athenaClinicals vs. Therap Electronic Health Records (EHR)

athenaClinicals is well suited from a single physician office to an enterprise healthcare system. The only specialty that they cannot cover is oncology that includes chemotherapy infusions (the dosing is very complicated and requires a specific oncology system).

Incentivized

Therap is best used by persons who primarily work on a computer. This would include administrative work and supervisors or direct care staff who work in a group environment and enter documentation on the computer. While there is minimal room to adjust any of the forms to reflect agency specific documentation, the form templates themselves offer flexibility within the template. The exception being that whatever standard one uses for measurement must be carried out throughout the form to which the measurement standard is attached. Much of the documentation entered into the system must occur in the browser making access through a mobile devise cumbersome. The daily documentation (ISP Programs, T-logs and MARS) are available on the mobile app itself and is pretty straight forward. In this regard persons who work in the field including any supervisory staff in the field can enter documentation easily on this app. There are significant limitations though in that there is no ability to save a return to a form and the default time out is 30 minutes.

Pros: EVV, all inclusive EHR including plans, documentation, forms, MAR and more, excellent reports to capture data across all documents, Ability to export reports by PDF and Excel, provides good training, feedback, and communicates disruptions to the system as well as a walk through of updates made to the system.

Cons: browser access is not mobile friendly, scheduling is cumbersome, inability to save as you go, inability to create plans for the same service year for multiple services, no time out warning on the mobile app.

Incentivized

• Athena is able to create a medication list from the patient's pharmacy purchase history. This aides in compiling a comprehensive list quickly, especially when the patients do not know what meds they are on. The downside to this module is that every time that you add a medication that is not on the list, it turns it into an order that the provider needs to sign. There are many times that you need to make an addition, that the provider does not want to sign as an order.
• The patient history module is easy to configure to meet the needs of the organization.

Incentivized

• Therap has some very nice reports to track billing, documentation, end user activities, and much more!
• Therap did not disappoint in a smooth EVV process.
• Therap's billing is program works quite well.
• The alerting system works very well particularly for alerting T-log entries (we use this for our incident reporting)
• To be fair, they have a number of documentation tools that are very helpful (seizure logs, food diary, medical appointments and so much more) on the browser version of the program.

Incentivized

• The cost is very high compared to other programs.
• Some people find the program difficult to learn.
• The billing software requires more work than is described when they are trying to sell you the program.
• The sales staff that we dealt with had the vibe of car salesmen. At times very pushy and the room for negotiation grew at each interaction. The high cost first quoted is very negotiable but they "up charge" for many things.

Incentivized

• We provide a number of services to the same individual. VA requires a separate plan (ISP) for each service. Therap only allows one plan that covers a specific date and will not permit overlap.
• Because we provide supplemental services, most of our employees are field workers and rely on a table to access the record and enter documentation. the mobile app is very limited in what the user can document (T-Logs, MARs, and ISP Data). The browser version is far to cumbersome to use on a tablet and only the browser version contains some of the other useful documentation tools.
• Employees cannot save and return to data that has been entered. It must be completed in one setting before timing out.
• The mobile app times out in 30 minutes without warning creating issues with documentation not being saved.
• Scheduling is a nightmare. It is cumbersome and difficult to navigate. It does not seamlessly roll schedules over. It is also impossible for management to adjust schedules when away from a computer as the browser version (required to change schedules) is not mobile friendly and difficult to navigate on a phone or tablet.
• There is no measure available to prevent 'clocking out" before documentation is entered. This can create a logistical and time consuming processes to reconcile the billing and pay.

Incentivized

Overall the system is good. Actually, this was supposed to be the universal EMR when it came out during the Bush administration.

Incentivized

They are always there. Friendly and organized.

Greenway was absolutely horrible. Not intuitive, no right-click functionality, poor integration, and flexibility. athenaClinicals surpasses it in every aspect.

WoundExpert was well suited to wound healing and hyperbaric medical practices. If athenaClinicals had the right forms and ability to accommodate wound care and HBO workflows, it would be a good competitor.

Incentivized

The products that we have researched and used int he past are not listed as available options.

Lauris Online - completely customizable EHR system based on templates the agency uses. The process is cumbersome though in that each form has to be submitted to production with a wait time to go live up to 6 weeks. This can be challenging to business who have the ability to work on the fly and correct forms as they see fit. The reports are also challenging.

MITC - Capriccio Elite, LLC currently uses this program to supplement the pieces of Therap that do not work for us. This include a robust workforce management program (times sheet, clock in and out, documentation with ability to save, a number of alerts letting management know of no shows or late arrivals, completely mobile friendly, prohibits clocking out until documentation is complete, ease of use for administrators to make changes on a computer or mobile device.

Incentivized

• The cost of the program is fantastic and doable for start up business to large operations
• Because of the price, it is easy to ignore Therap's deficits so long as there are other options available to fill in the gaps
• ROI on the time (= money) it takes to reenter information due to unannounced time outs creates dissatisfaction with the workforce and additional administrative time to walk through it
• ROI on time (= money) it takes to assure there is a match between clocking in and out and time entered on the billable documentation is pretty substantial. An agency can easily find itself under billing or over paying staff.

Incentivized