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Post Medication Management Hurdles

Bugs, Known Issues, Open Cases

Last Post by Anonymous 1 second ago

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awagner

(@awagner)

Posts: 8

Active Member

Topic starter

Greetings!

I'm trying to gauge the level of success that other facilities have had with the activation of Medication Management. I don't mean for this post to seem rant-y, however, I want to see if it's just our system or an issue with the platform itself.

Since activating we've encountered the following:

Performance issues opening the medication management module (6-15 seconds before it can be interacted with)
Error messages (at east 5 different variety) that have completely hindered the ability for providers to e-prescribe.
Clunky-ness - We've seen where if a provder opens medication management and a care alert comes up, they cannot interact with the care alert or medication management until MMM is closed, and the alert is closed. Then they must re-open MM.

We've submitted tickets for all of these issues with a varied response and resolution. It's been about 3 1/2 weeks since we've gone live and we're still struggling with it and providers are frustrated. Has anyone else experienced these hurdles? Has there been any improvement on your systems? Specifically have you encountered performance issues with opening MMM? It seems as though the transaction with the API has a large delay causing the slow down.

Any insight is highly valuable.

Thanks,

Alex W.

Posted : July 15, 2021 2:00 am

virtualHITman

(@virtualhitman)

Posts: 319

Reputable Member

Alex,

we are scheduled to go live with the new medication management module on July 29th, and while your post is concerning, it comes as no surprise. I hate to sound so negative, but the downward spiral of Athena Practice is disheartening. Athena Practice has become so fragmented, it feels as if it is being held together with duct tape and bailing wire. I think you were also the one that posted something about the loss of Dragon functionality since the upgrade to version 20. We have experienced this as well. Perhaps there is some solace in knowing there are other practices in Athena's ecosystem that are struggling with the loss of one's ability to troubleshoot and resolve issues. Lately it seems our time is spent "squeaky wheeling" to get issues resolved and searching for workarounds to allay provider frustrations. I remember a time when we used to innovate on behalf of our providers and patients...that time seems to have passed.

Posted : July 15, 2021 3:22 am

awagner

(@awagner)

Posts: 8

Active Member

Topic starter

Thank you for your response. I hope for your sake that it's just our platform. I'm hoping others will chime in with more promising results from the migration.

Posted : July 15, 2021 3:27 am

Kerri

(@kerri)

Posts: 8

Active Member

I wish I had more encouraging news for you, we're going on 3 months since going live and we have had the same issues and more ever since. We have entered about 15 tickets since then, most met with little to no real help. We are still having lagging issues, multiple charts locked due to sync errors, un-matched RX issues, Med Fill history not working, and we just today got the PDMP to work.

I am suspecting that Dr. First isn't planning on fixing anything until Sep 2 when they have everyone on the system unfortunately.

Feel free to keep in touch with any questions or ideas
Kerri F
WMCHC IT Dept
[email protected]

Posted : July 15, 2021 4:48 am

bomalley

(@bomalley)

Posts: 12

Active Member

We are scheduled to go live on August 9 with med mgmt, we actually postponed our migration which was supposed to be on July 12 because of the patient safety post we received on Monday. Can I ask how many providers your organizations have? We have 70 providers and are really concerned right now about this migration. We are also just wondering if any practices our size have migrated yet too. This is very disheartening to hear these comments but certainly not surprising at all. Thank you!

Posted : July 15, 2021 5:06 am

awagner

(@awagner)

Posts: 8

Active Member

Topic starter

Thanks for your response. Our provider count changes a bit, but we're sitting at more than 200 providers. Which patient safety post are you referencing was this something internal to you, or did Athena send you something?

Thanks,
Alex W

Posted : July 15, 2021 5:32 am

bomalley

(@bomalley)

Posts: 12

Active Member

Alex - what is your email?

Posted : July 15, 2021 6:14 am

awagner

(@awagner)

Posts: 8

Active Member

Topic starter

[email protected]

Posted : July 15, 2021 6:15 am

DavidShower

(@davidshower)

Posts: 1255

Noble Member

All the issues in this post, and quite a few more, have been posted on the IdeaZone on the athenahealth portal. Probably a good place to also browse, comment, and like posts on the different workflow issues in Med Management.

Posted : July 15, 2021 6:19 am

virtualHITman

(@virtualhitman)

Posts: 319

Reputable Member

David,

would you mind sharing how one gains access to this portal and "Idea Zone." We are supported by a VAR (Quatris) so I only have access to their support portal. I had access to an Athena Health site at one time but I think they shut that site down.

Posted : July 15, 2021 11:03 pm

DavidShower

(@davidshower)

Posts: 1255

Noble Member

Here's the PDF from the site about how to sign up:

athenaFlex Customer Portal User Access Guide

Posted : July 16, 2021 2:21 am

mass1t

(@mass1t)

Posts: 3

Active Member

Yes, been live for a month now. In addition to the slowness and charts locked because of sync issues which every provider complains about, we also have struggles with getting every new provider setup for Basic E-prescribing and then also EPCS. Athena support has to do something on the backend every time. Its really sad when a new providers first experience with AthenaFlow is to wait 2 weeks just to get setup properly to E-prescribe. I feel like their Support structure is imploding right now. Just wondering when the the announcement is going to come that they are scrapping the product. Sorry to sound so negative but I think its important for other customers to understand what they are getting involved with. And maybe Athena Execs will read these and start to make some headway on resolving.

Posted : July 28, 2021 4:51 am

mfornkahl

(@mfornkahl)

Posts: 132

Estimable Member

Bomalley I was wondering the same thing regarding the patient safety post. Is this something all Athena users received or was this just pertaining to your organization? Thanks

Posted : July 28, 2021 4:54 am

awagner

(@awagner)

Posts: 8

Active Member

Topic starter

I received the safety message as well - it was just timed a little differently than theirs. It's regarding the possibility of medication management opening for a patient other than the one selected when opening the module. This issue has been resolved with the release of hotfix 2.

Posted : July 28, 2021 5:04 am

mfornkahl

(@mfornkahl)

Posts: 132

Estimable Member

I'm just curious- are all of the extra headaches with medication management a result of guidelines set by the federal government or is it just the way Athena designed medication management. I'm just wondering if all EHR systems have the same type of Med Management modules because federal requirements require all of the extra steps and headaches to prescribe or refill a medication or is there an EHR system with a more user friendly med management module

Posted : July 30, 2021 9:43 am

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