athenaClinicals

Score9.6 out of 10

20 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for athenaClinicals are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Business Problems Solved

AthenaClinicals is a versatile software that has been highly regarded in the medical business for its automation and ease of use compared to other EHR software. Users have found the software valuable in a variety of use cases. For example, it allows users to print forms with patient scan codes and scan them directly into the patient's electronic chart, saving time. With features like improved authorization tracking and a report builder for detailed assessments, AthenaClinicals effectively maintains patient records and financials for doctor's offices. Additionally, the software offers a complete electronic medical record solution for large family care practices, eliminating the need for physical charts and streamlining record management. Users have appreciated the transition from an aging EMR to a newer web-based model. Furthermore, AthenaClinicals enhances workflow optimization and easy data entry with its user-friendly interface, providing a seamless experience for users. The check-in and check-out features significantly improve office efficiency, while patient message management ensures prompt communication between departments or doctors. By simplifying navigation through patient charts and doctors' notes, AthenaClinicals makes it easier to find lost papers, schedule appointments, and create patient charts quickly. The software also helps standardize templates of notes, ensuring consistency in documentation. Overall, users have praised AthenaClinicals for its comprehensive management solutions for medical billing, care management, and income monitoring, resulting in improved work efficiency by 70%.

Reviews

9 Reviews

Nurse at Primary Care Practice

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

December 14, 2018

Pros

Pulls in medical records from other facilities
Multitasking
Easy to find documents

Cons

Can be slow at times
Does not always pull in records from other facilities quickly
Quality measures sometimes hard to satisfy, must have exact documentation it is looking for

Likelihood to Recommend

It is helpful in collaborating care with other healthcare professionals and allows you to multitask while caring for the patient. It is sometimes slow which makes it difficult to maintain efficient patient flow.

Verified User

Professional in Professional Services (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Athena for Surgery Centers, not a good choice.

Rating: 2 out of 10

Incentivized

October 10, 2018

Pros

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.

Cons

There are many areas where Athena can improve. The support for surgery centers is non-existent. I was told that 2017 was going to be the year of the surgery center with opportunities to improve the system for that application. This never happened and the team that was supposed to assist me was disbanded.
The list of prior surgeries is cumbersome and difficult to use unless you happen to know the CPT code for the procedure. We end up choosing the closest procedure that we can find and making a note to clarify what we are listing.
The medication administration module is hard coded and cannot be changed. There are options that are absolutely ridiculous but we are told that they must stay that way. For example, an IV fluid rate is set at ml per minute rather than the standard of ml per hour. IV start sites are anything from the hand to rectal. When you give a medication it assumes that you are doing so based on a verbal order and requires that you document the verbal order. We give meds based on written orders almost all the time.

Likelihood to Recommend

For a clinic setting I would rate the system much higher as that is the application that the program was designed to work for. The flow of the system works for a clinic but is cumbersome to use in a surgery center setting. We agreed to use this system because the clinics in our company used the system. It was helpful to have the ability to pull information from the clinic setting to the surgery center. When our clinics closed and only the surgery center continued to use the system, that value was gone.

Dale Bowman

Administrator, Nivano Ambulatory Surgery Center at Nivano Health (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

View profile

Relatively easy to learn.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

May 18, 2018

Pros

athenaClinicals is a lightweight interface that is easy to navigate.
The problem list is easy to find, and adding documentation in the appropriate areas is intuitive.
The scheduling software included functions nicely for an office practice.

Cons

The problem list could use a sort by date function. Long-time patients tend to aggregate a massive problem list, most of which is comprised of old resolved issues.
The provider schedule view settings could use more filters. At times while in the clinic, I was unable to see patients assigned to my provider due to other scheduled visits.

Likelihood to Recommend

Works well for family med and peds primary care. Would not be well suited to wound healing/hyperbaric medicine practice in current configuration as the specific documentation requirements of wound management and hyperbaric treatments don't mesh well with the layout and forms that I observed.

Tom Pentzer

Medical student at FDM Academy (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

View profile

Goid system that is reliable

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

May 4, 2017

Pros

Billing
Meaningful use dashboard
Reports
Encounter plans and order set customized

Cons

Customer services and availability
Less clicks for charting one provider (had a ridiculous amount of click to complete a pre op visit)
Better dashboard

Likelihood to Recommend

I think overall it is a good EMR for physicians to accomplish and stay compliance in the ever changing technology sector.

Verified User

Analyst in Information Technology (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Great but pricey program

Rating: 5 out of 10

Incentivized

April 10, 2017

Pros

Templates are widely available for most specialties. They are easy to use and modifiable.
Movement through the clinical exam is expedited with the interview and template. PFSH remains constant on the record.
Records sent to other providers contain concise and easy to read notes.

Cons

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.

Likelihood to Recommend

Well suited for combined billing and EHR use. Most of us found it easy to use but some had great difficulty. Templates make charting easy and they are pre-programmed into the software. Diagnoses are also ICD 9 and 10 compliant.

The cost is very high and the extra charges were surprising.

Jessica Adams

VP in Corporate at Coastal Medical and Psychiatric Services (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

Athena - Offers time saving practice management

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

April 5, 2017

Pros

Athenaclinicals is extremely streamlined to enhance capturing patient information in a timely manner.
Athena also cuts down on reminder calls, rescheduling, and patients requiring follow-up as it has several automated systems that perform these tasks for your staff.
Athena also calls and reports all normal testing performed in the office saving your staff valuable time.

Likelihood to Recommend

Athena works for any size practice as longs as you put a little up front time and thought into how you want it to work for you

Verified User

Manager in Professional Services (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

athenaClinicals - the Enterprise experience

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

June 1, 2016

Pros

Quality programs - able to see what measures are outstanding for the patient
Reporting - able to report on multiple financial reports as well as clinical information
Standardization of clinical information - the system forces users within the same specialty to use the same templates (as a starting point), therefore it is easier to standardize protocols and treatments of care

Cons

Medication updates - when changing the dose of a medication, the medication list should automatically update
Multi-user conflict - when more than one user is in the chart at the same time, it is possible that information can be lost
Autosave feature - this feature is actually available in their new version which we hope to roll out later this year

Likelihood to Recommend

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).

Verified User

Director in Information Technology (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

Athena Ambulatory Review

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

April 28, 2016

Pros

Acts as an "interface" with documents that typically would come over a fax.
Helps force a documentation workflow that helps us meet Meaningful Use.
Customer service is wonderful with Athena. I can call in anytime and have a representative shadow my screen and walk through any current obstacles I might be facing.

Cons

The ergonomics...the screen is very difficult to view - as the light colors do not provide for contrast.
The flow of the documentation can be difficult. It works down the screen vs. allowing users to jump easy. The "jump" function is at the bottom of the screen and the dropdown menu sometimes follows below the bottom of your computer screen.
It's very expensive for the added "behind the scenes" customer service you are getting. Many labs are now offering an interface for free which would put typical items that are faxed into a queue or their appropriate place. Many times the items that are "managed" by Athena are still having to be managed by the office buckets anyway - which is a selling point of Athena.
The templates that are built are far from intuitive. A point and click system is much easier for a busy physician...something that has a macro and pre-completed notes. Athena makes this process cumbersome, so many physicians are double documenting (paper, then EMR).

Likelihood to Recommend

I think Athena does well with a big office that can afford the added expense, but for a smaller or rural practice I would not advise this product due to cost.

Verified User

Analyst in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

7 years of experience

athenahealth........a must see... opportunity!

Rating: 8 out of 10

February 10, 2015

Pros

athenahealth gives you support from an outstanding team. Just a phone call away. There is not a question they will not answer or will not find out the answer for you quickly
Meaningful use is a piece of cake with athenahealth. The reporting is at your fingertips and the training to make sure the data is collected is priceless
Patient registration is simple and efficient for the staff to obtain via phone. It also makes staff ask questions that are needed to satisfy Meaningful Use
Clinical Documentation is simple. athenahealth made it where most doctors young and old can transition to EMR with as little frustration as possible.
athenahealth communicator takes care of the reminder calls 2 days prior to their appointment.

Cons

The schedule needs to be improved. You should be able to see the schedule in a day, a week , in a month view and be able to schedule directly from the schedule.
It's difficult to name items because they are traditionally corrected very quickly

Likelihood to Recommend

How will implementation of athenahealth save you money? Will it decrease staff? Will it increase efficiency? If so, how much? They need to need able to produce and substantiate percentages they give. Is onsite training available? And if so, is it part of the training or an additional cost? Are discipline specific clinical templates available to the physicians?

Verified User

Manager (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

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Athena for Surgery Centers, not a good choice.

Rating: 2 out of 10

Incentivized

October 10, 2018

Pros

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.

Cons

There are many areas where Athena can improve. The support for surgery centers is non-existent. I was told that 2017 was going to be the year of the surgery center with opportunities to improve the system for that application. This never happened and the team that was supposed to assist me was disbanded.
The list of prior surgeries is cumbersome and difficult to use unless you happen to know the CPT code for the procedure. We end up choosing the closest procedure that we can find and making a note to clarify what we are listing.
The medication administration module is hard coded and cannot be changed. There are options that are absolutely ridiculous but we are told that they must stay that way. For example, an IV fluid rate is set at ml per minute rather than the standard of ml per hour. IV start sites are anything from the hand to rectal. When you give a medication it assumes that you are doing so based on a verbal order and requires that you document the verbal order. We give meds based on written orders almost all the time.

Likelihood to Recommend

Dale Bowman

Administrator, Nivano Ambulatory Surgery Center at Nivano Health (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

View profile