Cerner EMR software and athenahealth EMR software are the two top leading names when it comes to Electronic Medical Records (EMR) software solutions in the United States. Choosing the right EHR software system guarantees that your medical practice can get efficient and productive through streamlining of day-day tasks. To simplify your decision-making process we will compare the two software giants in terms of functionality, pricing, interoperability, and customer service. The comparison will be useful for you to make the final choice with confidence.
About Cerner
Cerner PowerWorks Practice Management Software is designed to streamline administrative, clinical, and financial workflows so the medical practitioner can focus on the patient. It consists of a set of unified EHR software systems and clinical solutions. The powerful and intuitive solutions provide users with end-to-end automation. The vendor offers both onsite and offsite hosting that can be customized and used for all types of medical practices.
Features offered by Cerner
- Auto-Texting
- Powerful integrations
- Patient portal
- Scheduling dashboard
- Patient education resources
- RCM
- Practice Analytics
About athenahealth
athenahealth is known for its powerful solutions of EHR software, billing platform, and Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) services. It has five modules that allow users to manage the different aspects of their practice. These modules include; athenaComunicator, athenaCollector EMR Software, athenaClinicals EMR Software, athenaClarity, and athenaCoordinator. The cloud-based services are HIPAA Compliant to ensure privacy round the clock.
Features offered by athenahealth
- Medical billing
- Patient engagement tools
- Population health
- Order transmission
- HIPAA Compliant text messaging
- RCM
- Care coordination
Functionality
Both Cerner and athenahealth EMR Software offer strong patient engagement tools such as patient portal facility which enables patients to stay connected with their provider without any hindrance. The patient portal platform can also be used to make easy online payments. Clinical documentation tools help to speed up the charting process for the physicians.
Pricing
The investment cost of EHR software is a big one and medical practices keep an investment budget to purchase the software system. The intelligent, and efficient software system can cost a single clinician $163,765. It consists of adaptation and implementation costs, hardware costs, maintenance costs, and training costs. The pricing information is not revealed to the public for both Cerner and athenahealth, however, pricing can be available upon request. Potential buyers can contact both the software vendors for more details and ask for your quote.
Interoperability
Integrations and interoperability is one of the key features of any EHR software solution. Interoperability makes sure that information and patient data can be easily exchanged which ultimately enhances care coordination. Cerner PowerChart Ambulatory EHR integrates effortlessly with EBSCO Nursing Resources, CHADIS, Enterprise Software, and CHRON Health Telemedicine. Athenahealth offers pre-built integrations for applications, diagnostic testing, and external health systems. The vendor also offers API and other tools for custom integrations.
Customer Support
Cerner offers 24/7 technical and customer support to its users which is a great benefit for medical operations. Their support staff is driven to be helpful and responsive to professionally resolve any issues. Athenahealth offers only customer support and that too during business hours only. To get a better insight you can read authentic customer reviews for both the vendors on EMRSystems.
Conclusion
Athenahealth is a good pick for medical practices that want a user-friendly interface and great reporting tools, however, the downside is that support is only offered during business hours. Cerner is a great option for HDO’s that require 24/7 customer support and desire better population health management functionality. In the end, both vendors are strong contenders to streamline workflows and it is recommended to opt a free demo to see how the software system works.
