EHR, EMR software are notorious for being difficult to use. However, some are better than others. How much better is it? NextGen and Epic EMR are both very popular electronic medical record software systems. But how do they compare? Below is a breakdown of Epic and NextGen features.
Comparison of Features
These EMR/EHR systems provide comprehensive and robust EMR capabilities, including charting and vitals and measures, prescription templates, electronic prescribing and more. Each system has its pros and cons. Many of these depend on your practice requirements. This is a quick overview of the benefits and drawbacks of NextGen vs EpicCare.
NextGen has two scalable EHR solutions, Office and Enterprise. They are suitable for many different practices and hospitals. The system can be customized to meet industry and specialty needs. NextGen's rich reporting capabilities make it an attractive and competitive choice for certain practices.
NextGen has some drawbacks that are common to all EMRs. Users report that NextGen EMR has a complicated and cumbersome UX interface. Slow upgrades can also cause the system to grind to a halt. Many users have complained about poor vendor support.
EpicCare's EMR is a specialized EMR that caters to large healthcare organizations and academic medical centers. It is the most popular healthcare IT system in America and serves hundreds of thousands of patients.
Epic's weaknesses lie in integration and price. Epic discourages users from sharing data to other software systems. Epic charges fees to send data to non Epic platforms. This is why some users are turned off by the high price.
Diagnosis
EMRs are easier to record than paper records. EMRs provide a problem listing of symptoms that doctors can browse to help them choose a diagnosis. This is standardization for symptoms and ICD-10 codes to simplify the billing and recording process. EMRs, EHRs, and medical office management software all should offer this ability, although the ease and completeness of these features will differ.
NextGen Ambulatory EMR offers users the ability to record diagnoses and interactions with patients. The problem list can be used to identify the diagnosis by using PFT and standard codes like ICD-10 and SNOMED CT.
Physicians can view a quick overview of all symptoms, allergies, and medications in the encounter screen. The encounter screen has two tabs: the chronic problems tab provides a list of current problems and the diagnosis tab lists all previous diagnoses. Users can navigate to patient information using the hover option without having to change templates or click away from their encounter note.
EpicCare Ambulatory EMR allows you to record information about a patient's illness and its diagnosis. Epic's problems lists contain all information regarding a patient's previous diagnoses and are shared with all Epic providers. The information can be sorted so that individual practitioners can view only the relevant information at any given time.
The system integrates review, documentation, and order management features to create a charting program that connects all members of the care team through a single interface. This system's UX is less intuitive than NextGen and can make it difficult to search through all of a patient’s past diagnoses.
Medications
NextGen Ambulatory's home screen makes it easier to work faster and more smoothly. They can view past HPIs and exams without having to navigate to another screen. Additionally, they can review past medical histories, allergies, and medications. The patient encounter screen lists medications along with their number. Physicians can hover over the information to access it. Clicking takes users to the medication module. Here they can edit or make new entries.
EpicCare Ambulatory EMR monitors medication treatments by recording current and past medications in the encounter screen. The EpicCare Ambulatory EMR log contains all medication prescribed by Epic providers. It can be accessed via pop-up windows, which reduces the need to scroll through multiple screens. This tool is useful, but it does not delete any previous medications.
Patient Information
NextGen Ambulatory EMR allows users to view past HPIs and exams as well as plans and reviews. It also lets them review allergies, medications, and their past medical history. NextGen Ambulatory allows users to flip through charts that have auto-grow grids. The patient information bar allows physicians to quickly access important data like age, date, and address. Without interrupting their workflow, they can access the patient information bar. This allows doctors to easily hover over fields and view more information without having to leave their screen. Users can view the primary pharmacy, rendering and primary care providers of patients within the patient encounter screen.
EpicCare Ambulatory EMR allows users record all information about their patients, including medications, allergies, laboratory/radiology findings, and more. This information can be accessed via a popup window from the encounter page. Access to patients' medical records can be accessed via a variety of mobile apps. This encourages them to actively participate in their care. NextGen is more complicated than Epic and has a steeper learning curve. EMR integration cannot access patient's medical information if it comes from a non Epic provider.
SOAP Notes
SOAP Notes are a method of medical evaluation that attempts to standardize the interaction between patient and doctor. SOAP notes are intended to facilitate communication among all channels of patient care, and allow for easy revisiting of that communication later.
Components
Subjective: These are subjective observations, such as symptoms that a patient reports.
Objective: Objective data, such as measurable symptoms (e.g. fever, swelling, etc
Assessment: Diagnoses or possible diagnoses for a patient's condition
Plan: This is the plan of care for the provider. It includes prescriptions, tests, and follow-up instructions.
NextGen Ambulatory allows users the ability to save an entire SOAP Note without losing its format. Users can also reuse it for common findings with "Quick Note" and can even retain their preferences for exams and procedures using "Quick Saves." This speeds up the learning curve and streamlines template use.
EpicCare Ambulatory EMR doesn't support SOAP note, unlike many other EMRs. Epic's proprietary data model prevents Epic from sharing data with other Epic providers. Epic maintains its own encounter record, but it doesn't follow the standard format of a SOAP Note.
Custom Reports
Reporting used to be the domain of business intelligence tools. But that is changing. Each type of software is becoming more sophisticated and, ironically enough, they are starting to incorporate elements from other software. One of the first elements to be added is often business intelligence/business analytics capabilities. EHRs/EMRs can be used in the same way. Healthcare providers have new options and insights when they are able to create customized reports. This capability will continue to be important in the future of EMR .
NextGen Ambulatory's InSight reporting allows users to establish practice benchmarks and monitor progress. Users also have access to actionable and insightful comparative analytics on payers and peers in real-time. This allows practices to spot problems in their day, such as long wait times, high levels of individual physician error, overpaying, and more. -- and how to address them better.
Epic's Epicenter provides a variety of reports. These can be pre-built or query-based. Epic's extensive databases allow users to report on financial and clinical data from multiple Epic providers. These reports can be understood and created by even those who are not familiar with other types of BI tools. This interconnectedness allows users access to robust data sets and can observe multi-practice trends within their reports.
Outstanding Lab Reports
Sometimes, a patient will need laboratory work done by special labs. The EMR must be able receive the lab results and integrate them into a patient’s medical record. This will depend on how well the EMR integrates it. If it isn't, it can mean more data entry work for your staff.
NextGen Ambulatory allows instant access to lab results and charts from any location. Continuous monitoring of patient records can be done with this instantaneous access, without the need for a paper chase. This allows doctors and staff to quickly access new information, potentially saving lives. This real-time access is also beneficial for patients. They can view their results immediately after they are in via a Patient Portal. Patients no longer need to wait for results to be processed.
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EpicCare Ambulatory EMR does not allow data sharing. This makes it slower. Epic users must manually route diagnostic testing results through their system to the correct caregivers, sometimes via paper trails. It is still a useful process, but it can cause physician overburdenment and increase the time that the entire team waits for critical lab results.
Who won?
Both tools are great -- our analyst research placed them in the top eight EMR software solutions overall -- but Epic vs NextGen is clear. While both tools offer the same features (with one exception: SOAP notes which Epic completely forgoes), the way that those features are presented to users is what makes the difference. NextGen Healthcare is much more user-friendly than Epic, and has interoperability capabilities that make it easier to integrate with other systems. Compare the features and costs of these EMRs. You should now feel confident in your ability to choose the right EMR for you.
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