The MedicsCloud EHR (opens in new tab) came to us from the Advanced Data Systems Corporation (ADSC). This company has been around since 1977, as a privately owned company. Founded by an electrical engineer, David Barzillai, he immigrated to the US, and was asked to create a demographics database for a radiology practice, which he successfully did. Out of this request, David created the ADSC from an apartment in New York City.
Over the years, ADSC has grown, and now occupies a 15,000 square foot building in Paramus, NJ, with over 250 employees, in excess of 55 million EDI transactions annually. The EHR from ADSC, MedicsCloud takes a database approach to analytics. It is used by clients including the Hispanic Counseling Center, New Bridge Medical Center, and Park Avenue Professionals.
Let’s find out if we consider it to be one of the best Electronic Health Records software (opens in new tab) platforms…
MedicsCloud EHR: Features
MedicsCloud has a number of innovative features to enhance workflow and productivity (opens in new tab) with the goal of making quality patient care flow easier. The first that jumps out right away is that dictation is integrated directly into the clinical notes area, with Medics FlowText. Anyone who has tried to use a dictation (opens in new tab) system in the medical record is aware that more time gets navigating around rather than getting the words onto the page. MedicsCloud addresses this issue with its FlowText feature to not only make the page voice navigable, but also with a DragonOne Medical System, it can intelligently enter the words so that the document gets created with a single pass.
We also round out the features with specialty specific templates and content. It is also 2015 certified for incentives, can track MIPS, and also is designed to be compliant with the Cures Act. There is also support for e-prescribing, and there is automation of lab ordering, with results that feedback into this EHR.
Patient Portal
A patient portal, with a great experience no less, has become a ‘Must have’ when shopping for an EHR, and thankfully ADSC delivers in this area. It is dubbed MedicsPortal, and designed to be used via smartphone apps, which are available for both the iOS and Android platform. This can be either an advantage considering most younger patients prefer this method, or a disadvantage as some might prefer to just access via a browser, and why install an app for a medical provider that you only plan to see for a consult once or twice.
Still, via the app, patients are covered for most activities that they would do with a medical practice. These include making an appointment, putting through an online payment, requesting prescription refills and communicating via secure messaging, including getting a notification that a message has arrived.
Mobile
About the best we can say about the Android version of the MedicsCloud EHR is that we have one. This mobile version of this EHR has a mere 100+ downloads without a single review, so it is a bit of a black box.
We would have hypothesized that things are stronger on the iOS side, but unfortunately, not so much. We could not find the app on the Apple Play store, nor find a link to it on the ADSC site. While we see images of a mobile phone on the site, we even looked at the Learning Center, but came up empty.
In summary, the apps for both Android and iOS appear to be a miss.
MedicsCloud EHR: Support
MedicsCloud certainly won’t be criticized for not having enough support options- both direct and self help. On the direct side, we easily find a toll-free phone number, a support portal, a fax number, a chat box, and even a snail mail address. The only options we did not find are chat, and a direct email if we want to nitpick. We also would have liked to see the hours of operation for support listed as well while we are on the topic.
Indirect options for support are plentiful as well by surfing over to the ADS Learning Center. Here, the self help options abound, with articles, webinars, newsletters and video content plentiful. We also like that searches for info can be filtered to locate a specific content type, information pertinent to a particular medical specialty, or even by a topic, such as “Practice Management.”
MedicsCloud EHR: Pricing
As is not particularly out of the ordinary, MedicsCloud is not forthcoming with the pricing, and prefers to keep it opaque. We are not fans of this practice, as busy practice managers and clinicians may not want to invest the time needed for a phone quote.
We searched around, and about the most we can find is that it is sold via a monthly subscription, but could not find a monthly price, nor if there were tiers, and how many. Further making it difficult, we did not find a free tier, nor was there even a free trial. These types of practices do make it more difficult to choose.
MedicsCloud EHR: Final verdict
Overall, the MedicsCloud EHR from ADSC is a bit of a mixed bag. We can certainly appreciate the FlowText integrated dictation, the large number of direct support options including a toll free phone number and self help options, and the patient portal, called MedicsPortal.
However, we need to point out the multiple misses starting with the opaque pricing including what tiers are available, the lack of a free trial that we could find, and the frustration with the phone apps on both iOS and Android.
For the right user, MedicsCloud could get the job done, but it is hard to know this given the lack of reviews for the smartphone apps, and that this offering is sans a free trial, making us look at other solutions first.
