HST Pathways vs Ambula
Which is better, HST Pathways or Ambula?
As an HST Pathways competitor, Ambula offers many of the exact solutions for Ambulatory Surgery Centers and independent practices.
As we look into the major differences, we can get stuck into feature comparisons, but there is more that one should evaluate when considering a platform to choose. We will discuss the similarities and differences in this article so that you can make the best choice for your ASC.
HST Pathways features vs. Ambula
When it comes to products and features, there are a lot of similarities. Let us start with scheduling.
Patient Scheduling & Digital Intake
HST Pathways offers their Case Coordination platform (which they acquired, previously CaseTabs) as an add-on to their list of products. This platform allows you to schedule patients, share documents, and share case info. No doubt important when you are scheduling surgeries.
They have another separate product for their digital intake and pre-assessment. Based on their website, it is unclear if these platforms communicate with each other and if they connect to their EMR.
Ambula allows you to do that and connects to your EMR, Practice Management platform, and billing. It offers a booking system so patients can book themselves with automatic reminders and auto-reschedule features.
Patients can fill up the forms you want them to fill up, digitally, and it all syncs straight into the patient’s chart. You are saving hours of coordination and organization each day.
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Practice Management
HST’s practice management platform has many features, from billing to inventory. Like many other products in the market, they can scrub claims, keep track of inventory, and manage eligibility with pre-authorizations.
Ambula’s practice management is baked into the EMR, giving a global overview of the health and performance of your ASC with dashboards and reporting tools. Features include eligibility, claim submission, scrubbing, and payments (coming in Q 2023).
The difference is that Ambula offers a billing platform that integrates with the EMR to sync with the patient chart to manage all this in one place.
EMR & Clinical Documentation
There are a lot of EMRs in the market these days, but very few EMRs are the ASC focus. HST Pathways, Surgical Information Systems (SIS), and Ambula are the few focused on ASCs.
Regarding electronic charting, HST Pathways offers its HST eChart, allowing clinical documentation. It ensures chart completion and allows for concurrent charting. They are built for the ASC (which is great for nurses, surgeons, and administrators) and allow them to go from paper to digital.
Ambula also offers an EMR for both the ASC and the office. It offers all things eChart provides but goes beyond the typical EMR. Ambula’s EMR allows you to build your patient charts and workflows. It provides an easy-to-use form and workflow builder that allows for personalization for each ASC and how they operate. It shares data across the chart and checks to ensure information is not missing.
HST Pathways also offers to bundle its products; there is an exception with case coordination, but it is unclear what it is on their website. Ambula offers a full end-to-end experience built out of the box to connect all aspects of the ASC practice with the office.
The differences between HST Pathways & Ambula
Now that we have seen the feature comparison, let’s dive into what the biggest differentiators are.
Connecting to the office
Ambula has built an office EMR that bridges the gap between the physician’s office and ASC. This is valuable for physician-owned ASCs that send their patients to surgery centers. All relevant patient data from the office easily transfers to the ASC EMR. HST does not offer an office solution.
Building your own experience
Many EMRs tell you how to run your practice and workflows. They tell you what data you have to collect, and is costly for you to customize them. Ambula allows you to build your own experience with their form, workflow, and report builder. You can build your patient charts, collect any data you want, and create your workflow on how you want to document patient information. This is unique because not every ASC is built similarly, and Ambula understands that personalization is important.
User Experience
The biggest pain point you hear from all healthcare professionals is how difficult training and learning a new platform is for them. There is usually a high bar to learning and navigating digital health systems. Ambula is a human-first digital healthcare experience. That means anyone who logs in understands how to use it and navigates the platform within minutes. We spent years integrating the best user experience to simplify the platform and make training almost unnecessary.
Ambula special features for orthopedic surgeons
Ambula orthopedic EMR software offers a range of features that enhance efficiency, accuracy, and patient care within orthopedic practices. One of the key features of Ambula is its orthopedic-specific templates. These templates are tailored to capture essential orthopedic data points, such as range of motion, joint stability, and fracture classifications. With these templates, surgeons can quickly and accurately document their assessments, diagnoses, treatment plans, and follow-ups.
Another critical feature of Ambula is its image and document management capabilities. Orthopedics heavily relies on medical images, such as X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans. Ambula seamlessly integrates with imaging devices, allowing surgeons to directly upload and store images within the patient’s electronic medical record. This feature ensures easy access to images during consultations and enables surgeons to annotate and compare images over time to track patient progress.
What’s the pricing for HST Pathways vs Ambula?
HST Pathways pricing varies depending on the product you use. There is pricing on their page so you need to contact them to get a custom pricing solution for the surgery center.
Ambula’s pricing is transparent and straightforward, at $299 a month per provider per month. Got part-time physicians doing less than 5 procedures/surgery a month? No problem, we can provide access for free.
Free trial?
Ambula offers a 30-day free trial for you to check out. HST doesn’t offer a free trial on its website. You can sign up for a free trial with Ambula here.
The conclusion of HST Pathways vs Ambula
Ambula offers all that you need for ASC and physician’s offices. It is the perfect solution for physician-owned ASCs and you get started the same day.
