FAQs

What are all the costs involved in purchasing an EHR?
Patagonia Health pricing is simple and all-inclusive. Customers pay one up-front price (for implementation and training) and an ongoing monthly fee. Unlike other vendors, Patagonia Health does not “nickel and dime” customers; you just pay one monthly fee. For example, we do not charge additional fees for a) electronic prescribers, b) billing transaction charges, c) clearinghouse fees, d) electronic insurance eligibility checks, e) CPT^® upgrades, f) ICD-9 upgrades or g) Meaningful Use 2016 upgrades, etc. Simply pay one monthly fee and you are covered. For additional details, click here.

What are the costs involved for hardware on the customer site?
Patagonia Health is a Web 2.0-based EHR that provides anytime, anywhere access to medical records from any web-enabled computer or laptop. No special hardware or expensive server is required, and thus practices/agencies do not incur large upfront expenses. All a user needs to use the Patagonia Health solution is a computer that has Internet access.

Do you charge for interface connectivity?
Patagonia Health provides a rich set of interfaces to connect to other community providers like labs, hospitals, pharmacies, health information exchanges, etc. A large number of interfaces are included and custom interfaces can be developed to meet an organization’s specific needs. For a complete list of interfaces, click here.

What are the system requirements for Patagonia Health EHR?
Because Patagonia Health EHR is a true Software as a Service solution (it runs in the cloud), no software is installed on your computing device. To access the EHR, each user’s desktop or laptop must a) have hi-speed Internet connectivity, b) run Windows (Vista, 7, 8), c) have Mozilla Firefox browser (latest version) d) have a PDF viewer (like Adobe Reader) e) have Adobe Flash to view built-in videos and f) have Microsoft Silverlight (only if the user will be uploading documents).

Your system is web-based. How fast is the system?
Patagonia Health’s system is optimized for use via the Internet. Unlike older client server systems (which sometimes are remote or hosted), Patagonia Health EHR is a truly web-based solution. Users will experience the same speed with the EHR as they will when browsing any other webpage.

Do you have voice capability within your EHR?
To ensure physicians can enter data quickly and easily, Patagonia Health has invested in integrating Dragon Medical™ voice (and other voice-to-text programs) with Patagonia Health EHR.

Do you meet HIPAA requirements?
Patagonia Health EHR meets and exceeds all federal privacy and security requirements as defined by requirements for an EHR. Additionally, Patagonia Health ensures that we comply with HIPAA requirements. Patagonia Health signs a “Business Associate Agreement” with all of its customers.

How do you ensure the privacy and security of health data?
We use 256-bit encrypted and SSL certificates to ensure privacy and security is maintained. Data is hosted by a national company in a secure facility with controlled access. This data center meets the most stringent SAS 70 security requirements.

How do you handle security and data backups?
Patagonia Health has sophisticated systems in place to keep your data safe and archived. In addition to keeping your data in a SAS 70 Type II compliant data center, we back up data hourly and nightly at an alternate location in order to provide geographic diversity.

Does the system include an audit trail?
Patagonia Health’s system includes a comprehensive audit trail which can be viewed by the practice administrator. The administrator will be able to see each user’s every click and access within the system.

Does your EHR meet federal HITECH ARRA “Meaningful Use” criteria?
Patagonia Health EHR is certified by the Drummond Group, a federally Authorized Testing & Certification Body. We are federally certified to meet both Meaningful Use (MU) 2011, 2014 and 2015 Edition requirements. This certification allows each eligible physician to receive financial incentives when complying with the federal mandate for Meaningful Use of a certified EHR. Patagonia Health EHR complies with all stringent federal MU requirements.

Can you help us understand and attain CMS EHR incentives?
The rules associated with EHR incentives are complex. But the Patagonia Health team has lots of expertise and has helped many customers receive their CMS EHR incentives. If your agency has more than 30 percent of patients using Medicaid, then you can receive CMS EHR incentives in four to six months, on average. We provide a unique incentive assistance service.

What is the difference between a “Complete EHR” and a “Modular EHR”?
The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) has allowed various EHR vendors to receive certification for their entire EHR (as a “Complete EHR”) or for just part of their EHR’s modules (as “Modular Certified”). A Modular EHR does NOT meet all of the criteria as specified by DHHS. Patagonia Health EHR meets 100 percent of 22 general criteria and 6 required clinical criteria. To see if an EHR is certified as “Complete,” click here.

How can we transfer data from our existing practice management and electronic health record system to Patagonia Health?
Patagonia Health can import your existing data into our EHR to make it easy for you to transition. Any data that you can extract from your current system can be imported into Patagonia Health. With regard to your practice management, you can extract patient demographic information and we can then import it into our EHR. Additionally, you can export clinical data from your existing EHR which can also be imported into Patagonia Health.

What kind of clinical charts or notes are built into Patagonia Health?
Patagonia Health’s system includes a large number of clinical charts for public health, behavioral health and medical/clinical forms already built into the system. Additionally, we can build any forms that you may need into your Patagonia Health EHR system. As part of the implementation process, we collaborate with your clinicians to review all existing forms and determine which forms should be used moving forward. Our technical team configures your system and it will be ready to go when we come to train. It will work out of the box without your IT team or clinicians having to build their own templates.

How is the training provided?
Our staff will come to your site to provide classroom training to each and every user. To minimize disruption and maximize knowledge absorption, training is generally broken into two phases. Phase 1 trains users on practice management and billing while phase 2 focuses on training clinicians on the electronic charting. Typically, phase 1 and phase 2 are each two-day classroom training events. We do understand that some users will pick up and learn to use software faster than others. Thus, we budget additional training days to make sure that we can provide additional follow-up training, as needed.

Do you include a manual or have video tutorials?
Our experience has shown that users prefer to learn via videos rather than sifting through software documentation to find what they need. To help users learn or quickly refresh themselves on any specific items, Patagonia Health has created a large library of demonstration videos. These videos, ranging from 2 to 30 minutes each, are accessible from within the EHR.

How do you provide support?
Patagonia Health provides unlimited phone and email support. Users can create and send an issue report to our support team from within the EHR. To ensure accurate communication, by simply clicking the “camera” icon within the system users can take a screenshot of the problem and include it within the support ticket.

Where is your support staff located?
Support is provided by North Carolina-based staff. Our support team typically responds within a few hours during regular business hours.

What is the response time for trouble tickets?
Patagonia Health’s team is very agile and committed to meeting user need with particular prioritization based on the severity of the issue. For example, critical issues are resolved within just a few hours while most issues are addressed within 24 hours.