Happy Holidays from the Northern Mariana Islands. I have been working with the RPMS EHR for some months, now, and have a few thoughts on comparison with AC.
Points for AC: AC is simple (at least when you ignore all the meaningful use bloating), and pretty intuitive. I liked the simplicity and stability of electronic prescribing the way it was done. I really liked the ease with which the PH, FH, SH, and problem list were maintained and brought into each encounter. It is easy to store both labs and PDF imports. I miss UpDox for a feeling of patient intimacy and involvement.
Points for RPMS: AC has a pitifully few placeholders, like %AGE, %LName, etc. RPMS has hundreds. For a hospitalist note, these are great; I can have things like today's labs, outpatient med list, inpatient med list, vital signs, active problems and inactive problems, vaccination history, etc. auto populate anywhere into a note that I want or that makes the note clearer. Custom templates for different encounter types are easy; that is, the types of data presented, presentation order, look, feel, presentation... everything about the note is customizable, so that for example a daily SOAP note is totally different from an admission H&P or discharge summary, or consult note. It is absolutely, totally stable. No weirdness or instability, ever.
If I were King, I'd take parts of each of these programs and mold them into something else. Also, the job of hospitalist in a place that is kind of a "Second World" environment makes everything different. AC would not really work as well with what I am doing, now, but might work as well as what I have. With each, I have had to "Innovate, modify, adapt and overcome." And, really, therein lies the joy.
So, anyway, I hope all is well for you in the new year. Laissez les bon temps roulez.
