Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Updox portal vs Practicom PHR portal

Both allow patients to view the results (not sure about the trend of labs over time in graph format), appt request, questions from patient side/secure messaging, appointment reminders.

Cost and who pays are the differences.

Not sure about billpay by Updox.

Can users comment on other similarities and differences from patient side?

I am interested only in Portal(and not faxes/importing from doctors side) and the screen shots of updox/practicom from patient side.

Thank you.

We decided and got updox. Mainly for HIPAA compliant portal.

Not using the fax number Updox gave as -- we use winfax pro - we print from that fax to updox and importing is easier. (we can batchprint from winfax pro)

Patients love instant result availability. If I remember correctly it may be one of the MENU items for MU for pts to access the results within 4 days. Maybe Menu may need more than just lab results. Not sure.

We did not want patients to pay for practicom PHR as other offices in town give this free to patients and we did not want to be an exception.

The three user limit on Updox can be a big drawback. AC does not have limits on the number of users. Why does updox has limit? (Ofcourse everybody knows the answer).

I posed this question to the the Updox crew at the ACUC. I requested an "all in" price. Unlimited users and use. They explained that their issue is really the number of faxes that goes in and out. Something about how much they have to pay for the usage of the phone lines on their end. I did not really understand that issue.

In my 2 doc office we have kinda gone all in with usage and users. We have 8 users and use less than 3000 fax pages per month.

I requested that they create a cost structure that you pay only for the number of physician users + number of fax pages per month. Their fear was that some of the practices using updox pay only $35 per month and they might lose some customers.

I believe if they remove the user limitation, charge by # of providers + a fax bundle it would be more functional and used by more practices. If you use it fully you will see the value in it. It is worth much more than $35 per month.

I understand the issue of trying to reduce cost to the patient thereby making the updox portal look good - unfortunately their portal is just a way to secure e-mail data (at least that is my impression - I have it, but have had bad luck and am going to cancel) but the concept of practicom is that customers should pay. Their portal allows information to flow back and forth and stores on their servers so patients don't have the data stored on their computer unless they want to. My patients can actually access their portal and show it to anyone they wish - the newer features of allowing them to do diaries of BP, Wt, blood sugars are nice and allowing me to view them is great - practicom said they are trying to make a way to actually allow pt. to send it to me and I think they are pretty good about working on things that they have discussed with me.

I must admit the ability to basically open a pt imported items and just checking which items I want uploaded is great - have sent dozens and dozens of x-rays, old labs, consults, etc to patients.

Updox seems good for faxing and filing - I just really like the praticom model and the portal - patients love it.

Steve, how do you manage your faxes, scans, filing, etc? Do you use program for these tasks in addition to the Practicom Portal? Or does Practicom have the portal plus the document management. Thanks.

I had very poor luck keeping updox working well - My staff have 3 scanners and they scan in papers as they go during the day.

Practicom is a great portal - they are working on patient information, ability to send practice newsletters, etc.

That sounds great. I do agree that the Updox web portal needs some attention. To make it fully functional, it does require you build forms from scratch. I built a new patient demographic form and an appointment request form. I think the updox guys need a little help with developing the portal to make it more functional right out of the box.

For just sending labs or reports to a patient's email, that feature has worked fine for me.

I think updox is great for scanning, faxing, etc - If all you want is a way to make it possible to send CCD and letter to pt. for MU then I think it also works. If you want a portal that can do more then something like Practicom is great - right now AC and Practicom are working on integrating into AC to help with the workflow which will be great.

I will say that when I have called Updox that they have called back quickly and worked hard, Practicom also is great about being able to get in touch with them, have worked quickly to add features, iron out kinks and increase functionality too.

My issue with UPDOX besides all the idiosyncrasies that have been mentioned is that you cannot restrict or control user access. If I am expecting a confidential fax related to business, HR etc. or trying to oversee flow and limit access based on need-to-know(speaking of HIPAA), I can't. This has now left management faxing everything and it's been counterproductive in that respect. Anyone know of a service that doesn?t allow all users access to everything?

I have all confidential matters sent via email to my private account. Why would you fax it?

I tend to agree with Catherine. If you don't have Updox, do you think your staff closes their eyes when they take confidential faxes off the machine and put them in your inbox?

It's not I who chooses the faxing, it's the fact that the industry standards still consider email less secure and many companies still do not have standard email access. If given the option, of course I would ask for an email. It's the same issue with standard mail. The postman left ours out in our lobby yesterday rather than waiting for our receptionist to receive it and it was picked up by a patient! I would really like to do away with mail as well but that option is slowly becoming available. And yes, I've considered a PO box but that's a whole extra topic there!