So, let me start by saying how much I love AC. I have been with AC for many years now, I forget how many but probably close to the beginning. However, my new office manager came to me with a well prepared presentation and asked us to consider switching our practice to Athena PM, including the clinical portion of their cloud based EMR. He is sure it will improve efficiency, flow, allow us to eliminate 1, maybe 2 FTE (full time employees), increase revenue, and take away the headache of managing / maintaining / upgrading AC. We would no longer have to worry about accessing the EMR at different locations as long as we had internet access, and I could even access the data with their nifty but limited iphone app and (currently in development) ipad app. He put me in touch with Athena who gave me a nice presentation of their services and EMR (which LOOKS impressive, intuitive, and flexible, but I have not tried it hands on), and now I have spoken with two physicians who use Athena and are pleased with it (These were physicians NOT referred by Athena, but referred by a friend of my office manager who is a manager at a large practice in a nearby city) No bad words yet. So I ask the question in this forum since I have been with AC for so many years, any current or past users of Athena? Anyone know why I shouldn't switch? Yes, I know I can still use AC along with Athena as the PM but that kind of gets us back to a mix and match, inefficient patchwork which is what my office manager is trying to move away from. I also know AC is soon to come up with its new PM, but I have heard that for a year now and still nothing concrete, although I will look into it as soon as available. I have also hear the warnings of cloud based computing and how you don't "own" your data. Athena assures me that my data is mine and will provide the data, along with a way of accessing the data for free if we chose to part ways. There is no long term contract, basically you go month by month and they charge a percentage on NET collections which is negotiable. Any thoughts are appreciated.
