Home > EHR Software > Cerner > Cerner vs DrChrono

Cerner vs DrChrono

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Our analysts compared Cerner vs DrChrono based on data from our 400+ point analysis of EHR Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Overview Pricing Benefits & Features Analyst Ratings Comparison Charts User Ratings Analyst Summary Screenshots
Cerner Software Tool
DrChrono Software Tool
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Product Basics

Analyst Rating

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Detailed Analysis

User Sentiment

Good User Sentiment (369 Reviews)

Analyst Rating

86 Detailed Analysis

User Sentiment

Great User Sentiment (529 Reviews)
Cerner is a cloud-based EHR software used by health organizations of various sizes and specialties to streamline their operations and provide greater healthcare. It offers charting, documentation, revenue management and health analytics. These capabilities ensure up-to-date patient information and accurate diagnosis and treatment.

It caters to more than 40 specialties, with task automation and simple recording that enables healthcare professionals to focus more on patients. Physicians are able to see more patients on a given day, increasing overall revenue without sacrificing the quality of care.
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DrChrono is a cloud-based EHR and medical billing solution that replaces the chaos of paper charts and separate systems with a single, easy-to-use platform for managing all aspects of a medical practice.

For doctors, this means:

  • Effortless Access to Patient Information: Imagine having a patient's medical history — allergies, medications, past visits — at your fingertips.
  • Simplified Appointments and Prescriptions: Schedule appointments and send prescriptions electronically in just a few clicks.

For patients, it means:

  • Taking Control of Their Health: Book appointments, communicate with their doctor and access their own records through the patient portal.
  • Staying on Track: Receive automated reminders for appointments and medication refills.

And for the practice as a whole, the system helps:

  • Get Paid Faster: Automate billing and insurance claims to reduce errors and speed up payments.
  • Improve Financial Health: Track outstanding payments and identify potential billing issues.
  • Negotiate Better Rates: Gain insights to negotiate more effectively with insurance companies.

We tested the system to see how it works in real-world scenarios. Here’s what we think: while mastering the billing module may require some effort and billing data import has limitations, the system’s intuitive interface and accessibility from any device make it a user-friendly option.

A free trial and flexible pricing plans allow you to explore its potential and determine the right fit for your practice.

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Product Insights

  • Increase Productivity and Efficiency: Spend far less time charting and documenting data and focus more on the patient. Leverage health analytics and other tools to provide more accurate diagnoses and treatment. Real-time updates keep information accurate. 
  • Patient Experience: Offer convenience and help patients save time through a user portal. They can check lab results, edit personal information on mobile, check in online prior to a visit and communicate with their providers. 
  • Usability: Report and look up patient information with ease via navigation that’s user-friendly. 
  • Full-Service Support: Cerner provides 24/7 customer support and can assist with installation and implementation. 
  • Clinical and Financial Integration: Facilitate communication between billing and clinical teams with integrations that streamline processes. Track financial performance as well as store and retrieve documents electronically. 
  • Health Network: Integrate with other systems to connect clinical, operational and financial data using Health Network Architecture, an intelligent and extensible platform. 
  • Cerner Millennium: Securely connect every aspect of care to the patient using Cerner Millennium, a comprehensive electronic health record. Aggregate and normalize data across vendors and platforms using HealtheIntentSM. 
  • CareAware: Leverage interoperability between medical devices, healthcare applications and EHR systems using CareAware, a device connectivity platform. 
  • Developer Support: Collaborate with third-party and client developers by using Cerner Open Developer Experience, which encourages open communications and provides API documentation, guidelines and access to tools for app development. 
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  • Avoid Claim Denials: In our analysis, the product excelled with a perfect score of 100 for claims management capabilities, outshining competitors like athenahealth (89). It helps you:
    • Fill out CMS-1500 forms.
    • Create and send many claims at once.
    • Look through past claims by date or type.
    • Check all the claim details — like patient info and procedure codes — before sending it to payers.
    • Match payments to bills.
  • Automate Billing, Insurance Checks and Patient Workflow Management: The product achieved a perfect score of 100 for these capabilities:
    • Capturing records of medical services and charges.
    • Keeping a detailed list of charges for exams, procedures and supplies.
    • Helping doctors create and update patient visit records.
    • Checking if a patient’s insurance is valid before their appointment.
    • Automatically checking what medical benefits a patient has, like maternity or cosmetic surgery coverage.
    • Letting patients access health info and advice through the patient portal.
    • Allowing specialists to see patients referred by other doctors and send reports back.
    • Helping doctors refer patients to other specialists.
  • Reduce Medical Coding Errors: In our analysis, the platform scored 98 for assigning the right billing codes like ICD, CPT, HCPCS, NDC and taxonomy codes.
  • Make Data-Driven Decisions: The product scored 88 for features that help you generate aging, billing transactions, revenue, write-off and adjustment reports. You can also access pre-built reports like payment trends and insurance analysis to save time creating them from scratch.
  • Access Data Remotely: The product scored 94 for mobile capabilities, more than its competitors like Oracle Ambulatory EHR (79) and athenahealth (71). It truly stands out for:
    • Tracking claims from submission to payment directly from a phone.
    • Sending messages easily to billers, patients and staff.
    • Offering seamless access to the system on iPhone and Android devices with native apps.
    • Delivering timely alerts for payment reminders, appointments and more through push notifications.
    • Adapting to any device with a responsive web portal for a smooth user experience.
    • Helping practitioners dictate medical notes directly into the app for easy note-taking.
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  • Clinical Documentation: Narrative, auto text and voice recognition, and speech-to-text support makes charting and documentation easier and more efficient. Any relevant patient data like medications or diagnosis is automatically included. 
  • Mobile Apps: Providers can review patient charts, request orders and refills, review diagnostics and check clinical results using their mobile. Voice dictation helps physicians with easy documentation. 
  • Built-In Templates: A variety of prebuilt templates limit the amount of time physicians need to spend on documentation. 
  • Health Analytics: Provides insights to help enhance clinical, financial and population health strategies, which help in identifying long-term and daily operational improvement opportunities. 
  • Patient Portal: Patients can exchange messages, request refills, view clinical information and check out evidence-based data on over 3,000 topics to further their education. 
  • Sepsis Surveillance: Developed by Cerner in 2010, the St. John Sepsis Surveillance tool looks for patient data and notifies clinicians of patients who are at risk of sepsis before they are diagnosed. 
  • Revenue Cycle Management: Offers solutions to improve workflow and control costs leading to more revenue. Insurance can be verified automatically while faulty claims can be dealt with before submission. 
  • Cybersecurity: Helps protect sensitive health data against insider threats and cyberattacks by ensuring only necessary staff has access to it. 
  • Scheduling Management: Automates the appointment scheduling process from both centralized and decentralized booking locations within a department or facility. It also:
    •  Manages scheduling across multiple facilities and scheduling a series of appointments. 
    •  Validates medical necessity at several points in the workflow. 
    •  Prevents adverse appointment and procedure interactions. 
    •  Supports moving appointments within a single view. 
  • Patient Kiosk: A self-service solution for patients to check in for and manage appointments. They can view and update demographics and insurance information, as well as complete registration forms. Also supports storing signed forms in patients’ electronic health records. 
  • PowerChart Touch: Enables physicians in either acute or ambulatory settings to access and review their patient’s clinical data and current orders on smartphone or tablet. 
  • Enterprise Master Person Index: Minimizes duplicate records, enabling end-users to find the correct person. 
  • Ambulatory Organizer: Shows a daily patient schedule, the time a patient checked in, the reason for their visit per the intake form, and required documentation. Also indicates outstanding tasks. 
  • Tap-and-Go Authentication: Enables clinicians to use a single username and password to gain access to several key applications on clinical workstations. Scanning a badge automatically logs them in to their virtual desktops to gain rapid, no-click access to medical records as they change locations. 
  • Ambulatory Registration Management: Automates the workflow and process of registration, admittance, transfers and discharges. Offers a Master Person Identifier (MPI) and facilitates collecting co-pay or payments on outstanding balances. 
  • Analytics: Uses data across the integrated health system to examine enterprise and population health content. Identifies, applies and measures analytics-based, strategic initiatives such as cost and utilization, pharmacy spend, and practice management to reduce duplicative efforts. 
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  • EHR: Provide better care with features like free draw for visual explanations, custom vitals tracking and access to immunization registries
    • Custom Templates: Tailor forms with specific fields, drop-down menus, checkboxes and even add your practice's logo. This ensures your documentation is consistent, efficient and specialized for your needs (e.g., cardiology forms with specific heart diagrams).
    • Electronic Prescriptions: Send prescriptions electronically to pharmacies directly from the patient chart. Access the drug's formulary tier, prior authorization requirements and alternative medications if the prescribed drug isn’t covered. Access patient PDMP data directly within the EHR to identify potential abuse, misuse or doctor shopping.
    • Free Draw: Upload images (x-rays, scans, photos) or use pre-loaded anatomical diagrams within the patient chart and draw directly on them.
    • Custom Vitals: Create vitals specific to your needs including things like blood glucose and oxygen saturation levels. Capture data in various formats: text, numbers or predefined options using dropdown lists. Access the flowsheet to visualize trends in custom vitals over time.
    • Prior Authorizations: Initiate the ePA request directly from the prescribing workflow. Automatically populate the prior authorization request form with relevant patient information (demographics, insurance details, medication prescribed) pulled from the patient's chart.
    • Lab Orders: Integrate with national, regional and specialty labs like Quest Diagnostics and Labcorp. Create predefined lab panels for common tests or specific conditions. For example, you could create a "lipid panel" or a "prenatal panel" with a single click. View lab results within the patient's chart, organized by date, test type and ordering provider.
    • Medical Speech-to-Text: Use voice to input clinical notes, patient histories and other information. See your spoken words appear as text in real time within the EHR to review and edit the transcription as you go.
    • Immunization Registries: Automatically send your patients' vaccination details to the state IIS, ensuring that records are up-to-date and complete. Retrieve immunization records from the IIS, even if your patient received vaccinations elsewhere to avoid unnecessary duplicate vaccinations and identify potential gaps in their immunization schedule.
  • Practice Management: Save time and reduce errors with appointment management tools, including appointment profiles, insurance eligibility checks, online scheduling and automated reminders.
    • Appointment Profiles: Instead of manually entering the same details (length, reason, etc.) for every appointment of the same type, you create a profile once and it auto-fills the details (duration, reason for visit, exam room and billing codes).
    • Eligibility Checks: Verify your patients’ insurance eligibility in real time — check what services are covered under the plan (e.g., office visits, labs, specialists) and any limitations or exclusions.
    • Online Scheduling: Set specific days and times when each provider is available for appointments. Offer different appointment types online (e.g., new patient, follow-up, consultation) with varying durations. Add buffer time between appointments to prevent scheduling conflicts and allow for patient check-in/check-out.
    • Patient Reminders: Send automated appointment reminders via email, text or SMS. Configure reminders to be sent at various intervals before the appointment like — a few days before, the day before or a few hours before.
  • Medical Billing: Improve your revenue cycle management with tools like billing profiles, medical coding and automated claims submission.
    • Billing Profiles: Combine frequently used CPT, HCPCS, custom codes and ICD-10 codes into a single profile. Attach common modifiers to the codes within the profile (e.g., modifier 25 for a significant, separately identifiable E/M service).
    • Medical Coding: Easily search and select the appropriate codes within the EHR using keywords, code numbers or descriptions. Perform basic code checking to identify potential errors such as invalid codes or missing modifiers.
    • Good Faith Estimates: Generate good faith estimates to help patients understand costs upfront and avoid surprise bills.
    • Claims Submission: Submit electronic claims to insurance companies within the system. Track claim statuses in real time. Scrub claims for errors like missing information or formatting mistakes before submitting them to payers to avoid denials and claim rejections.
    • Denial Resolution: Generate denial analysis reports to identify denial patterns. Edit and submit corrected claims directly within the system. If you disagree with a denial, generate appeal letters and track their statuses.
    • Patient Statements: Generate statements for individual patients or groups of patients based on various criteria (e.g., date range, insurance status, outstanding balance).
  • BI Tools: Get a visual summary of key metrics and performance indicators. Generate customizable reports to:
    • Track revenue, expenses and profitability
    • Analyze claim submission, acceptance, denial and reimbursement rates.
    • Track patient demographics, appointment history and billing information.
    • Analyze appointment scheduling and no-show rates.
  • Mobile Capabilities: Schedule appointments, send patient statements, bill insurance, document patient encounters, access lab results and more from iOS devices like iPad, iPhone and Mac.
  • Telehealth: Patients can join the telehealth visit from their computer, tablet or smartphone using the link provided in their email reminder. Providers can share their screens with patients to review medical records, lab results, X-rays or educational materials.
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Product Ranking

#42

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#11

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Analyst Rating Summary

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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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DrChrono
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Clinical Charts Clinical Documentation Dashboards And Reporting Electronic Prescriptions Medical Billing Mobile Capabilities Notes And Templates Patient Engagement Platform Capabilities Platform Security And Compliance Telehealth 100 94 88 91 94 81 100 88 90 96 73 0 25 50 75 100
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User Sentiment Summary

Good User Sentiment 369 reviews
Great User Sentiment 529 reviews
73%
of users recommend this product

Cerner has a 'good' User Satisfaction Rating of 73% when considering 369 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

80%
of users recommend this product

DrChrono has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 80% when considering 529 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

4.1 (16)
1.5 (3)
3.5 (216)
4.2 (39)
3.8 (130)
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4.0 (487)
3.6 (7)
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Awards

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SelectHub research analysts have evaluated DrChrono and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Platform Capabilities.

Platform Capabilities Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Data Security: All users who mention safety and data noted data security as an important advantage.
Collaborative: The product’s collaborative nature helps support multiple medical facilities, as reported by all users referring to this feature.
User-Friendly: About 73% of users referencing usability mentioned that the product is easy to use and navigate.
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Ease of Use: Navigate patient charts, create shortcuts and access billing info without a steep learning curve.
Customization: Tailor the system to your specific needs and preferences like customizing templates, workflows and reports.
Easy Medical Coding: Find and assign ICD, CPT and HCPCS codes to patients' bills to save time and reduce coding errors.
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Updates: Updates take a lot of time and don’t happen frequently, according to 93% of users who mention this aspect.
Time-Consuming: Repetitive clicking reduces the speed of work, according to about 74% of reviews mentioning this aspect.
Customer Support: Strong customer support is often unavailable and can have delayed response times, as noted by 80% of users referencing support.
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Contractual Obligations: Canceling subscriptions can be challenging, potentially leading to early termination fees. Automatic renewals may also catch you off guard.
Subpar Customer Support: Long wait times, unhelpful responses and unresolved issues from customer representatives might disrupt your processes.
Occasional Glitches: System crashes, slow navigation and difficulties with scheduling and other functionalities can cause frustration.
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Navigating the world of healthcare IT solutions can feel like venturing through a labyrinth, with countless options promising efficiency and improved patient care. Cerner, a prominent name in the industry, offers a suite of tools designed to streamline healthcare operations. But how does it truly stack up against the competition, and is it the right fit for your organization? Let's delve into the experiences of users who have implemented Cerner in their practices to uncover its strengths, weaknesses, and ideal use cases. Cerner consistently receives praise for its comprehensive suite of features, encompassing electronic health records (EHR), practice management, revenue cycle management, and population health management. This integrated approach allows healthcare providers to manage various aspects of their operations within a single platform, promoting efficiency and data continuity. Users particularly appreciate the robust functionality for clinical documentation, order entry, and decision support, which can enhance patient care and streamline workflows. However, some users find the interface to be complex and require extensive training to navigate effectively. Additionally, the system's customizability, while advantageous for tailoring it to specific needs, can also contribute to its complexity. Cerner distinguishes itself through its extensive industry experience and large user base. The company has a long-standing presence in the healthcare IT sector, demonstrating its commitment to innovation and adaptation to evolving industry needs. This extensive experience translates into a deep understanding of healthcare workflows and challenges, which is reflected in the design and functionality of Cerner's solutions. The large user base also fosters a sense of community and facilitates knowledge sharing among healthcare organizations using Cerner. However, it's important to note that Cerner's pricing structure can be a significant consideration, particularly for smaller practices. The cost of implementation and ongoing maintenance may require careful evaluation to ensure it aligns with budgetary constraints. Cerner is best suited for large healthcare organizations with complex workflows and a need for a comprehensive, integrated healthcare IT solution. Its robust feature set, scalability, and industry expertise make it a valuable asset for hospitals, health systems, and academic medical centers. Smaller practices may find the system's complexity and cost to be prohibitive, and may prefer more streamlined solutions tailored to their specific needs. Ultimately, the decision of whether Cerner is the right fit depends on an organization's size, budget, and desired level of functionality.

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So, I got the chance to get a free trial access to DrChrono, and here are the key highlights: The platform stands out for its intuitive design, extensive features and customization capabilities. The software is accessible on any device with internet connectivity. Data import from other EHR systems is supported but with certain limitations. It offers four pricing plans and a free trial is available for potential users.It's a cloud-based system, which means you can access it from anywhere — your laptop, tablet, even your phone! And it covers everything from electronic health records and patient scheduling to billing and telehealth.One of the things that really impressed us was how customizable it was. You can create your own templates for notes, forms and even entire workflows. This means you can really tailor it to fit your specific needs and preferences, which can save a ton of time.And speaking of saving time, they've put a lot of thought into their billing features. They have tools to help you code things correctly, submit claims electronically and even track your payments. Anything that helps you get paid faster and with less hassle is a win, right?However, learning to navigate the billing and insurance modules could take time. It’s a bit confusing to understand how the billing workflow works and how to set one up. Also, you can’t import billing data from your old EHR system.If you're looking for a comprehensive, user-friendly system that can be customized to your practice, we'd definitely recommend taking a closer look.They offer four different pricing plans, so you can find one that fits your budget, and they have a free trial so you can test it out and see if it's a good fit for you. It's always good to try before you buy, right?We’ve discussed more about the features in the See It in Action section. Do check it out to know how the system works in different scenarios.

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Screenshots

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