Practice Fusion

This is where newcomers then differ from seasoned vets. Seasoned vets do not need all the hand holding. Instead they need one that actually provides a lot of good office tools.
1) Practice fusion's schedule system is good but it still allows people to put Doctor A's patients into a schedule that is BLOCKED for doctor A but open to Doctor B. The schedule default is 15 minute time intervals and even after you change it, it resorts to 15 minutes after a while. Front desk girls can get too busy to deal with changing that default all the time and you get a NEW visit scheduled in at 15.
2) It is HORRIBLE for specialists because the referral response fax instantly loses all the formatting you put into the original note. HORRIBLE. I need to then print out the note and have a prefab hello thank you letter and fax it manually.
-ALSO There is no good way of keeping track of who is sending the referral. BAD BAD BAD. You actually have to keep a separate EXCEL sheet or a simple marble notebook for that.
3) Templates do eventually make all your notes look and feel the same. Editing Templates can get cumbersome and annoying.
4) Scanning in documents are SUPER Cumbersome. I had to get a separate program to keep those files because Practice fusion merely stacks them up chronologically without any filing techniques. Also the actual SLOW way of uploading and labeling the file is why I hired a high school kid for after school. They have expensive outside companies that want to do that for me. A high school kid does it even better and at minimum wage.
5) CRASH CRASH CRASH CRASH: Adobe Flash.
6) KAREO is cheaper but also a cumbersome billing software that links with Practicefusion. Most billing companies will argue again and again for Emdeon.
7) Remember that this is free so, they must not be able to hire a lot of technical people to deal with ALL the requested features and thus most of the requests by people like making labels and printing out better response letters and doing better report making are always ignored. They have bigger fish to fry like making it crash less.

The EHR has no autosave. If you log-in from a second room, it will give you no warning; it will erase your work at the first room and log off. I just wrote a 3 page note and the system went down for scheduled maintenance. The note is gone. Very frequenty I come back to work on a note to find it be blank. I have written feedback to them since September 2011; and as of July 2012, there is no autosave.

It is quite difficult to costomize. The notes are very simple and don't look good. They all say Free EHR at the bottom of each page. It's somewhat embarrasing if you are a consultant and need to send notes to your referring physicians.

The templates don't flow. You have to recreate your notes for follow up visits which can be cumbersome. There is NO user customizations. No Font control, no Zoom control. No window control. If you are using a larger monitor, pass by this software until they can get this fixed. 30 inch monitors have to be taken out of native resolution to view this adobe flash program which does not respond to any browser zoom customizations. Reducing native monitor resolution really messes up that rest of your viewing experience if you have to do this. They have a forum where you can request a feature but mostly there's been no change in the program in the past 90 days of use and they are VERY SLOW to implement change. You can't send your notes to other physicians via the fax built in. Lab integration takes forever and I was denied. Although they advertise a free lab integration, it is cost driven and if you don't meet a certain criteria, you get denied. I've yet to have an explanation of denial after two months of request. They simple can't tell you at practice fusion.

I decided to update this review. As of 10 months of using the program, no Ipad app as promised. They have a forum for you to request features and many doctors are upset about them not making the necessary changes to the program to make it work better. I'm very upset with this program as it could stand so many changes for the better but they won't make the necessary changes. It's a disappointment I cannot see my schedule....ever on iOS devices. The program wastes many steps that prevent effective flow. YOu have to go through 5 steps to print a note! You cannot upload multiple files and have to do each one individually which takes time for my staff to do and wastes time. But basically, I don't see any sort of leadership and response to Physician requests that make the program better. Don't know if they don't know how to do it or they just don't care. They should also switch to HTML5 and I as well as other doctors have requested this but they have not. This limits the program to flash and limits the program functionality and use with iOS devices. Such a pain to be ignored on feature requests. Like it was said before on another review. This program is a typical toddler and needs to grow up.

integrating a larger selection of billing affiliates, besides KAREO, that is not MAC friendly. however, i can still do my own billing through my current clearinghouse in the mean time.

It doesn't have a practice management side. No integration for billing as far as I can tell.