Making the Practice Fusion EHR Switch: From Heartbreak to Happiness

Recently, our Director of Communications, Emily Peters, found a great blog piece on one doctor’s transition from another EHR to Practice Fusion. This new user’s previous EHR experience wasn’t a good one to say the least. Their practice was promised customizable templates and other exciting features they hadn’t seen before which was what originally drew them into that particular EHR system.  They were quickly turned off and within two weeks after going live were searching for another system. Thankfully, we turned their feelings on EHRs around and we’re happy to say they’re in digital bliss! Here’s the story of their love/hate relationship with EMRs:

“The Heartbreak of EMRs” by Brent Herr

 ”As we started our new practice in July I knew it was time to jump into the amazing digital world of electronic medical records.  I did what I thought was my due diligence and reviewed the systems that were recommended by colleagues as well as others that caught my eye.  I settled on [a leading EMR] program as it promised the usual customizable templates, patient and provider reminders, tracking for the Meaningful Use money available from Medicare, etc., etc. In addition, we had been using their practice management software already.  I watched the webinars, training videos, and worked with their trainer on setting up the system.  We went live with it 2 weeks ago and I have lost my patience with it.  The templates I created do not work properly and the trainer doesn’t know why.  It has E&M calculator which is designed to help determine the proper code for a visit based on the amount of work I do. It doesn’t work.
I am switching to Practice Fusion.  It is free, intuitive, and doesn’t require me to learn computer programming.  Luckily the practice is slow so I have the time for trial and error. The experiment continues”.