posting team of Athena. They make many mistakes, such as billing the contractual write off to the patient, double posting payments, repeatedly asking for information like the log in info after its already been provided, not posting remits that were sent to them, posting to the wrong accounts, writing off balances that are payable without you knowing. You get the picture.

Puntos a favor:

Pleasant customer service reps Athena will submit claims

Contras:

Time consuming Posting team makes many errors Not user friendly Charting is very difficult Intake is time consuming

truly the easiest EMR/billing system to use

Comentarios: 5 years ago, during the quality reporting for reimbursement, Athena made it so simple and easy that i was shocked to learn that it took a fellow friend 2 months to complete her reporting where it took me 30 minutes. providing patients with detailed information on their insurance benefits and the life of claim creates better communication and cohesion for the clinic/patient relationship. as a provider, the easy customization for templates, use of templates and the ability to actively follow medical orders (referrals, lab orders, pharm scripts) and their order created-results received "circular completion" making quick response corrections easier as well. having online doctor information, calculating by type of physician, practice, distance from your location and easy searches is a delightful feature for scribes and physicians alike. i have used an number of EMR systems, web-based and online, and this is by far the best i have ever used.

Puntos a favor:

from the clerical input, insurance checking/info response, patient input, dx order features, sign off and the visual, detail of the LIFEspan of a claim, orders require "circle completion," the ease of quality reporting requirements...i could go on an on with the amazing functionality features of this program.

Contras:

it is expensive, but it eliminates the need to hire for areas of administration. what I would pay for 1-3 people to do, Athena provides an entire team of people, thus creating a quicker turn around time for appeals, the need to call insurance companies. the implementation period is overwhelming, and going live will make you question yourself and your desicion. but, so worth it.

I LOVE IT!

Comentarios: We've been using Athenahealth since 10/2010. The first year of transition took some preparation each evening before seeing the next day of patients BUT entering the notes was my pre-visit preparation and I really got to know my patients! We designed our templates, I write and use templated notes for results - my patients get their results within hours after I receive them, and their PCP gets a copy of my note after each visit. No more calls/postage - and I have documentation that our patient opened my note and received her result!
Patients appreciate our getting things "right" and enjoy have access to their chart through the portal. Since 10/11, I walk out of the office 5 minutes after my last patient leaves; all the bills are dropped as patients leave. I do about 15-20 minutes of online charting and calling on days I'm not in the office - from the airport, on vacation, etc. Minor issues are handled by email. The last of our paper charts is scheduled for shredding soon!

Puntos a favor:

It is designed for me. Information is at my fingertips and I can personalize each visit just as I did with paper. No filing, no searching. Very helpful have Epocrates built into the Rx field. I've never had an issue with support not addressing my issue.

Contras:

If you don't type, you won't appreciate any EMR - I take advantage of HPI, notes and Assessment fields to write/type the same note I would write in the past. (Now it's legible.) Miss having Up To Date coordinated with the chart. The system has been "out" only once in our experience - fortunately, Athena was very responsive and we were running again before we found pen/paper.

Bait and Switch

Comentarios: The athena account manager position ( or title de jour) has been a revolving door. We have never had a meaningful relationship with them before we are assigned a new manager.

Puntos a favor:

The EMR was initially easy to set up. The billing functionality was adequate at first

Contras:

Any requests for improvement are completely ignored. For instance, from the start we were told that an android app was just around the corner. That is still their position 13 years later....it will never happen. We are just told to "put it on the suggestion board". However, the reason for my review today is that the price has suddenly jumped in a huge way. Even though we have been told that the price (Percentage of GROSS collections) will drop over time, they have just raised the percentage that they take again. This is being blamed on "inflation" but obviously inflation alone will increase their withholding since they are on a percentage of collections basis. They in fact are just taking a bigger piece of the pie. Totally dishonest. And it is being done against our will, with no contract negotiation.

Think of your Best Hire - that's Athena

Comentarios: Exceeding our expectations - consistently delivers - 100% recommend.

Puntos a favor:

Athena has a true "Skin in the game" model, their performance impacts their payment. Negligible start-up costs with great first year and on-going support as well as employees who engage with us to help us succeed and grow.

Contras:

We've had to engage with third party vendors for some services we feel Athena should be able to provide. That added cost is not optimal.

Streamlined is a Bad Product

Puntos a favor:

It is cloud based. The Resource Hub connects you with other users that help you devise work arounds to handle the issues with the software.

Contras:

The Classic Version was very customizable, easy to learn, easy to use. The Streamlined Version is a washed down version of what their Classic was. Their idea of Streamlined is to limit the customization ability, to make each office workflow the same despite specialty and to code the program to look more like an App. You will be encouraged to post suggestions on an internal board for updates and changes but even if hundreds of users agree with you that won't mean they will make a change. You lose a lot of control. There are issues with offshore posting and you will not be able to talk to someone about these issues. The training is all videos that are not specific to your office type. Account managers change often and will route you to call the Customer Service Center instead of answering questions. The reps at the Customer Service Center after often nice enough but the internal training seems to be lacking because you are often waiting weeks for an answer to something and/or something that is obviously a big issue is disregarded and you will be told that it is working as designed. The streamlined roll out, support, and willingness to work with the clients is disappointing to say the least. They took a decent product and they wrecked it and give no option to delay or keep the product that actually worked right. Also there is no tech support for their patient portal which has a lot of issues and my practice fields a great deal of phonecalls from patients who have trouble accessing it.