I never chimed in on this conversation because I didn't have much to add. I've never been anywhere in my life where computer programs are utilized that every single person is happy. It just doesn't happen. So listening to someone vent just seemed like a norm for an EMR user board.
It's just like marketing your practice though. One negative experience will get around to 15-20 people while one positive experience only gets around to less than 4 people. On the internet, that is multiplied exponentially I'm sure.
I have officially been using AC for 3 1/2 months now although I utilized the program for at least 2 months prior to that. I have only contacted AC support once about a problem I had importing templates. I used the internet chat and was IMMEDIATELY assisted. It was Nick and we couldn't quite figure it out. He moved it to Level 2 tech which was fine. I continued to work on it that evening and eventually figured it out. It was a problem with my XML document and had nothing to do with AC. I sent Nick a message the next morning and he called my office later to assure everything was fine. Can't get much better service than that in my opinion.
Anyway, I haven't had any problems with support. But as Jon said, I really haven't needed it. It's the easiest, simplest EMR out there and you rarely need any help.
My router has more problems than my EMR. That thing loses passwords and has to be restarted way too much.
Maybe some of the issue is that with all the other EMRs, you have to have a dang network specialist come and set the entire thing up, all of your hardware and software, and you can just call them to come work on it. With AC, we all are cost conscious and try to do it all ourselves. With small simple practices, a half-way computer savvy doc can do this without much effort. With a more complex practice and set-up, maybe those people need to get a network person to help them out.
Jon, I doubt docs will sign up for the 2nd tier of support. Docs who use AC are cost conscious as a rule in a smaller office. Dropping another $500 or $1000/year would probably be a rarity. Maybe I'm wrong. I personally would not. I really like the $500/year because I'm assured of getting upgrades.
