Bert:
.... Since I am not a big computer techie, this intimidated me. Looking at AC it seems alot of users are also techie and combine alot of programs/services to make it work well for them. I'm concerned I may not be technically up to that. Conflicted arrggghh!!
There are several folks on the board that are very knowledgeable, but I wouldn't let that dissuade you. Most of our clients that use AC are not interested in technology, and use us in those instances where they want/need something technical done. Which, once things are correctly setup, is not that often.
Properly setup, AC is neither expensive or difficult to operate.
Many of the folks on this board are ingenious, as they have found a variety of tools to enhance AC, but they are not mandatory.
For a practice coming to AC, the one additional tool that is *almost* mandatory is Updox. If you don't have/want to run your own fax-server, want a patient portal, or need to support multiple locations, there isn't a more cost effective tool around.
It is buried in another thread somewhere, but as cost-modeling experiment I figured that when you sent your tenth patient correspondence you were break-even on Updox for the month. For the sake of argument, if I am off by 100%, it will take you twenty patient correspondences to break even.
If you have already used an EMR, you have, at least in part, already conquered the larger task, which is going paperless in your practice.
In comparison, AC is relatively inexpensive, straightforward to implement, and low-maintenance.
