What's your favorite computer charting program?

Well, I will tell you for one, I hate Meditech Magic. It looks like a DOS program. The body picture is like a block stick man. we are this year converting to CPSI....Im sure its going to give us our own set of horror stories, but the documentation looks a heck of a lot easier and more user friendly than Magic!

I absolutely agree. Meditech uses F keys...use your imagination and come up with what you want based on that tidbit of information. It is the most unfriendly program and the mouse is hardly ever used

We use ICIP, from Phillips.

It's great, I haven't had a problem at all, and it integrates with everything so well.

We use HMS, Health Management Systems. We are a LTC facility, and the system was really built for hospitals. But, I like it, it's very user friendly. We use it for documentation, MAR, TAR, new orders, lab orders, lab results, inventory, new admits, assessments, flow sheets, basically everything. It's been in use at our facility for approximately 3-4 years now.

Others where I work might not agree with me though.

I used to work at a hospital where EPIC was used. It was challenging at first but was pretty easy to use once you got used to it. The only annoying thing was that parts were repetitious.

I used to work at a hospital that used EPIC. It was fairly easy to use once you got used to it. There were parts that were repetitious, though.

I also agree about MEDITECH being HORRIBLE! Who uses DOS anymore anyway? It was a nightmare to learn!

I used to work at a hospital where EPIC was used. It was challenging at first but was pretty easy to use once you got used to it. The only annoying thing was that parts were repetitious.

I was an abstractor at a facility that used EPIC and I thought it was slicker than snot. Of course I wasn't doing documentation in it, but if I get a job after I graduate, I may get to see it from the other side. I know Kaiser uses it. They paid almost $2B for it. Youch!

We use clinical suite which is still in development, it is easy to navigate because it is in the form of a webpage w/links a back button etc. However, in the ICU it has limited use as of right now, its going to be interesting to see if they can come up with an efficient way to do all the documenting required in an ICU.

We use EPIC at my facility. Once you learn all the short cuts, it's really easy to navigate and to quickly chart. It's nice - basically looks like an excel flowsheet. Some of the info (like the nurse kardex) can be a bit tedious to access, but I overall like the program. Of course, it's the only I've used. :) A friend of mine works in IT doing training programs for hospitals converting to all sorts of electronic charting and she says that more and more hospitals are choosing EPIC. Dunno how factual that is, but that's her opinion.

We use Cerner but I was once at the VA and they used CPRS and I have to say it's easily the best I've seen so far but then again I haven't seen too many systems.

I've been training docs and nurses on Epic for over 2 years now. It's the only one I've used but have to say it is extremely user friendly, integrates well with most other Windows-based programs and can be taylor-made for any facility. Many of the larger hospitals are using it or replacing their current programs with it.

Okay, so the leading contenders so far are Meditech (handily winning the Nightmare Relic From 1985 award) and EPIC (useful but repetitive). Other positive contenders are Health Management Systems and ICIP (and an option that's still in development).

I'm trying to get a good handle on what drives patient care providers crazy about the charting programs they have to use. Have you all found that computer charting is helping you or just making things more complicated? To me (from my oh-so-wise HIM student perspective ), it seems as though there are many advantages to charting that way, but there's a lot of resistance and frustration surrounding it, so I'm curious about your experiences.

Specifically about EPIC's repetitiveness: Are we talking fail-safe type repetition that's irritating but serves a purpose or pointless, nonsensical repetition that does nothing but bog down users?

I apologize for being such a detail freak. My thanks to all of you for your responses so far!