Electronic Health Record Management Software
4/5 (1111 reviews)NextGen Ambulatory EHR is a fully-compliant electronic health record management software that offers health professionals a single and centralized platform from which to share and manage patient information. Incorporating streamlined workflows, data interoperability and drag and drop features, NextGen Ambulatory EHR aims to deliver a smart EHR solution.
Designed to enable physicians to work efficiently, NextGen Ambulatory EHR equips users with the tools to manage patient charts quickly and easily. Utilizing a single powerful database, NextGen Ambulatory EHR grants users quick and central access to both clinical and administrative patient information. By streamlining user-workflow, NextGen Ambulatory EHR aspires to help physicians see more patients and practice more medicine.
To enhance user productivity, NextGen Ambulatory EHR provides users with the technology to sort, filter and access patient information conveniently. Hence, while NextGen Ambulatory EHR allows users to configure tabs by specialty, practice, provider and visit type, NextGen Ambulatory EHR also permits users to drag-and-drop their most-viewed fields as well as collapse sections currently not in use. Moreover, while hovering over the top of a record, NextGen Ambulatory EHR presents users with a quick review of a patient’s history.
With NextGen Ambulatory EHR’s interoperability functionality, users can exchange data seamlessly between patients, providers, payers and health registries. By enabling users to share data across systems and providers, NextGen Ambulatory EHR allows users to coordinate care simply and effectively.
Pros
1. Highly configurable...an organization can develop/program/configure any template or drop-down list box to tailor it to their clinical staff!
2. Software includes everything a clinic/hospital needs...and with NextGen's MirthConnect product, any interface or integration to another system is possible and easy! Besides the EHR and Practice Management, NextGen provides a Patient Portal, ePrescribe capability, Rosetta and MirthConnect (allowing interfaces to any system like LabCorp, Quest, Immunization Registries.), and much more!
3. NextGen Support is awesome...and if there is a new staff member, just request Tier 2 or Tier 3 support techs so your challenges are addressed quickly by experts in every area of the product!
4. NextGen Training is helpful from knowledgeable and experienced staff who have worked in clinical and front office environments. For any upgrades or projects, or if you are brand new, leverage the advanced trainers for additional training for staff and learning how to utilize/configure the system by having them review your configuration.
5. NextGen Development and NextGen 3rd Party Integrators (like Ciscon) are amazing to work with...If you don't have time to develop templates or learn, contact them to obtain a quote. I have been most impressed with support team at Ciscon! They have been able to streamline Provider templates and save tons of clicks so the Providers just adore and appreciate the efforts! They were also able to train all the clinical staff on the new workflows.
Cons
Like any EHR (vs a paper chart), there are lots of clicks for the clinical staff members.
In addition, the graphical user interface was so new to staff, this caused delays in the encounters.
(To mitigate, we spent time, money, and effort on training users as well as building customized templates...This was worth every penny!)
In 2015, I spent countless hours reviewing/sampling one EHR after another to find a good fit for what we needed/wanted in an EHR. We were moving from paper and wanted a cloud-based solution. As a dermatology office, we absolutely need the ability to document patient's skin findings on a diagram. HealthFusion was one of the few that gave this ability and even allowed us to upload our own images which we have designed for quick easy use. Most dermatologists will utilize a more derm-specific product such as Modernizing Medicine's EMA, PracticeStudio, etc, however, another criteria we wanted in our EHR was something that was truly platform-independent and browser-independent -- could work on a ChromeOS computer, a Mac, a Windows machine, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Edge, Internet Explorer, etc. Again, MediTouch's HealthFusion EHR & Practice Management product provided this capability while other derm-specific products did not and continue not to. We also do our billing in-house and wanted a robust billing product. MediTouch is their own clearinghouse which is a big benefit so when there are issues, we don't hear from our vendor "Oh it's a problem with the Clearinghouse", instead MediTouch customer service tells us "Oh we need to fix that". Customer service is overall very good - it is here in the United States (Pacific Coast which is our local time zone) and available relatively quickly. So why not five stars? Well, the EHR itself is not designed very well for a specialty-specific practice like ours so we went through a process of customizing it for our needs. We are happy that customization was available however it was a daunting and time consuming process. While the EHR system allows for some meaningful use and PQRS measures it does NOT collect data for specialty-specific measures so it's basically useless for our PQRS/MU/MACRA reporting needs. Which is very unfortunate and might force us to move to a derm-specific product.
Pros
Platform-independent (works on ChromeOS, MacOS, iOS, Android, etc.)
Browser-independent (works in Chrome, Safari, Edge, Internet Explorer, Opera, etc)
Cloud-based with no need for specific hardware/software in-house.
Local to our time zone (Pacific) with U.S. based customer service
Clearinghouse is in-house with the vendor
Speed of operation - there have been moments when the cloud-based
Cons
Lack of specialty-specific Meaningful Use, PQRS, and MACRA measures
Need for heavy customization for the purposes of documenting specific scenarios (specialty or otherwise)
Extra components within standard documentation unnecessary for most specialties
Integration of PM and EHR could be a bit better
Pros
They are improving the product consistently. There have been two product updates since we started with them in March. Customer service has improved greatly as well. 99% of the time someone who picks up the phone and helps you with your problems. They have daily webinars that are free of a particular topic, so you can log in, ask questions, get help, and then log off. The product has a lot of great things such as ease of sending the charges from the docs to the billing department, seeing the exact statement that a patient received so you can talk to them more intelligently, getting lots of detail on the claims, rescheduling a patient from one day to the next, and blocking a portion of the schedule or opening a portion of the schedule.
Cons
You can submit issues via email, but once they respond back, they close the case. Even if they didn't give you the answer you were looking for, you then have to email again and reference the case requiring you to print everything to keep track, because there is no way to follow the status of your case. If you submit feature requests, there is no way to know if they are working on it, aren't considering it, holding it for a future update, etc. There are specific reports that you can get, but if you need something that's not pre-built, there is very little way to obtain the info, if at all. I requested some kind of report writer. The reports all come out as an Excel spreadsheet which is good, because it allows you to manipulate and move around the data, but when you print it's very unwieldy and not pretty. They need to have a way to convert the report to a PDF format once you have it the way you like. Many of the reports don't offer options such as picking providers, locations, payers, so you have to manipulate the report after it opens to delete what you do not need, which is time consuming. The software is extremely dependent on location, which means everything you do has to be done by location creating a lot of work. If you have many offices, your docs do surgery in several locations and they are outpatient or inpatient. Changing or adding something has to be done many times, because you do it by location. It would be easier if there was a drop-down listing your locations and you only had to check the locations to which your additions or changes were applicable. Parts of the software feel as if they are too structured and everything has to fit into their predetermined way to do things. There is not enough flexibility and leeway to change portions that suit your practice. Vendor training was not great when we started and we paid for an outside vendor that works with Healthfusion to come on site and train us. I understand that the help and training portions have changed a bit since then and may be better. It has great potential if they would open up the software and be more flexible!
We are a single physician clinic in rural Texas. My physician is also my husband, and he is a board certified Family Practice osteopathic physician practicing in the same clinic for almost 30 years now. Our clinic is busy, and my staff is small. Employees are cross-trained in medical assisting and clerical duties and often cover each other depending on patient needs and/or staff absences. Having MediTouch PM software has given me a peace of mind, regarding patient care business needs, that I never had with prior computer programs. The system gets the insurance information correct and the insurance forms completed so much better than anything I've used in the past 15 years or more.
I have less missed charges thanks to the patient page showing the listing of a patient's office visits. If the charges have not yet been entered, there is an "ENTER" beside the date just waiting to be clicked. This better assures the correct dates are posted. Staff uses the recall options to follow up on patient care and schedule future appointments with less chance of letting a patient slip by without follow up. The Electronic Remittance Advice documents are wonderful - no more paper and everything in one place. The search options allow us to go back to anything as needed. Automatic posting saves time and frees staff for other tasks. At present, we are operating with one less staff member as when we first began to use the system.
As the physician's manager and wife, I appreciate that I can work on this day and night (for better or worse) without being tied to the clinic building. I am here at my home desk completing this review right now. I can finish posting claims, follow up on denied claims, generate and print statements all without carrying home boxes of papers. Having the data for both management and health records stored off-site is a blessing to me. The constant fear of system crashes and failed backups is over. I do not have the burden of upgrading to newer and more powerful servers at the clinic, but can use money to by better single computers that can connect with HealthFusion remotely and not to a central in-house server system.
I am still learning many aspects of the system, and anything not yet learned is entirely my own fault as HealthFusion has improved the training materials greatly over the past year. They are now easy to find and access. My time is all that needs to be planned because they have done everything else for us. Reports are available if I want them, too. I have seen our clinic income increase; payments come more quickly and less error thanks to the MediTouch PM system. Whenever I do find areas that I think need attention, the customer service is quick to respond and have taken my suggestions into implementation on a few occasions. They are very personable and professional whenever we call, although I tend to use email when possible. The replies are quick and complete.
We signed up for the programs in November 2010 based on promotional programs that were offered via the American Osteopathic Association. We didn't jump in to actually using the product until the following June when e-prescribing was required. If I could go back, I would have started the programs' use much earlier. I was simply afraid to jump in and leave our old systems behind. To my surprise, the transition has been easy. Thank you very much for the chance to share this experience. I do not mind providing more details if needed.
Pros
I love the A/R features. I love how fast I get paid by commercial vendors. I love how intuitive it is on helping avoid claim issues. I did not have any issues with implementation. I have had nothing but good experience with support. We have had this EMR for over a year (and I have dealt with a few) and this is by far the best I've used. We have not had any issues with it going down. We have called when we have thought the system was down and they have guided use through issues with browsers, internet speed etc. So we were always glad we called, problems solved when we thought it was on their end. Yes, claim eligibility check is only on some providers but if you get to know how to use it more in depth it can be VERY helpful in further info not just for eligibility but for knowing primary care provider etc. I have had ZERO issues with auto post and yes, I have double checked. I also really like their statement service, I review each statement before I "send" them to them to send for me but no more issues with bad addresses etc and well worth the money. Their "help" section is great. The help sheets are AWESOME. I email support more than I've ever called them and they send me helpsheets when I can't find them.
Cons
I would like a better way to weed out the non paid lines with auto post instead of dumping them all to the appeal bucket. I would like to be able to attach a claim to the billing comments and be able to send them to another employee to review. I wish that I could upload our own forms to save in the system- I do not like the forms library at all, pretty well worthless to us, I would like it if I could upload, name our files and use it that way.
To receive accurate pricing information, contact NextGen directly.
Below are some frequently asked questions for NextGen Healthcare.
NextGen Healthcare offers the following pricing plans:
Pricing model: Subscription
Free Trial: Available
To receive accurate pricing information, contact NextGen directly.
NextGen Healthcare offers the following features:
NextGen Healthcare has the following typical customers:
Large Enterprises, Mid Size Business, Small Business
NextGen Healthcare supports the following languages:
English
NextGen Healthcare has the following pricing plans:
Subscription
NextGen Healthcare supports the following devices:
Android, iPhone, iPad
NextGen Healthcare integrates with the following applications:
Bridge Patient Portal, Luma Health, NextGen Healthcare, ReminderCall.com, WELL
NextGen Healthcare offers the following support options:
Online Support, Phone Support
In 2006, a 3rd party integrator (no longer in business) sold NextGen to our organization and since this was their first time installing it, the installation and configuration was barely implemented. To mitigate, in 2011, additional Practice Management training from NextGen and EHR Training/template development resources from Ciscon were engaged to review billing processes and create clinical workflows. Thanks to NextGen/Ciscon, we were able to launch the EHR in 2013. Since then, they have helped us make significant improvements to the clinical workflow (customizing templates) and billing processing. In 2016, the NextGen reports allowed us to start receiving CMS Meaningful Use/ACI incentive funds.