chirotouch review: Chiropractic Software Review:
UPDATE APRIL 14, 2016
ChiroTouch Review update: I have been using ChiroTouch for about 3 years now. I still think it is overpriced and recent events with the company have continued to keep dissatisfaction on the front burner.
Here is what happened. I was subscribing to the yearly support at the tune of $750/year. This service was on auto renew. I had asked my assistant to check and see if there was a less expensive package available. She began by checking on the website just a few days before the auto renew was to kick in. It showed the previous price of $750 as expected associated with the renewal date. Then, the day before or 2 days before the auto renewal, the price jumped to $1150 with no notice at all. Big price jump. No notice. Very last minute. If we had not already been checking prices, we would not have seen it and I would have had an unhappy surprise on my credit card. Thanks ChiroTouch. Just another reason to be unhappy with your product. And, if that wasn’t enough, when I decided I would not be renewing my support contract, I upgraded to the latest version shortly before the renewal. and it is Hugely Buggy. I wish I had not upgraded because now I don’t have support and have a buggy version of the software. The most annoying thing is sometimes when I type, I can only see the line I am typing to the middle of the page. Then to see the rest of what I have typed, I must hit return to go to the next line, then the typing shows up on the previous line. VERY ANNOYING.
Previous review:
chirotouch review. Recently our office purchased the chirotouch chiropractic office software. This is a review of the chirotouch software and our experience so far. Since purchasing the chirotouch system I have learned a great deal that I really wish I had learned before making this expensive purchase.
chirotouch is a complete office software system that integrates doctor notes, scheduling, billing and patient tracking in one pretty complex package. I guess it would have to be complex in order for it to handle all these aspects of chiropractic office management under one umbrella. Our office ordered chirotouch because we really wanted to improve the readability, the complexity, the compliance as well as the ease of use for our daily patient notes. To be complete with this review of chirotouch chiropractic software I would have to admit, we are at the early phases in integrating this software into our chiropractic practice. Here is how it seems so far.
Our office has been using an older version of another software for scheduling and billing. Our computer, an older version still running Windows XP is no longer compliant with HIPPA regulations. When you purchase chirotouch, you will go through a series of 7 phone/online trainings that will go through all the nuts and bolts of the day to day operations. You will learn how to enter new patients, how to schedule and how to charge and check out. It all seems pretty easy and intuitive as well as pretty easy to learn. Of course with the new privacy regulations, each person who uses the software must have their own login and password. The doctor has his own section which is crucial to setting up your “macros” which I will go into later. This allows the doctor to make notes, select diagnoses, show which treatments etc were administered that day and all aspects of the daily visit and exams can be entered in this section. This for me is the real fly in the ointment. Again, more later.
Ok, I said this was a review so here goes. As I mentioned earlier, all the office admin functions seem really easy and intuitive to use. I think this will save on staff training and the check out person will have less to keep up with. Everyone’s treatment schedule is right in front of them when someone checks out. chirotouch allows the doctor to work from an ipad and send the front desk remotely which services were rendered and when they expect the patient or practice member to return. If they are on a 2x/week schedule for 4 weeks, the check out person can see this clearly. They can also see if any appointments were missed or need to me made up. All in all pretty nice. We are really looking forward to using this and having things go smoothly.
The doctor side of things is another matter. This is the real reason I am writing this review. Here are the basics. The doctor can work either from a remote computer workstation that is linked to the office “server” computer and/or from an ipad. We do not have a remote computer so I am working from an ipad. The basic idea is that there are pre written sets of different “notes” that you can choose by tapping buttons on the ipad and your notes are automatically generated in neatly written form. These note sets are called “macros.” Here is a note on the chirotouch software macros. They are a pain. Honestly, I have downloaded the most recent and “greatest” set of macros and talk about frustrating. These macros are so complex that it is very difficult to even describe why they are frustrating. These sets are set up for “compliance” in note taking. They offer a daily wellness set, medicare sets, insurance sets, personal injury sets etc. However, even on the simplest of wellness visits, unless you are just going to choose the preset “no complaints” today type in everything else, you will be guided through a quagmire of note question and answer sets that even if you want to skip that question and go to the next one will leave an incomplete written note in the chart that you must either go in and erase or fill in.
It seems that no single macro set includes a simple daily visit plus a treatment button. Some have treatment buttons but do not have other aspects of note taking for a particular type of visit. Our goal was to go “live” with this software in one week. However, at this point I see it taking possibly weeks to get the macros set up so they are usable in my office. In fact, many doctors do write their own macros. So I paid ten grand for software and I need to rewrite or write my own note flow buttons?
All that is frustrating enough. But here is the bottom line and if you have read this far, you deserve a gold star and this may be it. Read on. The reason many doctors are spending all this money and have spent all this money for compliant software is the idea that they can get reimbursed with government incentive money and possibly even make a profit on it. In fact, I am sure you are aware this is actually the last year to apply for the incentive. If you are not already installed and applying, it is really almost too late. Once you get up to snuff on the software you can activate the certified part of it then you start attesting for the year. This is not an article about that. However, I would ask you to consider. Do you know that doctors who apply for these incentive paybacks are getting HIPPA audited? Not all of them do of course. We are constantly working to improve our office privacy practices as best practices dictate. However, audits are random and performed by random people with sometimes an agenda in mind. Do you want to get audited in any way shape or form? Is it worth the money to open yourself up to this extra level of scrutiny? Getting chirotouch was, for us, a way to have better documentation and compliance. Just one step of many in an ongoing journey of staying up with current regulations and reqirements. But, taking compliant notes can be done on a single sheet of paper. You just have to know what it needs to cover. I did not trust myself, even though I have been to countless seminars on compliance and billing to know that my notes were perfect. Now, I am doubtful that even chirotouch has given me the answer I was seeking. As far as a simple, intuitive compliant record goes, I do not believe that chirotouch fits that bill. And what a bill it is.
I would recommend that unless you really have a major insurance office and bill a lot of medicare etc. chirotouch may not be for you. If you feel you can really bill a lot of medicare and get full advantage of the incentive money more power to you. Ours is more of a wellness office and we see a LOT of maintenance and wellness family visits that are not billable. Buying CT may have been a mistake for my office. We will see and I will write again after we go live for a further update.
Remember, keep good notes. No matter what system you are using.
ChiroTouch Review Update:
ChiroTouch review Update: November 1, 2014
After using chirotouch for several months now I thought I would give you an update on how it is going. Pretty much everything I stated above is still correct. I have spent a lot of time trying to edit the “macros” or preset text inserts that supposedly help you streamline your note taking. While it is obvious that no preset buttons are going to take good notes for you, this process is still a pain. I have not seen anything that even will help you lay out your notes in simple SOAP format. One button still leads to others as menu buttons and they either have way too much or not enough text/info inside.
While you can simply write all your own macros, which I am basically trying to do, I was hoping for at least some sort of formatting that would help me remember to put all aspects of the patient visit within each note. NOPE, NADA, ZILCH don’t even think about it. It is going to take a lot of work to get these buttons set up the way I feel like will help give me compliant notes as well as a streamlined function and might actually save me some time.
I do not know how to compare this note taking software to others, as this is the only one I have. But I would hope there is something else better out there.
In addition to my problems with the macros, we have had problems with:
The dreaded spinning wheel. When I try to move to another patient or screen within the iPad the software sometimes freezes up and I have to wait, or restart. This is a MAJOR pain when you are busy and note taking time is critical
The patient’s check in at the check in iPad at the front often does not come flow into the notes or show up on my note pad. Again, a restart is required.
Oh and on the subject of the patient iPad check in. The forms choices are very limited and I don’t like any of them.
I still use chirotouch and will continue to work on it to make it work for my notes in my office. I do not mean to sound negative, it is just that the problems I have encountered seem pretty major to me for such expensive software.
Feel free to ask questions.