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We have done multiple data conversions, so I can tell you data could be reverted to 6.3.3. Depending on several different factors, it would be an alternative.

Hopefully AC will grasp how hated their security "Improvements" have made it impossible to have a ready fail-over server, unless you are using virtualization so that you can clone.

So here is my take... Apparently Pri-Med decided that owning and managing AC was not "a good fit". Whatever their reasons, that conclusion did not surprise many of us who never understood the pairing in the first place. The CME/EMR synergy just didn't make sense to us. Fortunately, one of the purported benefits of AC being acquired by Pri-Med did come to fruition: there were more resources devoted to EMR development. (Whether or not all of those resources were deployed to best advantage is another question- re: InLight). My feeling is that AC is a significantly better EMR today than it was 5 years ago when Pri-Med took over, and of course that is a good thing. Honestly, I think it would be hard to argue otherwise.

It is scary to have our EMR sold to a big company. The biggest fear is that it will cease to exist and we will be forcibly transitioned to another product. The history of Harris would suggest that this is unlikely; they appear to have made prior EMR acquisitions, and those products are still being maintained and marketed. I know that as AC was being "shopped around", some AC employees were happy with the possibility that it would land with Harris, for just this reason. The need for these people to keep their jobs is certainly greater than our desire to keep our EMR, so if they are happy, we should be, too.

Looking back, I realize that my hopes for AC are far different now than they were 5-7 years ago. Sure, I would like to see improvements in usability, inter-operability with other EMR's, etc. But generally, I have found a way to get my work done and I just want to be left in peace. I will hope for some added resources for support and development, but I would settle for a bit of benign neglect from Harris so we can just get our notes done without too many new hassles (like converting to a whole new program). The more Harris/AC stays in touch with users, the more successful they will be.

And yeah, if Harris has an alternative to the "security fix" that has led AC to thwart our independent installs and restores, well that would be a nice plus.

Jon,

Thanks for the feedback about InLight. I am of similar mind, I just want to get my work done and be left in peace. I do think and still maintain that AC, since it has a very user friendly/intuitive interface, utilized as a visual interactive tool at the point of care is a huge advantage we have over other EHR's. I think this aspect of this EHR has been one of the most unexpected positives realized I never saw coming.

I also hope as indicated on my wish list comment that IT support will continue to be as immediate and helpful as it has been over the past 6 years for me since joining AC.

I really like the AC in the cloud version and since switching the upgrades have been much smoother and seamless. Also downtime and coordination of local IT and AC IT staff during the upgrades has become a nonfactor, which I have very much appreciated. I hope the push for continuing AC in the cloud continues.

Just spoke to a AC support staff a few days ago. He said everything looks good after they were acquired. And he really likes the new management.

Comments on some previous posts about lack of participation of this board from users:

I cannot find this board on the AC web site any more and I have to google it every time I want to login.

If you look in the lower right corner and click on the orange block with a cloud, should take you to the user board

I didn't know that, it used to be on one of the drop down tabs. That makes it hard to find. I have it saved or just add /uc to the Amazingcharts.com

I think Wendell meant /ub

Yes, this works.

Thank you

I mentioned over on the wish list board that were looking into options on how we can simplify the undesirable repercussions of the new security protocols. We don't want to be in the mix any more than you so we're looking at ways to remove ourselves and just let you authenticate from your end. We've always had the technology available to us and the acquisition by Harris opens the opportunity for us to take advantage it.

^^^ Right now this makes me much more optimistic than any verbiage from Harris might.

Wow! I feel bad for Harris. What did they do wrong?

Thanks Wendell. Thanks Wendell. Really happy when I got to your post. Well written and thought out as always.

If you are in AmazingCharts and you want Help finding the userboard, you can click on Help and choose AmazingCharts Community Board. Maybe, they should have just written ACUB. Or gave it its own special icon. But, a shortcut is pretty easy to make.

I am not sure why the posts have dropped on the board. But, I don't see why user apathy can be blamed on Pri-Med or Harris. And, I am not saying there is user apathy. People are just busier and getting better with technology. Who knows.

The grass always seems greener. I have always felt that Jon Bertman is one of the most ingenius and incredible innovators I have known. To work full-time and teach yourself Visual Basic and learn Microsoft Access and design and build one of the best and most awarded EMRs ever is rather incredible. But, AC has come a very long way since Pri-Med and hopefully will go even further with Harris. Jon may still be running the company had he not tried to build a PM from scratch along with Meaningless Use. AC is also more intuitive and less workarounds are needed so maybe that cut down on some of the posts. But, decreased posts says nothing about the viability of AC and AC can't really increase posts.

The biggest reason for the increased development of AC is Chris Conrad. Pure and simple.

[This is a comment on some of the various topics in this thread]

As I've mentioned before, we have been using AC since version 1, but are now in a holding pattern on v8.3.0 (due to concerns over v9's restricted ability to substitute server computers).
My concern is that we may not eventually be able to continue with 8.3.0, as CPT/ICD codes may not be published for AC versions <9, and perhaps the ability to send RXs electronically may be curtailed unless we upgrade.

It is too bad that the software under PriMed has become so much more expensive for a small solo practice such as ours (I think it was originally $200?), but I can understand that in order to be used with so many additional govt. security requirements, etc., it costs money to keep the software in compliance.

We don't use any of the Practice Management features of AC, preferring to export groups of bills to an offsite medical billing company.

With regard to Jon Bertman, I can't say that I blame him for getting out when he did; I doubt he expected that he would have to deal with all of the security restrictions, govt. data collection stipulations, network interactions, etc.

2002 was a very different world for EMRs, we saw AC mainly as a way of getting rid of the towering shelves of paper patient charts we saw in other offices.

I remember, before we had heard of AC, I had started to write my own EMR for our Mac computers. I laugh to think of it now, as the HIPAA requirements alone would eventually have presented quite a challenge to my programming skills, never mind an interface to electronic prescribing, Meaningless Use, etc. :-)

For years I was the developer for a medical billing software company. It never ceased to shatter my soul how the people who owned the company, and my own boss at the time, would happily try to ignore government developments and instead try to focus on adding features to make the software more money (or clients more happy).

Government stuff is hard to keep up with. Often requiring reading through hundreds, if not thousands, of pages of documentation. And we aren't talking about flipping through pages of Motor Trend magazine where all you do is mostly glance at the pictures, we are talking about some very technical stuff that you have to read AND COMPREHEND with often little to no help available out in the world.

The company that sold that software went belly up not long after I left.

JamesNT

Wow, that seems fairly obvious. Not! Very cool, but just the last place I would have looked.

This comment scared me a little. Can you shed more light? I asked my biller to inquire, and she spoke with Greenway; and they said they were not discontinuing support. Maybe there is a difference between EOL and support? Caveat: This was my biller speaking with them.

End-of-life always means end of support.

End of support is reserved for a version or edition of a product. For example, Microsoft Windows is obviously not end of life. But Windows XP is long past end of support.

JamesNT

Bert --
I looked into this a little more after I posted.
Greenway is not going to produce any further updates.
For now, they are providing telephone support if we run into trouble -- which, thankfully, very rarely occurs. I hate to leave a program that has served so well.
However, after they stop updating, the program will become obsolete after some period of time.
I'm fairly confident we can use it for another year or two.

The other part of this is my now suspended plan to switch to AC billing.
I'm now going to wait for a while to see what Harris has up their sleeve. I got a nice email (unsolicited -- he was just responding to a post on this board) which assured me that they really intend to go forward with AC. And they seem genuinely concerned about their clients.
So I am cautiously hopeful.

Thanks for the update. That was, unfortunately, what I meant when I said it was my biller/coder who gave me the intel. I should have called myself.

Yes, I will probably stay with Medware as long as possible. Medware is also one of the last remaining applications that runs solely on its own. I am not sure how to explain it technically. But, how many programs can you simply copy the folder to a flash drive and take the flash drive home and just run it from the flash drive or copy and paste it? When I do a backup of Medware, I feel completely confident that I have a perfect backup.

Agreed. I love the program, and more than once have been saved by a backup folder.
but that is so not modern.
No security at all -- except a password.
No encryption.
I don't suppose the HIPAA folks would be happy with that one.

I suppose. But, Tom Price left so probably doesn't matter anymore.

I couldn't care less about HIPAA.

is 'couldn't care less' a double negative I am confused but think I agree with you, LOL

Ever notice that when people say "I could care less"... they mean the same thing as when they say "I couldn't care less"?

English is a funny language.
But German is even funnier.
Mark Twain had hilarious riffs about that.

No. Could care less is a double positive.


OK, this is in response to all of the couldn't care less posts. This is so ironic, because it has got to be my biggest pet peeve ever.

When people say "Couldn't care less," they are saying what is intended by the phrase. That they care so little about the topic, thing, what the person said, etc., that there is no possible way they could care less about it.

When people use the lazy version of "Could care less," they are saying completely the opposite of what the phrase is intended to mean. They are saying everything in the range of "I care a little to I care more than anything else in the world." Therefore they could care less.

In summary:

I couldn't care less is the correct phrase to insinuate that you absolutely don't care at all about the "thing in question."


I could care less is the incorrect phrase to insinuate that you absolutely don't care at all about the "thing in question."

Other fun English anachronisms:

incombustible