Valant EHR Suite

Pros

The customer service is incredible. The program is intuitive and able to handle multiple functions. With the onboarding staff you can customize the options to fit your practice needs.

Cons

Large learning curve but completely worth it.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Valant EHR Suite

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Valant EHR Suite

Pros

The ease of use with clear sections for documentation. I also really like how information is carried over between notes which helps track what has happened in previous sessions. I also like how the group notes are distributed and it's helpful to be able to save and edit macros.

Cons

I wish I could remove tabs that are not needed in my typical note template and have options to "personalize" my notes, like saving certain subheadings within a template.

Pros

Providers from therapists to psychiatrists and other medication management providers could use Valant EHR, which made it a cohesive system for clinics that have both types of providers. It offered a prescription management tab for the prescribers to use.

Cons

The layout was a bit difficult to work with.

Pros

It is easy to use and navigate. It definitely is catered to behavioral health professionals and that is easy to see. The implementation is not near as intense as what other programs might look like.

Cons

I do not like that it is advertised as customizable but the notes portion of it is not truly customizable. You should be able to create your own assessment and note just like the customizable intake paperwork packets etc.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Valant EHR Suite

Pros

Logic of the system and the comprehensiveness of the system are among my positives for Valent.

Cons

Another new thing I had to learn.....blah blah blah

Pros

The ability to view multiple screens at one time without having to get out of something you are working on.

Cons

The fact the support takes forever to get back to you when you open a ticket.

Pros

I enjoy scheduling and being able to document within the suite

Cons

I don't care for how the treatment plan is set-up. Minimal drop downs and minimal options. For instance, no options for relational challenges and when looking at depression the drop downs only cover a minimal number of options. I do like the customization, but it takes a lot of time and is not necessarily user friendly.

Pros

The database that is available to use when trying to figure out how to do something

Cons

When the website is down and it slows down operations

Pros

Scheduling software, client (patient) portal is intuitive, easy to understand and learn, navigate.

Cons

Certain areas I wish were a bit more customizable. I think the overall design could use more colors (a bit drab, screens don't "pop")

Pros

Customizability of Macros, paperwork, etc.

Cons

Lacking a pop-up system or alarm system when paperwork is overdue.

Pros

I really appreciate how Valant streamlines my workflow as a psychiatric nurse practitioner. The system's ease of access and intuitive design make it incredibly simple to retrieve patient information quickly, which is essential in a busy practice. Whether I need to review a patient’s history, update their treatment plan, or check on past appointments, everything is just a few clicks away. This efficiency not only saves me time but also allows me to focus more on providing quality care to my patients.

Cons

What I liked least about the Valant EHR Suite is that while the system is generally efficient, there are occasional challenges with customization options. Sometimes, I find that the templates and forms are not as flexible as I would like, which can make it difficult to tailor them to the specific needs of my practice. Additionally, the system can occasionally feel a bit sluggish when navigating through more complex patient records or during peak usage times. While these issues don't overshadow the overall benefits, they do present areas where the system could improve.

Pros

Easy to maneuver through the system. I like the 'reoccurring' option. This makes scheduling easier.

Cons

There seems to be updates and breakdowns within the system often.

Pros

The ease of use for both providers and patient experience. Patient portal and communications with the patient. Very easy writing notes with Mobile Notes

Cons

E-Prescribing a complicated series with Dr. First could be better. Appointment Request approval feedback would be nice.

Pros

- easy to use
- secure messaging
- easy billing

Cons

No major concerns on my end honestly. Initially, I would need some guidance here and there. The team was very helpful when I reached out.

Pros

For the cost, Valant has a good set of features (appointments, notes, billing are all integrated in one system)

Cons

Since the new platform came out a couple years ago, the suite has been slow. Valant has tried to implement more and more new features instead of getting the core features working better. Why add telehealth when your calendar takes multiple seconds (5-10) to load when moving from screen to screen? This is just one example.

Pros

A lot of the features that Valant provides are essential for our business. We are happy with the constant updates and ongoing evolution of the software. It has improved dramatically since we started using this system 5 years ago.

Cons

Initially there were features that were not available which now are. The evolution of the system has been quite positive.

Pros

Easy to use for the most part and well organized. Easy to find what I need and works as intended with a high reliability.

Cons

I only really have only one con to report about Valant and that is when using the templated notes from last on one, just one, of our templates, we use several templates, does not always pull the last information correctly, we make a template in Word unique to our office and Valant uploads it to their EHR. Not a hugh problem and I would still recommend Valant 10/10 as this is not anything more than a minor inconvience.

Pros

Valant is pretty easy to use and navigate.
I appreciate that Valant is always making updates or fixes to common issues.

Cons

What I like least is the lack of enough information provided about scoring some assessments available in the HELP section.

Pros

Adult Symptom Screener, Outcome Measures and Clinical History Form Save me Significant Amounts of Time. Can do my job better and not have to ask the questions in session because i have the answers prior to the session and can delve deeper into the biopsychosocial aspects of my patient

Cons

I'm not super tech savvy. In general computers are just hard for me.

Pros

I like that everything EHR is in 1 place adn the system is user friendly

Cons

the times when the system server acts up bc then we cannot do anything

Pros

The ability to see when clients are checked in for appointments and to pre-document notes using the macros tab, increased productivity!

Cons

That I have to go into a note to "dismiss" the note instead of being able to just right client to delete it.

Pros

I like that it is all in one for scheduling, billing, and documentation.

Cons

Customer service is wonderful once you get a hold of them, but hold times are too long.The prospective patient feature is a great idea, but needs work.I have connectivity issues with Valant on a regular basis, but I can go to other web sites without trouble at that same time.I’d like for prospective patients to be able to schedule appointments directly into providers’ schedules, pending provider approval.I’d like Valant to add a couples and a families mechanic. Right now there is no graceful way to facilitate this work.

Pros

Easy to use and able to manage other documents on the system

Cons

Some intermittent connection issues but very infrequent

Pros

Comprehensive program which I rely upon Training was very good also. Staff is courteous and helpful

Cons

Some features more applicable to a group practice Some features not needed by sole proprietor.

Pros

Customer support is awesome. Usually the wait time to talk to a live person is short and usually the person answering the phone can resolve the issue without having to escalate it. The billing system takes time to understand how all pieces work together - but after practice and the assistance of customer support - it is user friendly, efficient use of my time.

Cons

The department that has the worst customer service is accounting for sure. They do not return voicemails and only respond to emails. However, some issues/questions are better resolved by a quick phone call vs. multiple emails back and forth.

Pros

There is really nothing positive about Valant. It is a horrible software that rarely works correctly. They also like to lock users into a contract so that they cannot cancel, and they also like to hold patient health information/ PHI hostage so that it cannot be downloaded and moved to an EHR that actually works. Valant promises all kinds of things including telehealth, simple note taking, treatment planning, etc. However, in actuality, the platform looks like it was built in 1985, and never updated. Notes are not templated in a way that makes sense. If you need help, don’t bother calling their helpdesk- they are useless. Please save your time, money, and headache and find a software solution that actually works.

Cons

There is no assistance in data transfer to Valant, despite the outrageous price tag. They use intimidation and gross business tactics to try to lock you into a contract so that you are stuck paying for their awful service. For my practice of 80, this software simply does not have the capacity to work and run effectively for a practice this size. Perhaps it would work in solo practice, but certainly not for a group of any kind. The templates are awful and archaic, telehealth rarely works, new patient portal set up is an administrative nightmare (clients can request an appointment, but aren’t able to create a portal. What sense does that make), and clients are rarely able to pay their invoices. Valant sucks up cash and spits out so many problems. I would never recommend this software to anyone.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Valant EHR Suite

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Valant EHR Suite

Pros

- Calendar - scheduling/billing/notes accessed all from one screen.
- Integrated CC processing. Third party processor (Elavon) provides details statements for easy bookkeeping.
-Easy to submit insurance claims (albeit only after a protracted setup process with Change Healthcare)
- Insurance ERA integration (not perfect - for example UHC has many subsidiaries and it requires registering each once with Change Healthcare for the ERAs to appear in Valant. This is a hugely time consuming process and I never managed to get all my payers correctly registered.)
- Reliable. Minimal downtime. Support is very accessible.
- Pt statements are simple and clear and superbills have been consistently accepted by payors without any issue
- Able to integrate multiple providers and multiple locations. Effective for tracking insurance reimbursement from multiple payers across multiple locations. This is Valet’s key strength.

Cons

- Looks and handles like Windows Vista. Clunky and outdated. Functions are often behind multiple drop-down menus and not always intuitively bundled together.. However, it functions well enough once learnt.
- Significant learning curve, particularly in understanding the billing/accounting aspects. Educational videos are detailed but incredibly dry and time consuming to work through
- Integrated CC processor is expensive! An additional $2-3 per visit billed quickly adds up and is a high price to pay for convenience.
- No personalization of notes/documents beyond the provided templates, many of which are outdated and redundant. There is the option to add a blank tab and use a third party software like text expander to add in templates that way.
- Esignitaure for documents is an additional fee. This quickly became prohibitively expensive. I returned to using third party options such as DocuSign and Adobe Sign, both of which were cheaper. Note that this function is free with Simple Practice which is over 60% cheaper!
- Note writer is tabbed, awkward and clunky. Unable to scroll through the note as a whole. Option to add Macro is outdated. I used TextExpander as it was faster, despite additional expense
- The patient portal is unreliable. I had patients complain about being redirected to a portal for another practice, for example. This raised other concerns about data security and HIPAA.
- Note writing tool is difficult to customize and cumbersome to operate. Notes are difficult to customize and the available options are often outdated and include multiple redundant options.
- Templates were clunky and awkward to customize. The tabbed interface is cumbersome and outdated. The templates are very click heavy with a lot of redundant information and the notes generated are often bloated which makes reviewing far more labor intensive and time consuming than it needs to be. The notes are generated only as pdf files which makes searching through past documents a painful process of downloading each note in turn or downloading the whole lot, every time you need to check the plan form the last visit or the labs from two visits ago…

- “Integrated” prescribing is actually a link-out to Rcopia. Cannot navigate back and forth between prescribing window and pt notes.

Be aware that a standalone DrFirst account costs approximately $650 per year and the standalone experience is identical. There is no benefit of using the software “through” Valant and it is inaccurate to describe it as “integrated”. It isn’t.
- Mobile app is an HTML throwback that made me nostalgic for college. Limited functionality makes it practically unusable.
-Notes are turned in to pdf files on signing which makes searching or quickly reading past notes very difficult. Open each pdf individually rather than scrolling through text in the window.

- Very expensive. Double the cost of some competitors. $300 + per provider plus additional costs for Rcopia and additional costs for electronic document handling and costs for patient reminders. All becomes very expensive very quickly. Unless I were filing a significant number of insurance claims or managing insurance claims across multiple locations and providers, it is hard to justify the high price tag. Even so, there are cheaper alternatives.

Simple Practice has comparable functionality and is a third of the price. Even accounting for a third party e prescribing service.

Patient age - this sounds minor but grows to become a major annoyance. The patients’ age is only displayed on the patient record screen so when not writing or prescribing, it involves clicking through another couple of screens in a new tab. It doesn’t sound much but, believe me, these wasted seconds add up over time and grow to become a major annoyance.

Alternatives Considered

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Valant EHR Suite

Pros

Arguably one of the best EHR for behavioral health I am using for the last 8 yrs

Cons

1) No ability to personalize the notes templates for intake / progress notes
2) Adding any measure to a note goes on the top even above Chief complaint or HPI
3) Suicide risk factors, protective factors and prevention plans should be looked at carefully and edited
4) integrate labs into EHR through quest/ lab corp and automatically added
5) Not top notch UX/UI
6) quite often down and issues with valant and occasionally drfirst. More issues with Valant
7) my staff have noticed no prompt service for customer care, takes a bit more time

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Valant EHR Suite

Pros

Its a perfect EMR software for an ideal company with Behavioral heath or any medical company, it easy to navigate, user friendly.

Cons

Updates, When you input information that you can't remove patients off Valant they are kept in the system.

Pros

Valant has a user friendly interface, incredibly easy to use, and we can keep everything right here in the system. Customer service is great and easy to work with when anything is needed.

Cons

That you must purchase another system for claims managment. That can become super expensive and difficult moving between both systems.

Pros

I love that you have spell check finally!!!! Everything is very well connected. I like that things repopulate. Overall I would recommend it over other sights.

Cons

Treatment plan. I can't figure it out, takes a lot of time. Some of the features would be nice like reminder, etc, however figuring it out it is too much work.

I wish there was an option for a genogram.

Or possibly be able to write on a touch screen. and save the doc. Now it has to be scanned and uploaded, which is fine, but takes more time.

How about have we can specifically upload to have access to then we can write on them on the computer, like unique assessments or forms I fill out for clients.

Pros

Schedule building is easy and looking into client charts is easy.

Cons

There are too many tabs in the therapy progress notes that don't apply to therapists using the platform. The intake document is too long and clients don't want to complete it, which means therapists are going into intakes with no client history, no understanding about why the client is coming for therapy, and having to gather all of that information in one hour. I dislike that Valant automatically takes you to a different screen when you click from, say Dashboard to Scheduler, instead of just opening a new window. The treatment plan tool is too involved and most therapists on my team don't want to use it.

Pros

Like that has measures built in. Very smooth workflow. Like everything about to to be honest. Can get my charting done in a very reasonable amount of time.

Cons

Look forward to hearing more about AI tools! And how Valant will evolve with faxing features.

Pros

I like the HIPAA compliance. I feel very safe using Valant. I like how streamlined the charting is. Prescribing is very easy with Dr. First. Love the measures that are included in Valant. Great for New Providers. I Recommend Valant to many. Met with Micah at NEI - very helpful in generating a clinical template that meets my practice needs. Have called support and they're clearly familiar with Behavioral Healthcare and that makes a difference as they understand our world.

Cons

Valant comes out with a lot of new features. And that's on me to understand new features and make the time to best take advantage

Pros

Very easy to use. I compare it to other software systems that are easy. There's a certain autonomy to the system that i very much appreciate. Suicidal sections in the progress notes show how much Valant understands our workflows.

Cons

Looking for a couple more outcome measures but love the ones that are there.

Pros

The ability to change dates and flexibility to move between tabs. Also, the copy pasting functions.

Cons

When treatment plans are closed and by another provider and no way to unlock and complete a step to be able to open new plan. I have a case still like this.

Pros

1) Specific to Psychiatry
2) Built in billing and collecting - love integration
3) Ease of use. Designed for us. A Psychiatrist clearly built it

Cons

There are some upgrades that would like more lead time!

Pros

The calendar for scheduling clients and the ability to create macros. Also, when I call for assistance, the reps are super helpful!

Cons

It would be helpful if the treatment plans followed Jongsma's EBT plans

Pros

Ease of use for documentation, ability to keep Practice Management and EHR within one system, cost

Cons

System reports are difficult to navigate and difficult to gain information I need

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Valant EHR Suite

Pros

Functionality, ease of use, comprehensiveness

Cons

Clients sometimes have trouble logging onto telehealth

Pros

easy to use, I can dictate or type my notes, which gives me so much flexibility

Cons

a lot of tabs that we don't really need

Pros

I like the electronic prescribing, the reports on measures, and the flexibility of setting up note templates.

Cons

There is a learning curve, but I think that would be the case with any EHR.

Pros

The how to videos are very helpful and then the portal is basically user-friendly and does not take that long to learn

Cons

The review and updates for the treatment plans can be a bit confusing. It appears to have too many moving parts.

Pros

The ability to schedule reminder messages
The Documentation Status
Seeing upcoming appointments

Cons

Wish you can send reminders to 2 different cell numbers

Pros

Scheduling, claims denials, and ERA’s are items that stand out above, and beyond any other system I have used

Cons

The only downfall I feel is the client portal. A lot of clients have trouble getting onto the portal because it is not supported by many browsers. And a lot of clients use their phone.

Pros

Valant has been the easiest EHR for me to use in navigating as a nurse. It is easy to pend medications for Providers to sign off on, easy to put notes in a chart when patients call. I find most aspects very user friendly and enjoy sending PA's from the Dashboard also instead of going to Cover My Med's.

Cons

The thing I like least about Valant would be the difficulty in selection of Pharmacy's in Rcopia at times. That can be a real pain.

Pros

Valant was the best choice for our behavioral health clinic. They continue to update and expand features that have improved the functioning of our system. It has saved time and worked well with our systems. Billing was a major improvement and linking to our Calander and notes was essential.

Cons

There are some features in the assessment and MTP that could be improved for our particular uses. Also billing is slightly complicated and could be simplified with some small adjustments. I do however appreciate the flexibility.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Valant EHR Suite

Pros

I had learned Valant years ago, before their I/O product went live, with another practice. This present iteration addressed all of the quirks that the prior version had that makes using it for the basic functions I need very easy & intuitive.

Cons

There's some features and items that exceed the scope of my practice that are part of the package, with some features being utterly underutilized. I'm not particularly crazy about paying an annual subscription ON TOP OF monthly service fees.

Pros

This is an extremely easy to use EHR suite that has made starting a private practice extremely easy. The formats for treatment plans, intakes and progress notes ensure I will be in compliance with insurances.

Cons

Customer service now does not respond as quickly as they used to.

Pros

Intuitive interface, easy to use templates, ability to customize forms/templates, how the scheduler/calendar is presented, and helpful customer support.

Cons

I wish there was a way to pull up a clients lab results (outside of opening the document faxed by the lab/doctor's office), and compare current/past labs. I think this would be extremely helpful, especially since clinicians often monitor labs in psychiatry and it is quite cumbersome to have to sift through all the clients documents to find the results from various points in time. I would also love to have a feature where the clinician can get a notification/reminder when it is time to have the client have their labs drawn again, as well as a notification to contact the client for the instances when the client was given a lab order but their results were not received.