Actually, the existing practice management (PM) account numbers can be put into the Chart ID (Miscellaneous Field) in demographics. This can then be searched under the Search window as need be, and will tie into our PM system as it gets built as part of V6.
Leslie - the "new and improved" features are not things we are adding just to have as new and improved. They are the features that are required for your practice, my practice, and everybody else, to be eligible for the stimulus funds and improved reimbursements that are long overdue.
Everything added and changed in Amazing Charts is a balance between client-requests, government and insurer mandates, usability, etc. So let me rant a bit - now that I'm frustrated and defensive when hearing comments like: "But, these [are] just a few of [the] numerous things that many, many of us have begged for over the years....the simple things...that seem to keep getting pushed to the side in favor of "new and improved" features."
I know eMDs, for example, has a good scheduler that is color coded and will likely handle all the scheduling needs of any group. Their price is something like 25X the cost of Amazing Charts. eClinicalWorks (eCW) too has color coding and schedule preferences/settings up the wazoo. My wife (a pediatrician), whose large practice forced eCW on her, asked me this morning to help her schedule a patient in her system because she can't figure out how to do it! (Their nurse manager, btw, recently counted the number of mouse clicks to enter a single flu shot on a patient - it was literally 30+. But I digress.)
Now of course this doesn't answer the core complaint, which is why can't Amazing Charts do some bell & whistle things that seem pretty simple, even when clients have requested these features for awhile. I don't have a perfect answer - so I'll give you the truth. Amazing Charts is a work in progress. It is moving forward, and most users who have been with us for years recognize it to be a slow, but steady, process. While we certainly have plans to enhance the schedule piece with color coding and indication when a chart has been signed, etc., those enhancements got delayed as the priority list was adjusted to take into account more pressing features that became evident.
In fact, scheduling and practice management additions were to be the core changes in V5, but the rapid change of the EHR landscape earlier this year - with the introduction of the HITECH (ARRA) stimulus money and insurer promises of improved reimbursements for CCHIT certification, e-prescribing, health maintenance, and other features - forced us to make the hard decision to hold on the planned practice management improvements on which we had been aggressively working (we even had a group of users help design this).
These features make up our V5 (now in alpha testing), and as V5 moves to beta and then release, we will focus back on PM development - most of which has already been designed and now just needs to be built. It is clear, however, that even as this happens, the rapidly moving Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model will also become much more widespread and required, and adding easy wizards and tools to allow practices to gather and submit required reports and data will also be required as part of the V5 to V6 transition. And yes, these "new and improved" features might again delay adding some of the "simple things" that we would all certainly like to get into the program.
Anyway, my point is simple. Amazing Charts is a work in progress and will continue to grow and improve over time - in a manner that actually works. What is most telling, I believe, is that even though the eMDs, eCWs, and the other "big boys" already have color-coded scheduling and a combined PM, their systems literally costs tens of thousands of dollars per provider to implement, and their users can't figure out how to schedule an appointment!
And it isn't just my wife. In the October 2009 Medscape EMR survey, Amazing Charts received the highest total overall score from respondents, beating everybody else, including such well-known systems as MediNotes, Allscripts, Practice Partner, eClinicalWorks, Cerner, Centricity, NextGen, and eMDs. Most amazing to me, when these users were asked if they would recommend their EMR to other practices, while 100% of Amazing Charts respondents said yes, the vendors who give great color-coded scheduling didn't fare so well. Nearly 25% of users of eCW, eMDs, and GE’s Centricity would NOT recommend their EMR to another practice, 32% of Allscripts users would not recommend Allscripts, and more than half of Cerner users would recommend against buying their system!
In summary, Amazing Charts will continue to strive to be the best, most affordable, EHR, and a reality-check for the businesses charging ridiculous money for mediocre products. But we need your support, your faith, and your trust. And bitching on the board, while I'm sure is cathartic, causes me to spend time defending our approach, rather than working on adding the enhancements that we all would like to have. (Not a great argument, I know; but simply the truth.)
Jon
P.S. I actually really like Leslie and have known her for a long time, so I know she can take being the lightening rod and focus of my diatribe.
