It is amazing how so many physicians are being misled by the lure of “free” EMR’s.
There are at least 2 companies in the US that are blatantly declaring how they can introduce an EMR without costing the physician or the practice anything.
Of course, it is not free!! In both these cases, the companies have deals with the vendors and will make some commission but also charge the practice for other hidden fees for , say, training and documentation.
More serious, though, is the long term effect of this “free” offer. Since some of the products are not certified by CCHIT (or equivalent), these physicians will not see a dime of the stimulus incentive funds released by President Obama’s administration.
And then, the nasty surprises will come when the physicians want to change their hospital affiliation or introduce some additional capabilities in their EMR’s or have some new reporting function talk to it.
Then, they will realize that free is in fact quite expensive. By then, the damage, in terms of reputation hit, downtime and practice continuity - is already done.
We don’t mind that the physicians - especially in ambulatory, independent group practice setting - are frugal or that they are not experts in EMR architecture - After all, we expect the specialists to be exactly that and stay current by keeping updated in the field of medicine, not IT. But we are concerned about how some in the vendor community may be exploiting this to deliver a marginalized, sub-standard system.
We at PreviMed pride ourselves at offering vendor-neutral, future-proof EMR strategies for the forward thinking physicians - And just as we don’t take any kickbacks from vendors, we also don’t offer mis-matched trouble for “free” !
Contact us, if you will like to know more.
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March 21, 2009 at 07:28
Buyer beware. I agree. The main reason I emphasize this is that with the new push for IT, there will be a lot of vaporware sold. Since EMR is a lot like a marriage, it is essential to get to know your future spouse before committing. Can they fool you? Of course - and you should not be blinded by infatuation, but that doesn’t mean you don’t still work to get to know them as well as possible.
The other mistake docs make in this is that they don’t seek help after committing. I have left the offer open for people to come and see how we use our product - I am very willing to share from my experience. But docs are so sure they can do it that they end up learning the hard lessons they could have avoided had they just taken me up on my offer.