A functional-medicine EMR has to fit the practice’s actual care and business model. That may include lengthy intake, a longitudinal patient story, conventional and specialty labs, medicines and supplements, detailed plans, inventory or dispensing, direct-pay programs, and frequent patient communication. A generic feature grid will not tell you whether those jobs work in the product being quoted.
Power2Practice and Cerbo both present software for functional or integrative practices. That makes them reasonable demonstration candidates, not automatic winners. Patient Square belongs in the evaluation when ambient documentation is part of the problem. Its published scope should not be stretched into specialty functions it does not claim here.
Key takeaways
- Build the shortlist from real workflows and partner requirements.
- Make vendors demonstrate the same intake, lab, supplement, plan, payment, and record-exit cases.
- Ask for a complete written quote instead of relying on third-party price estimates.
- Treat Patient Square as a scribe and EHR option within its published scope, not as proof of specialty lab or dispensing functions.
- Test any export against the receiving system before making it part of clinical operations.
Separate specialty operations from documentation
Start by listing the work that is specific to your practice. Which laboratories send orders and results? How are supplements recommended, reconciled, sold, or dispensed? Does the practice hold inventory? Are visits billed to insurance, paid directly, sold in programs, or covered by memberships? Which forms, consents, reports, and patient messages are required?
Then list the documentation burden. Note the encounter types that take the longest to finish, the histories clinicians repeatedly reconstruct, and the plan sections that require the most correction.
These lists may point to one product or to two products used alongside each other. Do not assume a scribe supplies a lab or dispensing workflow. Do not assume a specialty EMR solves the note-review problem. Test each job.
Build a requirements matrix
Use a pass, fail, or unresolved score. Avoid vague ratings such as “strong” or “modern.”
| Requirement | Evidence to collect |
|---|---|
| Intake | Staff and patient complete a representative intake, including corrections |
| Longitudinal record | Clinician finds the relevant history and sees what changed over time |
| Labs | Practice demonstrates orders, inbound results, review, patient release, and error handling for named partners |
| Medicines and supplements | Team demonstrates reconciliation, plan changes, and the approved ordering or dispensing path |
| Inventory | Staff receives, adjusts, dispenses, and audits a test item if inventory is required |
| Treatment plan | Clinician creates, revises, shares, and retrieves the practice’s normal plan |
| Payments | Team runs the actual insurance, direct-pay, program, or membership case |
| Reporting | Product produces each required clinical, operational, and financial report |
| Security | Vendor supplies contract terms, access controls, audit information, incident duties, and deletion process |
| Exit | Practice receives a usable sample of clinical and administrative data |
If a partner or feature is essential, name it. “Supports labs” is not enough when the practice depends on a particular laboratory and result format.
Evaluate Power2Practice and Cerbo from first-party evidence
Power2Practice markets its platform to functional and integrative medicine. Ask the team to demonstrate the exact workflows in your matrix and identify which product, module, partner, and fee supports each one.
Cerbo’s functional and integrative medicine page describes supplement ordering, treatment plans, inventory, patient communication, lab connections, and intake forms. Those are vendor-published claims. They still need to be confirmed for your account, named partners, plan, and configuration.
For either vendor, ask what is native, what comes from a third party, what requires setup, and who owns support when two systems are involved. Put material answers in the contract or statement of work.
Keep Patient Square inside its published boundary
AI Medical Scribe by Patient Square produces a structured SOAP note, ICD-10 suggestions, and a prescription draft for clinician review. The prescription draft is not sent to a pharmacy. The clinician is responsible for checking and approving the note, codes, and prescription details.
Patient Square EHR is included from the Copilot tier in Practice Copilot. A practice can choose that bundled route or keep an existing EHR or EMR alongside Patient Square. This page does not claim specialty lab ordering, supplement dispensing, inventory, or a named functional-medicine-system integration for Patient Square. Verify those requirements separately.
The public portability claim is EHR-ready export (PDF · HL7 · FHIR). It does not promise automatic filing, certification, conformance, or a successful import into Power2Practice, Cerbo, or another product. Ask the receiving vendor which formats, versions, fields, and identifiers it accepts. Then test with non-production data.
Compare documentation with real encounters
Use consented encounters that reflect the practice’s normal work. Include a new-patient intake, a follow-up with several plan changes, a medication or supplement reconciliation, and a visit with outside results.
For every draft, record omissions, incorrect statements, material edits, time to final review, and any medicine detail that needed correction. Check whether the structure matches the practice’s approved note and whether staff can move the final record through the tested workflow.
Patient Square says the draft is normally ready about two minutes after the visit. Measure that claim in your environment, along with review time. A fast draft that needs extensive correction is not a finished note.
Compare complete commercial terms
Ask every vendor for a quote that states:
- Price unit and contract term.
- Included users, locations, modules, storage, and support.
- Implementation, training, conversion, and interface work.
- Lab, transaction, messaging, payment, clearinghouse, or partner fees.
- Taxes and other variable charges.
- Renewal rules and notice periods.
- Termination, data export, and post-termination access.
Patient Square publishes Copilot at a $119 per-clinician monthly equivalent on annual billing or $149 month to month. Check the current pricing page. Do not compare that figure with a functional-medicine platform quote until the included scope and operational work are aligned.
Review privacy, security, and exit
Patient Square says visit audio is processed in memory and discarded when the note is drafted. It says notes are encrypted in transit and at rest, a BAA is available to US customers, and visits can be exported or deleted. Have the practice’s privacy or security lead review the current security page and agreement.
Apply the same review to every candidate. Include subcontractors, lab partners, payment services, access logs, breach duties, backups, retention, and deletion. Ask for a sample export early enough to inspect it before contract signature.
Buy for the workflow you can prove
The right product is the one that passes the practice’s named tests at an acceptable complete cost. A purpose-built claim is a reason to schedule a demonstration. It is not a substitute for one.
If you want to test Patient Square’s documentation and bundled-EHR scope, Start your 7-day free trial. Keep specialty requirements visible, score the result, and leave unresolved claims out of the decision.