MEDITECH Expanse

Good EHR for hospital-based healthcare, but not efficient for integrating into outpatient operations

Comments: We upgraded to Meditech EHR from the old Meditch "MOX" software, which was simple and very limited in its capabilities as far as integration, ability to access the entire medical chart, orders, etc. Meditech easily allows for better communication between providers to improve patient care and allow for decreased lengths of hospital stays over all.

Pros:

It integrates for seamless communication for hospital services, with all chart aspects easily viewable without a few clicks once the patient's chart is opened. All orders, vitals, lab results, notes, progress reports, etc. are easily accessed.

Cons:

We also use Meditech as our registration software for our patients for outpatient rehabilitation and all of our patient orders for therapy are housed in Meditech. It's not an efficient way to use this EHR system, as it takes something like 12 clicks to access a patient's scanned outpatient PT order if that's all you need to find.

Project manager who implemented Meditech for 16 years

Comments: Project manager of the consulting team implementing Meditech for 16 years.

Pros:

Meditech can be a very "user" friendly software for not only implementation, but use. However, the parameter settings are KEY, for each module, for the main system. If your implementer OR your workflows don't support these parameters, you MUST figure it out!

Cons:

The medical record number wheel can be problematic during go lives.

Meditech is no longer the standard

Comments: It is a love hate relationship. I am aware it lacks many of the bells and whistles and ease of use of Epic.

Pros:

It holds a LOT of information. It can hold so much info it is astonishing.

Cons:

Meditech is the old guard of medical software. It freezes, does not connect to other programs, and is unattractive and hard to use. Once you learn it you are fine, but its so unlike most widely used programs that jobs will not hire you if you only have experience in meditech in this region

Meditech Expanse

Comments: I have used Meditech with a variety of versions (Magic, 6.07, 6.15, Expanse) and have found each iteration to improve with the needs of the HealthSystem.

Pros:

I like how easy it is to navigate in Meditech. I can find the information I am looking for and is in a format that is useable for my work.

Cons:

I feel that the things I like least are due to items that were pulled over when it was upgraded from a previous version. Using some upgraded functionality of the system would have made searching for orders and interventions better.

Learning about the management of a clinic thanks to MEDITECH Expanse

Comments: I am an architecture student and recently entered a new pre-professional project at my university where I was assigned as an intern in a clinic, although my main role was focused on remodeling the facilities, the head of the clinic asked me to learn how to use this software to better understand the requirements of doctors and ensure a smooth integration of infrastructure with information systems. While learning about MEDITECH Expanse, I was able to appreciate its versatility and powerful ability to manage and store clinical data, thanks to this system I was able to quickly access patients' medical records, which allowed me to better understand their needs and design adequate spaces for their care. In short, my experience was a difficult challenge and something new for me, but I liked seeing how these medical systems work.

Pros:

In my little experience of less than a year using this system, I must emphasize the following positive points: it is a comprehensive and efficient system that facilitated access to medical information and how, thanks to this, it speeds up administrative processes. Another very good point is its real-time data integration between different departments and services, thus optimizing coordination and collaboration between medical personnel.

Cons:

The only negative point that I found about this system was that when using some functions I could not do it correctly because they required more training and familiarization to use them optimally, so it could be improved in this aspect to do more. Intuitive all the functionalities in general.

Never use this software.

Comments: No benefits to using this software. I would avoid this product.

Pros:

nothing. I like nothing about this software.

Cons:

At least 4-5 steps needed find out simple information ie lab trends. Previous d/c summary or H and P. Exists no option to link EMR different facilities. Never any customer support. For example in my facility. Charts need to be signed, IT or help desk takes over 2 weeks reply. Never seen anything like it.

Meditech EMR - outdated

Comments: It gets the job done, but it’s least ideal when looking for records

Pros:

You can use your keyboard to get through to what you need and don’t need to use the mouse to click.

Cons:

It’s very old. Not super intuitive, needs visual update. You also have to go into multiple screens before you get your results. At times I’ve exited out if it when I didn’t mean to

Medical Records and Charting Made Easy

Pros:

Important and favorite feature of Meditech is all the medical records are readily available. Easy to chart.

Cons:

Sometimes, when charted on wrong patient by mistake it is impossible to correct that.

Cheaper than Epic but much less user friendly

Comments: Overall, MEDITECH is sufficient for my EMR charting needs but is severely less functional than others I have used

Pros:

The software works (which is better than other EMR softwares) and is highly HIPAA compliant.

Cons:

The features are "clunky" and don't seem to be updated for the 2020's software standard most are used to. In particular, the lack of "click-ability" of most inputs and instead having to use the arrow keys is quite old-fashioned

Not worth it

Pros:

Okay learning wise, not many outstanding features to remember

Cons:

Stuck in the past, not very efficient, kind of Stone Age software

Cumbersome, slow, unintuitive, dysfunctional

Pros:

Nothing. According to our administration, the system cost millions of dollars for our small community hospital. Yet our IT dept. had to build the system. I was very involved in this process. But there are many inherent limitations of this software. The company did send there people to our hospital for support, they were good, but they frequently said 'it can't do this' or 'it can't do that' when asked why/what can be done to streamline or expand any specific screen or template for any given item.

Cons:

It is inherently slow. It takes many clicks to accomplish a single step. We have a very good IT dept. and we built the software customized to our hospital. But the system is inherently dysfunctional. There area many examples including very limited number of characters that can be entered by free text in there small box space, then it may unexpectedly delete any of this info. The med reconciliation is cumbersome and inflexible, looking up old records is slow and difficult, and the whole system in unintuitive. We were forced to use the system in my department, but some staff Dr's refused to use it. I used this software at 2 different hospitals and both were bad. There was universal agreement of our med staff that even after a couple of yrs of it being in place, nobody liked it.

Meditech Magic vs Client Server

Comments: I have used both Magic and Client Server and find the latter much more intuitive. Meditech Magic looks like a bare bones version of Client Server. I worked in the IT department at the Magic hospital, and the report writer was able to create new reports very easily on the fly. The hospital was constantly changing various screens since it was so easy to do (not necessarily a good thing). I was an end-user at the Client Server hospital so I don't have the same level of knowledge of the IT side. Customer support seemed fair at both locations.

Pros:

Meditech Magic is easier to build onsite and report options are good; Client Server is more user friendly and visually appealing.

Cons:

Meditech Magic screens are more difficult to understand and navigate; client server can be overhwhelming in terms of the number of tabs and amount of information on the screen.

Meditech Software is the best

Comments: Overall this software gives the user a good experience by it's ease of use and accuracy.

Pros:

Software is easy to learn and use with daily workflow. Software is accurate and aides in accurate medication administration by ability to scan arm bands then medication itself to prevent errors in giving medication.

Cons:

Monthly downtime impacts patient care and requires extra work to print medication lists, document on the lists, then transfer this documentation to Meditech when downtime is finished.

Old School with easy understanding

Comments: My experience with MEDITECH, was slow to warm up to but once learned how to navigate I could do anything I needed to do in order to find the information I needed.

Pros:

It's not flashy but it gets the job done. It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles and therefore also rarely has times when the system doesn't work properly

Cons:

There are somethings that this program doesn't do that for my job I need to have. However you can export all the Information you need to an excel spreadsheet and from there I can customize my data to do what I needed it to do.

When bad software won't die

Comments: I have worked with numerous other EHR's and Meditech is by far the worst.

Cons:

Seriously after 2 years I am have yet to discover any advantage to using this software, even after our hospital rolled out the newest version of Meditech 6.15.No functionality of the system, you have to hunt for the critical information you need, the software is not intuitive for example if you scan a medication that the patient has a documented allergy to the program doesn't pop up a text box or an alert. My biggest complaint is that it does not appear that Meditech consulted with clinicians when building the documentation software. It is extremely troubling and in our litigious society I am not sure how they justify the lack of descriptors.

Cumbersome and poorly designed

Comments: Horrible

Pros:

Availability of previous records. Nothing else……..

Cons:

Multiple clicks for simple and frequent tasks. Prescription writing and sending complex. Can’t easily see patients who are next to be seen. List of my patients doesn’t drop off discharged patients even for days. Too long of a list to write

Better for urgent and emergency rooms

Comments: Better than Epic

Pros:

Blocks off rooms for ambulances, has the ability to update information without causing system issues, multiple departments can be on same chart, notation was easier

Cons:

Not accessible by other hospital systems which limits how much info you can share

Great for Clinical AND B/AR users; redundant if you only use one or the other

Pros:

I love that it combines billing (front and back end) AND clinical documentation. It makes billing and coding, compliance audits and claims review SO much easier than other software.

Cons:

Since Epic came out, Meditech lacks a lot of features, like insurance verification, faxing charts, etc. Meditech also forces all processes to be entered repetitively, and for those who are strictly clinical or strictly b/ar, it seems tedious.

Difficult to use

Comments: I am not a fan and the reports were long and wasted paper.

Pros:

I believe it is customisable and may be good for smaller hospitals. The company trained the hospital staff

Cons:

I used it in an er setting and hated it. It would not let you move on with a triage until all area are addressed. I felt it jeopardized my patients health on my very sick patients. I heard some of the same complaints from other floors.

Limited EHR

Comments: Used this EHR in medium sized hospital for rounding and care of orthopedic patients. Mostly was good at allowing access to information both within and outside of the hospital. I didn't like not being able to finish my rounding from the office though due to no ability to write a progress note directly into the system. Paper notes got scanned after patient discharge.

Pros:

Simple windows for accessing information Remote access is possible if setup by administration Images accessible from within the program without needing a separate PACs system.

Cons:

Inability to write or dictate a note directly in the system. Discharges seemed to take a long time with extra steps and multiple clicks (this could more hospital issue vs EHR).

very archaic program

Comments: I would think after all these years it would be updated by now.

Pros:

I dont really have anything good to say about this product. I have used it off and on for 10yrs and I dont think there has been any changes made.

Cons:

It is very frustrating to have to use the arrow keys only for navigation, if you mistakenly hit the wrong key you have to start all over again.

Great product.

Comments: Great product overall and get compliments that it's better than some othe EHR competitors.

Pros:

Easy to use and user friendly. Very competitive application. We are able to customize too which makes it more adaptable to our workflow.

Cons:

Updates seem to cause issues for some time. We find several bugs after each update but that comes with the territory.

Love Meditech!!

Pros:

Very user friendly and allows you to navigate and complete work tasks fast and efficiently. I would highly recommend this software!!

Cons:

Seldom freezes but not very often and that tends to occur with any software I've ever used. Overall no complaints and love this software

Meditech EHR

Pros:

I have used Meditech in 2 hospital systems. I am very used to it's menus and how to navigate. The labels are very user-friendly for healthcare

Cons:

I would really like to be able to use more of the custom fields; the documentation is difficult to understand.

very old school program

Pros:

It didn't take long to learn the program, it's pretty simple. It is straight forward and gets the job done

Cons:

It seems archaic, could use some updates. a lot of screens to go through to get to what you need. didn't like using the arrow keys so much.