I currently use Visionary Medical Systems as my PM software and have for about 10 years now. When my group of five internists all went our separate ways I searched for months for what I felt was a user-friendly, reasonably-priced EMR/PM, package that was not overburdened with too many bells and whistles which my solo practice would never use. I never found one. Consequently, I bought separate EMR and PM programs from smaller, less expensive vendors and, although they did not mesh completely, made them work for me. I was pleased with the results and pleased with the support and responsiveness of the vendors.
Over the years the EMR got fancier and fancier, added this thingy and that thingy and, along with all these neato upgrades came upgraded user fees and increasing difficulty getting through to tech support. Finally, after almost 7 years of loyalty to my EMR (SOAPWARE) I had enough and ditched it for AC. After almost 10 years of loyalty to the PM side of Visionary, I am about to do the same because they have nearly upgraded themselves out of my league. They no longer have that small business attitude and willingness to please and their user fee reflects their desire to "run with the big dogs".
As a solo physician who was attracted to AC because of its small practice utility and the responsiveness of the tech department I have serious worries about all this push by users for a PM module. The old saying "be careful what you wish for" keeps hounding me. No question there are improvements which can and need to be made in the overall program but I hope that those of you who are pushing for fancy interfaces and upgrades realize that the reasons you were attracted to this program in the first place may disappear. And the price would also then have to be increased to cover the R&D and tech support. JMO
