Undoubtedly "Yes."
It never made sense to me that most other EMRs on the market don't provide trial periods. Well, no, I take that back. What never made sense to me is that doctors and managers didn't demand trial periods before purchasing. EMR use affects every aspect of and has the potential to change the workflow of an office. Why select an EMR based off of 5-minute demo videos and a few chats with sales associates?
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They do. They did when I chose AC. But they tend to 1) require you to discuss your needs with their sales rep for probably 2 hours or whatever, and 2) Only give a 30 day trial.
I tried a few. One (Altapoint or Lytec, I can't remember which) was really cumbersome. It came with integrated PM, so I was really looking forward to trying it out and it was one of the lesser expensive EHRs. In fact, I found out about it the same way I did AC...Medical Economics Recommended inexpensive EMRs for small practices.
So, I installed this puppy and decided and decided to try to open a chart for the sample medical practice they provided for the demo.
I couldn't figure out how to do it!! Some of you know, I have an EE background,so I'm no stranger to figuring out new programs. I tried and tried. Couldn't do it. I had to call their tech support to tell me, and found out it was a multi-step proceedure. Just ludicrous.
I did find one basic thing on AC that was counter-intuitive. Opening a new chart note on a previously seen patient. I didn't notice the menu item, and was looking for an icon. They should add an icon for that. But once they showed me, it was ok. On that other program, when I revisited it 2 months later, I could no longer remember how to open a patient chart! I just uninstalled the program right then and there and took them off of my short list.
