AC is not a point and click EMR. I had one of those and fired it. AC is an excellent time saver particularily in combination with dictation software ( AKA dragon naturally Speaking). I used to use a transcription service and graduated to "in house" transcription some years ago when my off-site transcriptionist said "Oh! You saw my high school chum Suzy Q on Monday, would you give me her phone number?" ( along with other problems including the length of time I spent dictating the same thing over and over). Then one of my office staff would spend half a day ( think salary dollars) merging my dictation of individualized sections with different templates. ( I still had to listen to myself talking way too much and also tell her which templates to use).As an added bonus there are no peices of paper to move from one location to an other during the work day and all office staff have access at all times. No more "where is the chart" circus. I think this technology is going to make the medical transcriptionist obsolete. What will be needed ( I think in large numbers) are people who understand medical record keeping and can provide EMR support either as a part of an EMR company or as "on-site" support to an office. I really do love AC, but I would like to have learned a little less by trial and error and would have welcomed a little more instruction in "how to use" and demonstration of different features. Back to cost, this system is jaw droppingly inexpensive in comparison to the alternatives even when you also consider "add-ons" like interfaces, practice management software, dictation software, AC support, "on-site" support etc. EMR are coming and transcription is fading.
