Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Midmark ECK

We are looking at buying a new ECG and had someone come to the office and demo the digital device from Midmark that uploads to AC. It looks very interesting but isn't cheap (by my measurement) at $3400. Have any of you bought/used this device? Any comments would be appreciated. Our current ECG is on its last legs.

You are correct it is not cheap but my wife sure does like it. If you keep the native software on at least one or two laptops then it is small enough and portable enough to even take on a housecall. Nancy has done this a number of times.

It makes me laugh when I see that new GE feel good ad (you must be paraniod about your real image when you have to try and boost your public image with these misleading sappy ads) about the portable ECG they have and it is many times more bulky than our Midmark Ritter one and all it can do is print out a paper tape tracing. Meanwhile ours can be saved as a report, graphed, overlaided with other tests, and imported into a number of EMR's.

As much as having the tests in AC is nice and convenient we are thinking about running the tests in their native program which can also be networked, even in a P2P network. Then simply import the tests to the patients chart for ease of recall later on. This way the test have the much better Midmark file naming system. But do buy the AC interface as now you no longer have Midmark hitting you up for their rediculous annual support fees. A few years ago they were like $800 for both ECG and Spirometry if I remember. I'm not sure the Spirometer was worth it. We just don't do that many tests. Can't be sure I can even say it has paid itself off yet.

But they are slick and easy to use and I think because they are so modern software based, that they must be extremely accurate. I keep telling the girls even if we get an ECG sent to us from another office, run one of our own and not for the lousy fee we get; but because ours is just so good. I simply trust my doc or our MA and our machine more than some lousy machine on a cart with a test run by goodness knows which hung over assistant.

But remember with such an expensive machine as the rates for these tests going down not up, make sure it works for you. At times I wish we did buy some used piece of junk on a cart. It is all the insurance carriers deserve seeing how little they value the test and the doctor's brain for reading them. I have watched the prices go down, not up over the four years we have run this place. But they want to mandate all this tech on us while they are not willing to belly up to the table and pay for any of it. I think the AMA is screwing all of us by not having two codes. One for old cart machines, and one that should pay 50-100% more for a Midmark style test that can do all the things this one can all while being able to be run and/or imported right to the patient's "E" chart. Why I think that all encounters charted on an EMR should have an EMR modifier that makes them all pay more.... Gee what an f'ing nightmare, paying for what you want....

Ditto to what Paul said. I have been very happy with the ECG. The thing I don't like about the AC interface is you cannot alter the comments section on the ECG, so it just says whatever the computer interprets, which sometimes is off from what I read the ECG as. In those cases, I print out the ECG, write my comments on it and scan that version into the chart. It is expensive upfront but remember there are no moving parts to break, unlike those paper machines. So in the long run, I think you get your money out of it easily. All you really need to buy for ongoing supplies are the sticky pads. Never bought the spirometer. I think it would be fun to have but doubt I would use it enough to pay for it.

David, that sounds like something that you should send in as a desired improvement.

The spirometer works great.

@Soundhealth:
We just got the Midmark ECG. Works great. But Dr. C has the same complaint you did--you cannot add your own comments to the interpretation. Or rather, you can add them but they won't be saved (you can print it with them on it before you close though.)

She also just told me that she has this same complaint concerning the Spriometer interface. Since the basic s/w allows you to add your own comments, I believe this is an AC issue. I haven't tried it, but I bet if you tried to add and save comments using the standalone IQ Mark software it would save your comments just fine.

I intend to send in a "suggested improvement" on this. But as my father used to say, "One monkey don't stop no show." If only I complain, they probably won't bother to modify it. So, please you complain too. And anyone else with these interfaces. We have to show that it is a big enough concern with enough users so that it gets prioritized.

We imported a number of our old tests run in the native software before we activated the AC interface. I also like the Midmark file naming system much better than 0000000001. I am seriously considering running all test on the native software so as to avoid these kinds of issues. It only takes a few minutes to save the tests to a portable drive, go to a networked computer and import the new test into the imported items section. Now you test run and named in the better format is now still in the imported section of AC for easy access...