AtenaEMR- part II. (Prior thread not accepting new additions.)

Sometimes this site is really quirky nowadays. Nick, can that be fixed? Answering DallasDoc's notes:

>>> After all, there are objective requirements to passing CCHIT. Don't you think it would be fairly easy for someone to take a look at AthenaHealth EMR and see if it meets basic CCHIT requirements. 

No. Who regulates CCHIT to make sure that some of the hearsay subjective stuff isn't simply ignored? Nobody.

>>> Do you really think that the President of the United States gives a hoot about the CCHIT certification of AthenaHealth. I will wager he has never even heard of CCHIT.

You gotta be kidding me! You don't think that he named HHS Leavitt to set up CCHIT like a quasi-governmental certification agency and no know anything about CCHIT? Check out this quote:

"In an August 22, 2006 executive order, President George W. Bush designated EHR technology as a national priority, calling for uniform interoperability, product certification standards and a national electronic health infrastructure to be in place by 2014."

>>> His own personal physician doesn't use AthenaHealth, he uses Allscripts. If he was so eagar to have AthenaHealth be the king of EMR's, don't you think he would use this same influence to have his personal doc use it?

Are you referring to Brig. Gen. (Dr.) Richard J. Tubb? I don't think that he has a private practice anymore than would George Patton. Check out his biography here. Where did you learn that he [supposedly] uses Allscripts?

 Al, for someone with so much interest on postings about Athena EMR,

have you actually done an online demo of it yet?   Obviously you don't like it being CCHIT certified, but beyond that,

what makes it a good EMR or a bad EMR?   

The only post I've read so far, by someone actually familiar with it is this one:

 from Dr. Care ..........

http://www.emrupdate.com/forums/p/14720/84404.aspx#84404

"I’ve been a user of athena’s billing services for a couple years now, since 2005 when I came to EMRupdate looking for advice, and an investor in the company as soon as I my broker could buy shares.  My wife’s practice also uses them but for both billing and EMR, and they could not be happier.

I am not sure what “Sales guy” is referring to in his comments about rates increasing.  Niether my wife, or my rate has never increased, and none of my colleagues who use their services have increased either (some of their contracts go back 6 years).  I do find myself paying them more now than when I first contracted them, but that is only because I am getting paid more.  3.75% of 800k is a lot more than 3.75% of 600k.

On the EMR side everything is not perfect, but the approach they have taken is very smart.  I sat in on my wife’s practice’s emr selection, they looked at NextGen, ECW, Centricity and Athena .  After viewing the demo’s and performing site visits with the competitors she decided to go with Athena.  It’s been live for a few months now and Athena has blown away all of her (and my) expectations.

On day one her practice was paperless, not because she wanted it to be(which she did) but because Athena made it so.  With them you outsource your paper.  The 100 or so fax’s she received a day are sent directly to them.  They have nurse practitioners who look at each and every one of those inbound faxes, attach it to the patient, tie it to the order, and queue it up for her staff to take action.  That's just one of the services they provide that no other EMR vendor takes on.

I don’t want to go into too much detail, but because of the services they provide with their EMR.  I am convinced that she will never miss anything in regards to patient care-- again, because Athena makes it so.

I haven’t bit the bullet and purchased it yet, I'll be adding it later this year.

The implementation team was top notch, they sat with each member of the clinical staff and customized the solution so that it fit what they wanted perfectly.

I have to thank whoever puts this forum together, I don't post often, I think its been since 2006 but read every week.  It's great to see everyone's great insight."

Hi Layne:

That was another reason to start another thread... the association of Bush with his cousin is an interesting one, but a distraction. An interesting distraction that needs to have it's own thread!

I wish more would speak on Athena; I wonder why Fred (Trotter) hasn't chimed in? By gosh, he interviewed the CEO!

Cheers,

Al

alborg:

You gotta be kidding me! You don't think that he named HHS Leavitt to set up CCHIT like a quasi-governmental certification agency and no know anything about CCHIT? Check out this quote:

"In an August 22, 2006 executive order, President George W. Bush designated EHR technology as a national priority, calling for uniform interoperability, product certification standards and a national electronic health infrastructure to be in place by 2014."

The President signs orders like this every day. He knows Leavitt but I'll wager he has no idea what CCHIT is. Obviously I cannot prove this but don't you think he has a little more on his plate that to give a rat's rear end about how EMR's are certified.

 

 

>>> His own personal physician doesn't use AthenaHealth, he uses Allscripts. If he was so eagar to have AthenaHealth be the king of EMR's, don't you think he would use this same influence to have his personal doc use it?

 Are you referring to Brig. Gen. (Dr.) Richard J. Tubb? I don't think that he has a private practice anymore than would George Patton. Check out his biography here. Where did you learn that he [supposedly] uses Allscripts?

Tubb is the White House physician, but President Bush and his wife been going to the Cooper Clinic in Dallas for years. Ken Cooper is present every year for the President's annual check up at Bethesda. The Cooper Clinic is on Allscripts. 

 

Just read a bit on Dr. Cooper- he's a pretty fascinating guy. Wrote 18 books and is a "guru" on exercise physiciology. Impressive!