Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Amazing Charts Pricing

I agree that Experts-Exchange is awesome, but I am that free leech, so I just read my issues and go away.

Bert: I sometimes wonder how many posts you do per day.

As many as it takes to make AC the greatest EMR in the world.
Yuk! That is pretty pathetic and self-serving. Just thought it would sound crazy.

Experts-Exchange is my best friend. Well, Adam, then E-E. Wait, maybe it's E-E, then Adam. No, E-E is an expert with computers. Adam is an expert in everything else.

The order is E-E, then Adam? WTF??

You are still my best friend Mr. 3,000 posts....

And what does that have to do w/ the topic of this thread, AC Pricing?
You are a thread hijacker!!

At the rate he is posting I predict 4000 by the end of the year.

He might hit 4,000 by the weekend. Go Bert go!

My response was to Peter, which was in no way a hijack, lol. Srini hijacked it. And, you guys need to stop with all the typos. Don't you mean 5,000 by year's end?

Bert provides great advice and I hope he'll continue to flood this board with his wit and wisdom.

*hits reset key*

Now about AC pricing.....

FYI - Grammar - "will affect" and "go into effect" are the proper terms for what you tried to say.

As a medical transcriptionist, I am going to give AC a try so that I can be schooled in point and click EMR. However, it is not looking good from a cost-savings standpoint for my clients.

AC is not a point and click EMR. I had one of those and fired it. AC is an excellent time saver particularily in combination with dictation software ( AKA dragon naturally Speaking). I used to use a transcription service and graduated to "in house" transcription some years ago when my off-site transcriptionist said "Oh! You saw my high school chum Suzy Q on Monday, would you give me her phone number?" ( along with other problems including the length of time I spent dictating the same thing over and over). Then one of my office staff would spend half a day ( think salary dollars) merging my dictation of individualized sections with different templates. ( I still had to listen to myself talking way too much and also tell her which templates to use).As an added bonus there are no peices of paper to move from one location to an other during the work day and all office staff have access at all times. No more "where is the chart" circus. I think this technology is going to make the medical transcriptionist obsolete. What will be needed ( I think in large numbers) are people who understand medical record keeping and can provide EMR support either as a part of an EMR company or as "on-site" support to an office. I really do love AC, but I would like to have learned a little less by trial and error and would have welcomed a little more instruction in "how to use" and demonstration of different features. Back to cost, this system is jaw droppingly inexpensive in comparison to the alternatives even when you also consider "add-ons" like interfaces, practice management software, dictation software, AC support, "on-site" support etc. EMR are coming and transcription is fading.

Sock it to 'em DL! Boo-ya!

How long will it remain so inexpensive is my question. One of these days I fear the potential $$$$ will entice AC to leave us small-fry in the shoals.

In my discussion with EMRs sales reps, the conversation often goes like:

sales: what are the needs of your practice?
me: I am looking for a solution comparable in pricing to AC.
sales: then you are probably not interested in our EMR. We start
at $16,000 for initial setup and go up from there; but we do offer lovely financing options....

Hxxx no.

I am guessing you are referring to this?


Samizdat:

1. It would be helpful if you would provide quotes when you refer to things as it took 15 minutes to read each post to see to whom you were referring.

2. While grammar is very important to me as well (you can ask Adam), there is a place where grammar and punctuation are important such as formal writing and letters, and there are places where it is not. A user board is one such place. Providers are too busy to make sure all of their posts are grammatically correct. It is the content that is important.

3. I don't think you are going to endear yourself to the users if you continue to correct their grammar.

And, as Deborah stated, Amazing Charts is not point and click EMR. I am assuming you are talking about a drill down type which takes MUCH longer than one that is not like AC. And, the cost savings are huge. At the end of the day, I am done. I don't have to pay anyone to transcribe a dictation.

And, yes it is "Verklempt," but at that place in the thread, we were giving condolences to a friend of ours, and it seemed a bit out of place.

Well done Bert!

Just curious why a medical transcriptionist would be purchasing an emr.

Most folks I know who dictate these days use Dragon Speak or other transcription software. The local business school does not even offer medical transcription courses anymore.

There are lots of EMR options. AC has been a lifesaver for many of us who are in solo practice or have very small practices.

I didn't get out my Strunk and White, so please forgive me if there are errors in grammar or punctuation in my comments.

Wishing you well and hoping you find something that makes you happy.

Ouch! and Reeeer!! *scratch, claw*

There are an awfully large number of doctors who are afraid of technology who pay for transcription services. But those days are numbered.

Thanks Frank.

And, to be consistent, when referring to the Verklempt comment, I was referencing

http://www.amazingcharts.com/ub/ubbthreads.php/topics/15856/Let_s_Do_Coffee_We_ll_Talk#Post15856

Peter,

I wouldn't refer to Vicki's comments as part of a cat fight. I think her comments were right on target.

Oh, come now. I was just making laughter. Of course they were on target. The grammar-nazi has no sense of netiquette.

Smile.

Peter,

Now you know I knew you were. I am just not a big fan of the cat fight phrase.

I acutally like cat-fights!

And hey, what's the deal w/ the grammar-Nazi ???

I think she got the hint.

Or is that the grammer-Nazi??

No, wait that would be the SPELLCHECKER-Nazi.
Or spellcheker nazi, or spelchecker nazi.
geeze I don't know anymore.

If God loved pediatricians, then why did He make cerumen.

And, why do all mothers ask, "How do I clean that wax out? I used a Q-tip." This while I have a 10 inch hard plastic object stuck 5 inches into his ear.

And, yes, it is the mothers. First, 95% of all my patients are brought in by the mothers. And, the other 5% have never cleaned a baby's ear in his life.

I think cerumen is good for pediatricians --- what if all you could talk with moms about is stool and spit up ??? Variety is also good - there is perforated eardrums from q tips, retained cotton from end of q tips.....I also checked some boxes of q tips and the real name brand boxes used to actually say "do not use in ear" which would be great to show parents.

Good point Steven.
If Bert were truly a business-man, he would understand that you get repeat business if you ENCOURAGE them all to shove the qtibs in as far as they can to "regularly clean out the ears" then also tell them to bring in the baby once every 3 - 4 weeks for a "complete cleaning." You can bill the sh*t out of their insurance and make some serious cash.

Yes, but this is offset by the fact that ED providers who actually MAY have the skill to diagnose an ear infection, simply tells the parent their baby has an ear fection (I would probably do the same thing at 1AM for a parent who has been waiting four hours in the waiting room) when in fact they couldn't even see the ear due to wax. Then the patient leaves the practice, because I had told them a week before the baby didn't after making their baby scream for five minutes to actually see the ear.

I agree: contradictory information given to your patients by ED staff, or pharmacists can be a signficant source of confusion and/or friction.

Like this patient who was complaining of cough and didn't get an immediate cure from me, so finally went to the ER. The doc there told the patient she had pneumonia and gave her antibiotics. In spite of clear exam, no fever, normal WBC count, and an insignificant level of atelectasis on x-ray. Then I'm having to try to convince her I did not miss her pneumonia because she doesn't HAVE pneumonia. ARGGH!

Some parents like the drama of having their child diagnosed with a scary diagnosis such as "pneumonia." Even when I get a CXR -- which is rare -- and it is read as pneumonia, I try to explain there are "small cars and big cars" and there are "tiny pneumonias" and "big pneumonias."

It is tempting to see a patient and say, "Wow! This is a whopping ear infection. How did the ED doctor miss this?" vs "It does look like an ear infection is starting and may be the cause of your baby's irritation. I doubt it was even there last night."

I then go on to tell them that I can't diagnose or treat an MI, and I wouldn't expect them to be able to be great at looking at the ears of a 6 month old. It is just so important to say the right things, although I do have to work are my oblique muscles of my eyes. (if you follow me).

I love when they come back from the E.D. with a "Double Ear Infection!"

Does that mean they have bilateral otitis media? Which is almost always viral, right Bert? But the E.D. always puts them on Amoxil, which doesn't work for sh*t anymore so why bother?

I read through all of these posts from the beginning. They are great! And very entertaining... (BTW, starting a sentence with "And" probably is not grammatically correct). More to the point, AC is a very affordable program, and a great value. We have to expect some modest increases in price. It's the way of the world. We use Perfect Care in our practice as our PM software, with AC as our EMR. Perfect care wanted $35K to put in their "Chartmaker" program (which was a nightmare for an ophthalmologist to use). However, one thing that Chartmaker did allow you to do (for an extra $6K) was modify the program to organize data in a customized format. That would be great if AC could do that. Admittedly, AC was not written for ophthalmology, and there are a number of modifications that I would like to allow me to enter my data into the EMR (sorry folks, but I don't check pulse, BP, height weight, etc), but I have made it work for me and am very happy with it. I expect it to only get better!

I know !

Let's come up with some novel pricing structures!

Like, once you've paid for the software, any upgrade or version costs 20% of the cost-at-time-of-original-purchase!

or this one is great: pay based upon the capacity of the database, number of patients.

or: based upon 1% of net practice earnings.

That may actually be fun.

oops i got the wrong quote. srry.

Yeah, but it made me laugh like crazy. It was funny.