Product Review - NextGen EMR

Written by Karen Corey

Monday, 18 February 2008 04:47

NextGen EMR (http://www.nextgen.com/) is a versatile, multi-module system that can be used to automate a practice's workflow no matter what size or specialty. This system gives you all the tools in one application to maintain your practice's patient information and streamlines workflow by offering 24 specialty templates which come pre-loaded with detailed options for documenting the patient's histories, procedures and assessments. NextGen EMR gives you all the applications needed to run the daily operations of your facility from scheduling to billing. This system was designed specifically for use by clinicians to ensure fast user-adoption with built-in clinical content and workflow for Electronic Medical Records (EMR).

In Use
NextGen EMR is user friendly with its full compliment of navigation options. The login screen is unique due to the fact you can either use a user name and password or there is a key pad to enter a numerical pin. The workflow screen appears after login and from here you can access any module by selecting from one of the numerous icons on the left. This system is designed for physicians to point and click their way through an entire exam quickly and effortlessly. NextGen EMR has over 20 different specialties packaged in one application with a huge selection of pre-built templates to help automate the workflow. The overall ease and setup of the menus makes navigation through the entire application seamless and effortless. NextGen also offers NextGen EPM at an additional cost which integrates with the NextGen EMR which means both clinical and administrative data is accessible in one database.

Technology employed
The NextGen EMR is a Microsoft certified partner that utilizes state-of-the-art technology, which includes Windows OS, SQL database and Microsoft Active Domain architecture. The applications employ sophisticated protocols to ensure security and HIPAA compliance. The applications are written in Visual Basic and Visual C++ which enables the user to interact with the system through a portable, wireless workstation or a standard Windows based desktop computer. As the data is captured, it is relayed back to the database engine on a UNIX, Windows 2000/NT or Novell server. You can run the application on a locally hosted server; NextGen also has a corporate data center which can act as a host for your data collection.

Ease of use, configuration, and deployment
NextGen EMR has user friendly tools that allow you to customize workflow and content options quickly. This system provides diagnostic support and clinical reference information which improves patient satisfaction. The price of NextGen EMR varies depending on the size of the practice and any additional options purchased.

Recap
The overall ease and setup of the menus make navigation through the entire application seamless and effortless. This system is designed for physicians to point and click their way through an entire exam quickly and effortlessly. This multi featured system streamlines workflow, increases productivity, and enhances quality of care.
Advantages
Advanced Security
Over 20 different specialties
Improves quality of documentation

Disadvantages
Additionalfeatures can increase the cost of the system

Karen Corey
		About the author:
		Karen Corey is a freelance writer and researcher with over 10 years experience in marketing research and healthcare. She does reviews, articles, and blogs on a variety of topics and specializes in SEO and all types of software. She resides in Southern California.

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Comments (7)

My MSO has been using nextgen for over 2yrs.. It is without a doubt, the most frustrating, idiotic program I have ever used. The learning curve is too steep, the interface is completely non-intuitive (think DOS, not even windows for workgroups), etc. Our productivity is down 20%plus. At my last count, 15-20 mouse strokes on 6-7different screens just to tell my nurse to call the patient back and tell them the answer is 'yes'. Our lead receptionist made the comment last week "It's like someone is intentionally trying to sabotage our office with this program."

I am an implementation analyst/template developer with a large MSO, and we've been trying to implement NG EMR for over 3 years. I will give NG credit for recognizing the flaws in their templates and QA processes; NG has put a lot of effort into improving the core templates and fixing bugs. The upcoming 7.9 version of the templates looks very promising. But the previous and current versions were/are a mess, requiring several patches and client customization to fix all sorts of minor and critical errors. Upgrades to new versions of the templates are nothing short of nightmarish. The reviewer's claims of "seamless", "quick" and "effortless" navigation through the product are, to be polite, vastly exaggerated. The EMR product is difficult to implement, difficult to maintain, and requires advanced knowledge of template design and SQL to customize effectively. As I said, NG deserves kudos for attempting to address these problems. But small practices without strong IT resources should evaluate NG EMR very cautiously. Yes, it demos very well. The cardiology templates LOOK great, for example. But underneath the hood, it's a different and often frustrating experience.

We had a presentation with next gen last week. It was very impressive 2 hour presentation. We are also looking at GE centricity, MkKesson Practice Partner and GEMS.
For a 9 MD Cardiology single speciality practice. Any comments ar advice will be appreciated

How easily does NextGen work with scanning of the current charts or new paper that arrives on a daily basis?

I speak to a lot of Clients/Doctors as a consultant to the industry on technology concerns, and while I can say that most EMR/EHR users are generally happier now that they are off paper, I have not talked to a happy NextGen user yet. As a matter of fact, I can think of a half dozen practices that are contemplating bringing suit against the company for complete product failure. I typically try to steer people away from them.

I am a New England based person, so maybe its just a geographic occurrence, but it is a reoccurrence for sure... hopefully they are adjusting whatever is wrong b/c its bad for the industry when a vendor this large underperforms this badly.

when nextgen first came everyone was excited saying that it was user friendly. I have to admit when I first saw it I thought it was great. I work for Family Practice doctor and it worked for us immediately. But after a while I started to notice there were things that it can not do unless you really go out of your way for that convience. Getting labs back is still a huge issue. It does not show pending labs. So if we order 5 test only 4 show because the 5th one isnt done, but it doesnt show that the 5th one is pending so more labs are falling through the cracks...

My office has tried to implement NextGen in a cardiology as your image above shows. It was a nightmare.. the templates simply did not work as described.

Maybe they are better after a few years.

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