What each one is for
Aesthetic Record is EMR and practice management software for med spas, in its own words. It holds the charts, the consents, the before-and-after photos, the calendar and the patient record, and the booking hangs off the chart. NorthCore runs the growth system on it today in a working practice; the system reads visit dates and treatment types for timing and writes nothing into a chart.
PatientNow describes itself as EMR practice management software and all-in-one aesthetic practice management software for aesthetic medicine. By category, that is the chart and the patient record with the business side of the practice beside them. Nothing more is taken from its site for this page, because a feature list is the vendor's to publish and yours to verify in a demo.
What each one holds, by category
| The question | Aesthetic Record | PatientNow |
|---|---|---|
| What it holds | The clinical chart with its consents and photos, plus the calendar and the patient record | The chart and the patient record, with practice management beside them, per the vendor's own description |
| Who it is built for | Med spas, per the vendor's home page | Aesthetic medicine practices, per the vendor's home page |
| Where the calendar lives | Inside the EMR, tied to the chart | Inside the EMR, on the practice management side the vendor names |
| Where the checkout lives | Confirm on the vendor's page which checkout and which processor the record includes | Confirm on the vendor's page which checkout and which processor the record includes, since the category is all-in-one |
| What the growth system adds around it | The call, the DM and the text answered and booked into the Aesthetic Record calendar; the comeback timed from the last treatment; the dashboard | The same jobs built on PatientNow's record: answering into its calendar, the comeback timed from visit history, segments, the dashboard |
What about your practice decides between two EMRs
- Case mix. A practice that is mostly neurotoxin and filler charts differently from one that adds energy devices, weight loss or surgery. Write your top eight treatments by visit count and chart one of each in both demos.
- Provider count and how it will change. Chart review, supervision notes and who signs what are workflows, and a medical director who oversees three injectors has opinions about them; confirm those rules with your state board.
- What the desk owns. If Priya runs the calendar, the consents and the checkout from one screen, the practice management half matters as much as the chart. Time them doing all three in each demo.
- The balances. Packages, series and memberships carry balances the EMR with the checkout holds; count what is open today and confirm with your accountant what is owed.
- The PHI questions. Where is PHI stored, who at the vendor can see it, and who signs the Business Associate Agreement. Ask both in writing and confirm with counsel; this page gives no HIPAA verdict.
- The price at your size, which is on each vendor's pricing page and is quoted nowhere here.
What moving the chart from one EMR to the other would involve
An EMR-to-EMR move is a chart migration before it is anything else. The chart is the legal record of care. How long the old record is kept, in what format and who can open it are rules for counsel and your medical director to settle before export day. Photos and signed consents move as files and are re-attached patient by patient where the formats differ. Open balances and memberships are reconciled to the dollar on both sides, and what the practice owes on them is confirmed with your accountant. The phone number stays; the calendar history behind it, which the comeback runs on, is exported in full before the old login is closed.
The question before any of that is whether the thing you want is a different chart or the work around the chart. Answering, the comeback, the segmented list and the one-page numbers are the growth system, and NorthCore builds it on Aesthetic Record or PatientNow with nothing moved.
The two-week evaluation, EMR against EMR
- Day one: write the three things the current chart makes slow. Be specific: the photo upload, the consent on a repeat visit, the note that takes four screens.
- Days two to four: Dana charts Jess's visit in both demos, start to finish, with a photo and a consent. Priya books, moves and checks Jess out in both. Write down the clicks.
- Day five: export last treatment by patient and open balances from what you run today. The export is the migration in miniature.
- Week two: send the PHI questions to both vendors in writing, read both pricing pages with your provider count, and speak to a practice your size on each.
- Last day: score the three slow things from day one. If any of them is a growth job rather than a chart job, it belongs to the system around whichever EMR you keep.
What to do next
NorthCore's Run the whole practice solution reads the record's numbers on either EMR, builds the ninety-day plan and runs the answering, the comeback timing and the dashboard around the chart. Scoped in writing and covered by the promise on this site: results in 90 days, or we keep working until you have them.
