Home Forums Discussions General Discussion UpDox

I watched the 1 hour webinar yesterday by Updox. I am wondering if anyone with amazing charts is currently using this feature. If so, what are your pro's & con's? Is it really a time saver? Feed back is greatly appreciated.

Yes. Big-time.

The ability to bring items into Updox (faxes, or emails) and easily route them to multiple recipients (Patient via portal, emr, fax to another doctor) is truly timesaving. Also, we like to send (lab) results to patients via the updox portal.

You save time in account receivables by storing patients credit/debit cards and automatically charging it when you receive the EOB.

There is other stuff too.

We've been using UPDOX for over 2 years now. Great time saver, we love it here in our office.

I consider it integral to the effective use of AC. We keep finding new features and uses for it. I really can't imagine effectively running our office without it any more.

DrBernardStaff,

PROS:
1. Integrates nicely with AC
2. User friendly and HIPAA compliant patient portal for back and forth transfer of patient information, which significantly reduces phone tag and voice mail. and snail mail.
3. AC without Updox would be much less efficient, as it ties the EHR, efaxing and patient portal together nicely. The Updox workspace is the same for my nurse and myself, and she organizes and manages the incoming efaxes, secure messages to AC inbox and also the outgoing e-fax scripts, notes, letters, lab results, mammo/lab report, secure messages.
4. Average cost is about 80 dollars a month as I have about 2500 incoming faxes per month. If I did not have Updox, I would have to hire a part time employee 10 dollars per hour, at least several hours a day, 5 days a week to do what Updox does, and if you include the postage saved as well, you are money ahead.

Cons:
1. You are dependent on the internet for service.
2. You are dependent on Updox service for all of those areas of improved efficiency so you have to have a backup fax machine/telephone when Updox goes down.

The Pros considerably outweigh the Cons, in my opinion.

There are a number of us who feel that Updox significantly improves our productivity and makes life more pleasant both for us and our staff.

What type of patient portal features does UpDox have?

Updox was down again this afternoon for about 2-3 hours. My partner was waiting for an important fax for much of the afternoon and we couldn't log in.
This down time is getting ridiculous and I think a lot of people will jump ship if a legitimate competitor with tight integration with AC shows up.

Meanwhile, Updox: how about giving us a month's refund for all the outages??

I used to use updox for incoming faxes. Now I just save incoming faxes as pdf (my fax machine allows us to do this)in the updox automatic upload folder. That way I do not depend on updox for incoming faxes and can still fax out if needed when updox down, which is not often in my case. Also, uploading PDF is free whereas you pay for incoming faxes with updox. I saved over $200 monthly by switching to that. I wish I started using updox a long time ago. I second the general consensus that updox significantly improves productivity and it is very easy to use. I also agree with AJ that lately there have been more outages than usual.

Gerardo,

Consider having your fax line carrier add a delayed call forwarding feature to go to your Updox 800 number if your fax line is busy/not answered for 4-5 rings. This should be a free service.

If someone is trying to fax you, and the line is busy on another fax, it will get forwarded to Updox. You can tell the carrier how many rings you want their system to wait before it call forwards to Updox. You get 500 incoming faxes a month included in the base fee, so you might get several a week. More importantly, people faxing you will never get a busy line and forget to fax you later with something you should have had immediately.

It is like having a backup fax line provided free in your Updox plan.

Good idea. Thanks.

Ron,

Updox patient portal features include online scheduling, on line payment, the ability to create templates and forms, but I think the best feature, for me, is just having the electronic back and forth secure messaging.
I have not done the online scheduling or payment so maybe someone else could address those features.
My wife created templates and forms that have been quite helpful. The templates are attached to the office summary or mammo/pap result and my nurse will attach based on my directive at the end of the summary--such as exercise and low cholesterol diet handout sent thru secure portal. Or attached to the pap result or mammo report.

I have 8 templates that I use--advanced directives, alcohol education, CHO counting, exercise, Low cholesterol diet, smoking cessation, mammo letter, pap letter.

The forms are interactive and can be filled out by the patient on their computer after logging in to the portal site. I have four-- appt request, prescription refills, medicare health risk assessment survey, and patient demographics.
By far the best use of the portal is just having a HIPAA compliant conduit to e-message both ways. It is best to create as many users as possible and teach them how to message back with questions or concerns and teach how to access the portal account to view labs, xray reports, and summaries. Once patients get the hang of it efficiency improves exponentially.

Maybe I have been a bit of a slug of innovation for the last 20 years but the patient reaction to the functioning portal has surprised me with the overall extremely positive response, now that I have done this for over a year with over 600 active users--about 2/3 of my total patient load.
The patient portal is not for every one but in my opinion everyone should have one. I cringe if I have to print up a paper report, knowing the extra time my staff will be spending, addressing an envelope, grabbing a stamp for each result as it comes in over time. Also you do not have the usual 3 day delay with snail mail, and I think the rapidity of result access has been positive as well.

Hope this helps.

I have decreased lost lab order forms (for labs that are due at a later date) by printing and uploading them to the patient's Updox portal instead of printing them and handing them to the patient. When they are ready to get the labs done (usually 1 week prior to their next appointment or at some other specified time) they then just print them from the portal and take them to the labs. Prior to that in response to the "lost lab slip call" we had to reprint them and mail them to the patients.

Yes, this is a problem with us and Updox solved it. Patients are always losing their referral forms or...something. It is convenient to simply send it to them on Updox.

Updox has saved us time because we do not have to scan faxes back into our charts.

We still don't fully use the portal, but our patients love getting their lab results
in a timely fashion-don't have to write letters envelope, stamp etc.

They have had some growing pains, but they are a great group of people and interested in helping AC users.

The only negative about Updox is that I find it difficult to function effectively when their service is (briefly) down. I think anyone interested should try the 15 day free trial. And then let the staff have a voice. My staff says it saves them an hour a day, easily.

I used Updox for 2-3 weeks liked a lot of it but in my small practice, wife up front me in back as the only 2 people in the office I found my work load/hrs doing things increased as I had to look at junk emails, preliminary results etc that took more time doing it online than a quick scan of paper and pitch it

Koby,

In Updox for junk emails & preliminary results I just hit the archive button (one click) and it's off my desktop. The Auto zoom feature is nice so I don't have to click on the document to view it.