Read Before You Buy – DrChrono EHR / EMR Review

I have used this app for over 5 years to complete all my clinical notes at our practice. Last year we encountered an issue where – over time – a clinical note with the same digital signature and same time stamp had different clinical data. These notes were shared outside our office to other professionals and to the patients before we caught the data issue. The best analogy I can come up with is to imagine you are buying a house and you sign your contract online. Subsequently, the realtor calls and says the computer program generated two different contracts with your exact same digital signature. Now apply this scenario to medical data. Drchrono’s response was nothing less than abhorrent. They admitted on our first call with their first of at least three attorneys that other practices were impacted. They repeatedly started most conversations with some form of statement that they were not responsible to fix data problems per the service agreement. After one-year and almost $80,000 in legal bills we got our notes corrected as best our legal team thought possible per CMS guidelines. We added an amendment to each corrupt note and notified all patients. In retaliation for not signing an agreement to not report the problem to the OCR, drchrono gave us 30-day’s notice and shut off our service. All I can recommend is to read the service agreement. It is egregious and they really mean it when they say there is no warranty that “ANY ERRORS IN THE SERVICE WILL BE CORRECTED.” Second, make sure you have a data integrity rider in your malpractice policy. Choosing an EMR is one of the most difficult decisions to make for a medical practice. Using this app literally cost tens of thousands of dollars in legal bills and hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of additional hours beyond the typical 12-hour days. If you happen to be reading this and are a current drchrono user, I would suggest you contact drchrono and ask if your notes were impacted or altered in any way without your knowledge.
Review by PsychProvider on DrChrono EHR / EMR.