1) Need "Goes By" name field. We have transgender patients which this becomes important for them to use. "Goes By" should also become a field that can print in the letter writer template. One first name would be "Legal First Name" and then as another option to select is "Goes By" name. There would be a rule that "Goes By" populates with "Legal Name" BUT "Goes By" can be overwritten by AC User.
2) Need Sex changed to "Born As" and add "Identifies As" rather than only limiting it to Male or Female.
3) Eliminate Employer field and replace with Social Media field. Allows for capture of Skype User Names. Employer is never used and I am not sure how many MDs need this info.
4) Inactivate Patient - provide option to select but add option to keep them or remove them from normal searches/reports. Many inactive patients I want to still show up for many reasons.
5) Add Street (Line 2) to print on claims, orders, prescriptions, etc since it currently does not often print.
6) Add country since we have a few hundred international patients. Currently no way to list a person from even Canada let alone France or Australia.
7) Under Record Releases tab simply add a button ADD that would pop up the window to log the info. Would make logging releases a whole lot simpler and intuitive than current Rube Goldberg method.
But we have been asking for sensible changes for a long time -- and sometimes they get implemented, but mostly not.
I get it that coding is difficult and money is tight -- especially since AC now has all the benefits and overhead of a corporate structure. Scaling up from a very simple platform has been hard-- but it seems like all of the other EMR's competing for .market share must be in the same boat. It seems like half a dozen small EMR's could combine forces and make one truly functional design -- but I also get that such an idea is "pie in the sky" -- the capitalist way is just to kill off the weaker ones, or let them go by attrition. And there are bound to be all sorts of copyright and patent problems with any kind of combination.
I am quite satisfied with AC -- it is inexpensive compared with the market leaders (clearly, most practices are much more financially successful than mine, because my budget doesn't allow for a recurring cost of $$several thousand/ month) and it does the job I need done, albeit with multiple workarounds and tweaks. I hope they can stay in business at least another couple of years -- I have neither the time (getting old!) nor the energy to find another EMR. And anyway, the ones I have investigated are just as clumsy and buggy -- each in their own way.
These are great suggestions, and I agree with Tom that many do not get implemented. Chris Conrad, Product Manager does make sense when he says they get hundreds of requests. I may be wrong, but I think AC gives more weight to those that are mentioned the most where a very important feature may go unnoticed or not acted on. I don't generally agree with that, but all of us are biased by our own wants.
The big thing I want to mention is I do the same thing you have done. I think of something that drives me crazy or could be better, and I just post it here with the idea that misery loves company and see if others have the same thoughts. But, while support and Chris will follow the forum and say things like, "That is in our next version," or "That can't be done because, as far as their really looking at an issue, there is a certain process. Using the process will insure that your ideas will be looked at. It will be an "official" recommendation.
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Last edited by Bert; 05/22/20203:38 PM. Reason: Make sure to choose the Important emoticon
