Based out in Utah, AdvancedMD has a number of cloud based medical software solutions, covering areas such as practice management, and patient engagement. Previously, we looked at AdvancedMD’s Medical Billing solution, and today we are looking at AdvancedMD EHR. It has a national presence with about 800 employees covering over 13,000 medical practices, and interfacing with about 850 medical billing companies. But is it one of the best Electronic Health Records software platforms? Read on below.
AdvancedMD EHR: Features
AdvancedMD is designed to make taking care of patients paperless, with access to records anytime from anywhere. Specialists are sure to like the templates that are designed for each specialty, and then can be further customized by the note, or even the subnote.
This solution also has ‘Task donuts’ to keep staff focused on the work volume. This is akin to a task manager to keep a list of critical tasks, and able to view upcoming tasks.
There are also available electronic integrations. We appreciate that digital faxing can be integrated in, along with e-prescribing.
Finally, this all can be tracked through analytics for an indication of efficiency and for Clinical Quality Reporting.
Patient Portal
Just about every EHR has a patient portal these days, to increase patient engagement and take the load off the front office staff. AdvancedMD indicates that theirs can handle the common tasks of communicating a plan of treatment, and provide prescription instructions, among other tasks.
Mobile
Being a mature platform, AdvancedMD has multiple apps to support its cloud software EHR. While clinicians will most benefit from the AdvancedMD mobile app to interact with patient charts, there is also an app for the front office to work on appointment documents such as demographics and consents, and there is also a patient kiosk app designed for the iPad to have patients complete intake forms when they check in for an appointment.
While we did find an administrator app, and a patient check in app on the Android side, we did not locate the clinical app, which is a shortcoming as Android is the more popular platform. However, iOS is generally felt to be more secure (it’s no accident that the US President uses an iPhone), and the app AdvancedMD Mobile is well rated at 4.4 out of 5 stars. It has a clean interface, and we like that users can toggle between screens, such as for the daily schedule, the incoming messages, the patient charts for an office session, and even the constant stream of pharmacy refill requests.
AdvancedMD EHR: Support
We often get a little suspicious when we easily find phone numbers and direct emails for sales and general inquiries, but then under tech support, it leads us to a support page, although there is a phone number on that page as well. We did not find a direct support email, and it is unclear if chat is only for sales, or also handles tech issues as well. There are no hours or days of support listed, rather just a list of holidays that they close for. There is a Support Portal, which needs an ‘Office Key’ to proceed to the next step with.
There is also content available to help increase your knowledge as well. This includes videos, ebooks, product sheets, a blog, practice life docuseries and webinars that are available on demand to fit into a busy clinician’s workflow.
AdvancedMD EHR: Pricing
The AdvancedMD EHR pricing, as we will point out in fairness, does follow the path of some other EHR solutions that the pricing is not forthcoming. Clearly, AdvancedMD knows that folks want the pricing, as there is a link for ‘Pricing’ right on the top of the homepage - prominently and clearly featured no less. When we click on it, on first glance it even looks promising, with two options, to either ‘Build a bundle,’ or to ‘See preconfigured bundles.’
We first tried the ‘See preconfigured bundles’ options, they were not listed. Rather, there is a request for a work email and a phone number to be able to find out more; we did not proceed further.
However, when we go for ‘Build a bundle,’ there is again a series of 14 questions, and again there is a request for business credentials. On this one we did go ahead, and were given a price. However, as the questions are asked, there is no pricing along the way, and we felt like at a car dealership as the vehicle is being optioned up, without knowing the price along the way. For example, the question of “Do you want to fax?” seemed like a better idea before we say the $40/month just for that one feature, when there are lower cost faxing options out there.
When it was all totaled up, including the EHR at $350/month, plus 9 more options, came to a total of $1129/month, which had a discount of 26%, with a final monthly total of $835. Oh, and this was only for a single provider practice that we built!
AdvancedMD EHR: Final verdict
The AdvancedMD EHR is an established offering with plenty to like. We note high points, such as the dedicated app for in office check in on an iPad, the available integrations with digital faxing, the available mobile app that can support e-prescribe refill requests, and that (while too many hoops to jump through), and pricing can be found online.
However, we balance that against some lows, that include the high pricing particularly with a la carte extras, the difficulty finding the Android app, and the mild confusion around the support options, with unclear hours of operation. Overall, while this may be a decent option for some, we wish for a free trial to better decide this.
