Pros
Biggest pro is pulling the last note, with it's information forward. If another nurse has seen the patient the week before, you see his or her note and have the latest information about what's going on.
Being able to update the meds immediately in the home and generate orders and communications immediately on the spot saves tons of time.
I feel safer in that I can pull up exact Dr's orders while out in the field. Less middle man communication.
Cons
I love love love the drop down boxes it enables more specific charting right under that specific body system when needed, unfortunately the pain section has no drop down box. This, to me, is a more important area than many of the others to have more room to write. You are limited under all sections under this title so that you are not able, at times to present a true picture and are left to chart what is happening elsewhere within the note. This would seem to be an easy fix. Please add more charting room here and I would be one happy nurse.
I have used five different EMR systems (but no other Home Health Specific ones) and find Kinnser to be the most frustrating of all of them. Kinnser migh be the best "bang for the buck" or even the best Home Health option, but I would encourage potential subscribers to shop around and/or ask for a trail (as difficult as that would be as were talking EMR here) first.
Pros
Interface is generally fairly intuitive. Daily notes are well organized. Perhaps its greatest strength is the interface for performing an OASIS SOC note. It makes the best of a long document. Customer support, while rarely able to solve the issues I have had, are professional and courteous and wait times are reasonable.
Cons
There are many. Keep in mind that I am a fairly new PT (graduated May 2016) and have been using Kinnser for almost 3 months. However, while I am no computer programmer, I consider myself computer literate and well above average in using applications like MS-Excel. Here are my biggest complaints with Kinnser:
-there is no auto-save feature, which still causes me to lose information on a weekly basis (How hard is it to click save? Answer: Not especially hard, but if you make a few quick notes and get back to working with a patient, surprisingly so.)
-The system is supposed to time out in 45 minutes if work isn't saved (note: this is not 45 minutes of no use, but 45 minutes of not being saved). This seems quite generous, but note that this is 45 minutes in theory. There are other issues with the time out feature as I will explain below. Today, I was writing in the assessment section and the time out screen popped up (warning you to "click here to stay signed in" or "click here to sign out"). A five minute timer runs in this pop-up window. Fair enough. But it had not been 45 minutes since I last saved and when I spoke with Customer Support (no wait time on the phone, which was nice), they told me that it had been only nine minutes since it last saved. I wouldn''t have even called Customer Support if the "Click here to stay signed in" button worked, but it didn't. It just reset the timer. Re-clicking it only reset the timer again. Indefinitely. So I called Customer Support. When I asked for an explanation as to why the timer feature was not working they told me that they had updated Kinnser the previous evening and since I had not cleared my cache and cookies , this essentially made the time-out clock poorly calibrated and not work. I can't refute that argument as I had only cleared my cache the previous afternoon, not previous evening. I pointed out that roughly fifty percent of the time the "stay signed in feature" does not work and either logs me out or just resets the clock indefinitely when the timer does show up. I clean my Browser's cache weekly. They had no explanation for this. (Customer support is again very patient and friendly throughout all of this).
-Viewing past notes is very cumbersome as it will split the subjective written portion (or objective or assessment) into separate parts of the generated pdf. (The subjective portion will start at the beginning of the note, but then users will have to scroll down to the bottom of the note to read the rest of the subjective portion.) It's like reading a newspaper, but having to switch multiple times between the front page and some page in the middle of the paper. Very weird. I have not asked for an explanation for this.
-While I did say the OASIS is fairly well organized for the initial run-through of the note, going back to edit could easily be made more efficient. Sections are divided into Prognosis/ADLs/Nutrition/Medication/Endocrine/etc pages, but if you have been asked by a supervisor to correct mistakes and (s)he only provides the "Moo Number" (ex. M-2205), and you aren't experienced enough in the OASIS to know immediately what section that is in, you have to go hunting for it. It would be great if they could put a "Moo Number" index with hyperlinks, or failing that, put the range of Moo Numbers for each page after on the menu screen. It would make navigating the OASIS for editing much faster.
-K-mail. K-mail is a form of inter-office email. Imagine a pre-year 2000 web based email system. That's kmail. It works, it's functional, but that's it. If you reply or forward a kmail, the previous author's message is not indented or color changed. In the rare long kmail exchange, it could be near impossible to tell who wrote what or when one response starts or ends unless each author started and finished with a salutation.
-Those last two complaints about the OASIS and K-mail are indicative of most of my concerns with Kinnser Software. It's that there are so many things that seemingly could be made more efficient or user-friendly without gutting the program, but remain unaddressed. If Kinnser was in Beta or a free program, I'd be willing to overlook a lot of its issues and annoyances. But Kinnser is not free. (I don't know how much my employer pays for a subscription relative to other EMRs.) I've used five different web-based EMRs in my short career/internships and while I had complaints about all of them (smart/cassamba, webPT, others I don't recall the name of now), none have so frequently frustrated me or resulted in lost data as often as Kinnser. Frankly, it drives me nuts. I've worked with Cassamba/smart much longer than Kinnser (10 months versus 3) but have only called Cassamba for support maybe three or four times. I call Kinnser with an issue possibly an average of almost once per week.
Pros
I feel like it is very user friendly and customer support has always been extremely helpful in any issues we have had and in finding ways to customize the software to support our needs.
Cons
I am not a fan of the new help button in the bottom right of the screen after a recent update, i have also noticed that when you update the date of a task that is past due it does't go back to "black" it will stay "red"....so basically just a few minor quirks here and there.
Nurses stopped complaining about software that was too difficult to use.
Pros
User friendly
Web-based
Company stays on top of regulatory changes
Online and web-based training library is comprehensive
Cons
New agency training stinks. It was 95% geared toward field nursing and 5% toward back office support. Of all the issues that we have had, I can honestly say 90% of them wouldn't have come up with proper training in the beginning. In hindsight, the most important issue that I did not know was that Kinnser does not systemically submit OASIS. I came from a software that had its issues, but in the 7-8 years I used it, I never once had to submit OASIS manually. It was done by the software vendor with no thought on my part. Therefore, when we switched to Kinnser, this wasn't an issue on my radar. I never thought to ask. We began using Kinnser in January 2017 and it wasn't until late March that we figured out OASIS wasn't being submitted. Then we had to go thru a setup process with Kinnser that should been part of implementation. The submitter ID was setup incorrectly which delayed submission. We had our first successful submission the first week in May, but meantime Palmetto/Medicare implemented a new rule on April 1, that they wouldn't pay any claims when the OASIS were submitted after 30 days. Palmetto denied payment in finals and recouped another in RAPs already paid. This minor issue costs my agency. Needless to say, Kinnser cut me off at the beginning of the next month because our payment was late. They didn't care that they contributed to the issue.
In addition, we had multiple billing issues.
Generally Kinnser is a good program. It’s definitely on the pricier end of the spectrum, but has less faults than a lot of other major systems.
Pros
The organization of the program was easy to understand—the patient chart mirrors the way that paper charts used to be organized, including the tabs on the top of the page. The calendar in the chart also makes it easy to see when other disciplines are making visits as well.
Cons
I didn’t like that some of the features that make Kinnser a good program required additional purchases. Things like importing parts of the notes (like diagnosis in the therapy notes) are necessary to have, and the “extras” weren’t transparently verbalized prior to purchase. Also, the therapy functional assessments are the same not as the initial evaluations, which requires a lot of effort to ensure insurance compliance.
Pros
The interface is designed much like the internet itself which is easy for anyone from the field through the office to grasp and utilize. I even have my contractors using it. The reporting structures are pretty through. Now that they have added PPS Plus it is simply a Win Win.
Cons
I don't have dislikes. I don't know why I need to document so much to say the same thing. I do not have dislikes. I am very satisfied. I have even taken this software to other agencies where I have consulted.
When I joined the company over 2 years ago, I was taught the ropes of Kinnser Agency manager and Kinnser Hospice. I thought and still think that it was very easy to navigate and learn everything I needed to know!
Pros
This is a great product with fast response times and amazing functionality. One click and you are right where you need to be.
Cons
Sometimes it's very slow and customer service isn't very helpful. They have slow response times and sometimes even tell us they are unable to help.
I have been using kinnser software for the last 2 years. It's not bad, but could be better! For example: if there are 5 patients on my schedule for today, I want this software to have ability to show me the map with all of those patients on it, do I plan my route better! Right now I have to go from one patient profile to the other to find their address and where they are on the map to schedule my route. Also it needs to have a function to trigger reminders about pt/inr labs, etc...
Pros
User friendly
Cons
I hate not being able to see multiple patients and their schedules at the same time. Also very expensive...
I went from using previous software to using Kinnser. Let me just say that Kinnser is so much better. It is extremely user-friendly, in ever aspeEasyct.
Pros
I love everything about it but I especially love the Kmail which increases communication with employees, keeps everyone up to date on current orders, etc...
Cons
Very rarely, but sometimes, I will suddenly get kicked off the website with no warning, losing information that hadn't been saved.
Our team will never recommend Kinnser. Their staff are difficult to work with which does not help.
Pros
Use of iPads. The kmail system. There are really no Pros to this product to be discussed. It has been a constant up-hill struggle.
Cons
Where to begin. Customer support is awful....they promise to get back to you and then do not follow up so when you call back they do not know what you are talking about. We are a rural Home Health agency and are often out of service area and Kinnser has an offline feature that they charge extra for but that is cumbersome to use and usually does not work. There is no automatic save on any clinical note so unless you constantly "save" you can loose everything and have to start over. Billing scenario is a nightmare. You cannot use a secondary biller through Kinnser. You have to open several tabs to be able to look at more than one page of Kinnser. Many more issues, including being off-line too many times. For all the issues we have had they will not allow us to break our contract early. Kinnser is very expensive and one would expect high end service.
Pros
I haven't used such an easy system for Home Health. I have had some pretty difficult systems but Agency manager by far is the easiest!
Cons
I don't have a lot of cons to think of but one I could say would be sometimes it freezes up on me and makes me lose what I was working on but that never really happens often for us. When it does, we just give the technical support a call and they usually just tell us it was a glitch and it should be fine if we log out and back in.
I own a therapy staffing service and work with approximately 8 agencies who use Kinnser. Each agency customizes their user rights to allow a variety of interfaces. We have used locked down versions that only allow extremely basic privileges and didn't like it. Versions allowing clinicians even a moderate amount of flexibility are far easier to use.
Pros
When agencies allow users to "use previous note" the system flows between the evaluation and the regular notes and then on to the discharge very well.
Cons
1) When agencies do not allow users to "use previous note" there are big information gaps between the initial evaluations, visit notes, reassessments and discharges. 2) The pain section of therapy notes don't allow clear documentation of interventions or results of intervention. 3) We wish it was easier to document the progress towards goals by having the goals project foward between all the visits, whether or not other clinicians have documented towards them.
My agency has used Kinnser for 1 year and overall it is an excellent product. As with all Electronic Health Records, there are a few minor things we would change.
Pros
Billing overview you can see all or your claims in one place, if they are ready to go, and if they have paid.
Documenting visits notes extremely easy to learn.
Calendar view with visit types is very easy to follow.
Customer service is immediate.
Cons
Rescheduling a visit date, I would like for it to be able to change it in more than one place.
Over all, Could be a better product if you would consider the clinician out in the field and make more user friendly. I think it was geared to sell it to office admin.
Pros
Takes the place of a lot of paper, I can find out information without calling office, saves trips to office.
Cons
NO AUTO SAVE. I spend so much time rewriting notes because it doesn’t always load correctly, or if I’m busy with a pt for too long, it drops off line, I then chart more and when I save I find out NOTHING WAS SAVED.. modern software auto saves.
The font is difficult to read on tablets, it does not work well on non iPad tablets. Information needed on a pt is not easily accesssble. You have to leave your note and Enter 2 more areas to get basic stuff like DOB, Dr info or medication info, then you risk LOOSING EVERYTHING YOUVE CHARTED BECAUSE IT DIDNT LOAD.theres got to be better solutions than this software.
Pros
Ease of use and helps satisfy all regulations to keep your agency compliant. Control remains in the hands of the administrative staff to reduce error rates.
Cons
Unable to tailor much to your own agency. Although, this isn't much of a con as Kinnser does a great job at giving you great forms and reports.
This system wasn't for us. Kinnser houses several smaller agencies and doesn't have the capability for a larger agency that does a lot of business. For a paperless system, we still use a lot of paper and man power to make sure things get done timely and efficiently.
Pros
There were very few pros for this. I liked the functionality for the clinicians and the sticky notes. I liked the ability to change their review percentages and I liked their workflow for reviewing items, but there were a lot of pros to this, as well. I liked that it was web based.
Cons
It lacked a lot of functionality and the ability to create hardstops; clinicians were able to submit blank notes and Oasis just so they could get paid. The QA process was lengthy. Everything had to be double checked because the ability to submit notes without hardstops. The QA percentage could be dropped, but missed visits wouldn't still go to QA manager so that the supervisor would know to make sure the physicians were notified. There are several gaps in the system.
Pros
Ability to duplicate information from previous notes
Ability to create templates for future use
Ability to change schedule once it has been scheduled by administrator
Cons
Password has to be updated at least once per month, it autoupdates
This software does not autosave, can easily lose information if note is closed out without saving
Dependent on administrator to start or schedule appointments
If note has been submitted, unable to gain access to note unless administrator reopens
Pros
Web based and ease of use for clinicians. That is really the only reason we continue to use them at this time.
Cons
We have used this system for years but have recently become quite unhappy with the product. This EMR has refused to take simple steps to assist agencies to be compliant with the new COPs. Example: They refuse to add a hospital risk assessment tool to the comprehensive assessment. This leaves their customers searching for a method to identify a patients hospitalization risk through outside resources. Instead of putting in standardized assessment tool, such as the ones they include for Pain Assessment, Fall Risk Assessment, Nutritional Assessment and Skin Assessment, they refer their customers to Riskpoint, an expensive "hospital risk management tool" add on Kinnser offers.
Pros
Note forwarding is a very good feature and and medication auto fill save time. Also like that I can save templates on various diagnosis
Cons
There's a lot of things you can do with kinnser it's very confusing at times. However there's plenty of ways to learn via videos and support
Kinnser Software is basically "self-explanatory"! So far, Kinnser in itself has proved to be exceptional.
The billing Manager thru Kinnser is so much easier than our previous software and cut down on my billing personally by several hours!!!!
I don't know what else to say except give it a try. You really don't have that much to lose but everything to gain with Kinnser!
Optimal Care, Inc. is a Medicare certified Home Health agency located in southeastern Michigan. Three nurses make up majority ownership of the agency and our nurse practitioner model of care is unique in the home health care market. We transitioned from a server based software system to Kinnser, a web-based software solution in 2010. After 2 laptops were stolen containing protected health information, it was vital to transition devices/software that does not store patient data. All of our clinicians complete point of care documentation utilizing iPads.
Our conversion to Kinnser was seamless. We selected a conversion date and opened all new patients and recertified all active patients in the new software system. There was a 60 day overlap of systems, however, the transition to a web based solution was well worth the time and effort for conversion. The customer support team was knowledgeable and dedicated to guide us through the smooth transition. Kinnser is an extremely user-friendly software system. With this web-based, solution we have eliminated our IT department and license fees, reduced device, maintenance costs, as well as our training hours by 4/5. Our accuracy, timeliness, cash flow and clinical documentation have improved tremendously, helping us meet the demands of the current home health market.
I won't recommend it to any one.
Pros
Easy to use, with some .The organization of the program was easy to understand—including the tabs on the top of the page
Cons
No auto save option . Some reports are not accurate and the numbers do not add up. That last two months we had a lot of glitches and errors in the system. Their support is not great and takes a lot of time to get anybody over the phone. The billing piece and A/R are poorly designed and has a lot of issues. The system is overpriced , and they increase pricing every year without any basis.They overstate the number for your census and tell you that we have increase pricing based on that. We are looking shopping for a different software now.
Had never had a software system like this, so initial learning curve high. But after that would not want to be without it.
Pros
Very geared for our industry
Cons
Have to be very exact w info entered
I thought my old documentation system was bad...but it can get worse.
Pros
I like that you can plot out the calendar for the entire certification period all at once at the beginning.
Cons
Where do I even start? The customer service is insanely horrible. A phone call will take you about 45 minutes to reach a person. When they talk with you, they will "have to look into that and get back with you." When they do get back with you, it will be a at least a week later, often with no resolution. Nothing flows that is supposed to flow. Every time something doesn't work, they say that it's "a bug and we're looking into it." The "training" didn't go over even half of the system. The email within the system doesn't time stamp and becomes a long jumbled mess. THIS SYSTEM HAS COST MY AGENCY STAFF AND AN INSANE AMOUNT OF MONEY. It very well may cost us the agency. I do not recommend this system AT ALL!!!!
REALLY LOVE KINNSER. IT IS VERY EASY TO NAVIGATE AND HAS MADE MY WORK SO MUCH EASIER. I GET A LOT MORE THINGS DONE IN MY WORK DAY USING KINNSER THAN OUR PREVIOUS SOFTWARE. I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS SOFTWARE.
Pros
VERY EASY TO NAVIGATE, UPDATES ARE ALWAYS TIMELY, PROGRAM WORKS FAST, EASY TO ADD AND DELETE VISITS.
After years of paper charting out in the field and seeing other nurses with other companies use computers, I begged my superior to get something like that for us. Shortly thereafter we had our Kinnser system in place. From day one my world was changed! So much easier, faster, and complete. Being able to pull notes forward is amazing. This enables each note to stand alone and the next nurse out gets a complete picture of what's happening. I may write information in the cardiac drop down box, for example. I want everyone who sees's this pt to see this information, but if I had to rewrite it each time it would likely have just been charted on the first note and I wouldn't have rewritten it again. I love this system!