October 29, 2009 by Atul.

A few weeks ago, our neighbor Mark, a physician in an independent group practice setting asked: ” You are the expert. What do you think about this EMR?” He mentioned a known vendor.

My response: ” Mark, you research your car buying decision  more vigorously while with an EMR selection, you seem to be so casual! You will trade in your car in 2 years while the EMR decision would have a prolonged impact on your practice, your patients and  possibly your reputation.” 

 Long story short, Mark invited me (and my team) to meet and discuss with his partners - other physicians with different specialties - and soon, we were-answering phone calls and emails from confused office managers, physicians and patient data records managers, from 23 different US states.

Two main areas of unment need stood out, on analysis of this on-going interaction:

1. these physicians and office managers were being hype by some of the vendors, of the typical “must buy now” variety, while some other clinic-based professionals were being misled about the EMR certification and “free” EMR’s.

2. EMR vendor/product selection is only a part of the picture. Many physicians that I connected with were surprised to learn, from my discussion with them,  just how much in-depth thinking, planning and  review they would still have to do, even if an EMR vendor/product had already been picked.

 Since the nature of these queries indicated some common themes, it was obvious that there was some need for:

a seminar on EMR selection/implementation/tuning/support/integration/…

> that focused on needs of physicians (especially those in group practice) workflow, CPOE, etc.

> that was not vendor-driven (and therefore was conflict-free)

> that  prepared the physicians and positioned their practice for any benefits from the US govenrnment’s federal stimulus program.

These steps led to the launch of EMR Seminars, a service of this company.

 The next EMR seminars will be held as indicated below:

Tuesday,  Nov. 10, 2009 |  Palo Alto, CA | 9 AM thru 11 AM

Monday, Nov. 16, 2009 | Fremont, CA | 9 AM thru 11 AM

 More details at: www.acteva.com/EMRseminars OR www.PreviMED.com/EMR-seminars

Register early as these events will sell out !!

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April 12, 2009 by Atul.

We want to share our big lesson from HIMSS - the mega event in Chicago which concluded just a couple of days ago.  

No, it is not about avoiding the long taxi lines to get out of the McCormick (tho’ it does have us wondering about Chicago’s bid for the Olympics and how there’s more work to be done there).  

At HIMSS, which was attended by over 29,000 attendees, there was palpable eagerness on the part of vendors - and who can blame them, given the economic conditions? 

What was unsettling, though, was that some of these - including some EMR vendors - were desperate and eager to bag a customer, even if it meant fudging a bit and resorting the usual FUD scare tactics.

One sales creature on the exhibition floor was observed to tell a prospect how penalties (for not starting with the EMR) would start in 2010.   

Of course, this is untrue.  Penalties don’t start till 2015, with summary details and copious detailed info here.

The sales professionals who try to convert prospects with such tactics are only harming their own companies - After all, EMR decision is not going to be an impulse buy like purchase of a DVD. When the physician or office manager finds out that there is no penalty imminent, they will only be distrustful of the company that told them otherwise.     

So, the message of this post? For the EMR selectors, buyers and users (typically physicians or their representatives): Take your time. EMR decision has a long term  implications ; Understand what you are getting into; Do your work , not just the snapshot of today’s environment but also about how you expect your work to change in the future.

-And don’t get forced into a rushed decision. This is far too important. 

If you need help with the EMR selection process, feel free to contact us. This is what we do and we have guided many.   

Posted in ARRA, HIMSS, EMR incentive, EMR, Quality, trade groups, Uncategorized | No Comments »

April 5, 2009 by Atul.

This day finds us on the road and landing in Chicago to attend the HIMSS annual conference.

This is an annual mega-event and don’t know how much the economic downturn will affect the attendance.

Expect some posts on this later in the week.

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March 29, 2009 by Atul.

Since I am attending the conference on SaaS- (SaaSCon 2009 , San Jose, CA) this coming week, I wanted to see how the EMR solutions and vendors are aligning themselves and/or designing the products to take advantage of this trend.For those unfamiliar with the SaaS terminology, the wikipedia definition and whatis definition are nearly the same: This is a way of renting software rather than buying it.I won’t get into the details of SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) or ASP (Application Service Provider) but it is important to know that SaaS is not a fad and has gathered enough momentum.In the meanwhile, other aspects of computing such as storage have also become mature enough to be available as a service.All these - software, storage, … - can be combined into a concept called “Everything As A Service”, typically represented as “XaaS” (X denotes the “don’t care/doesn’t matter” which component of the computing platform as all are available as service.). More on Xaas (pronounced as ZaaS) at this blog entry. Going back to the healthcare world, here are a few vendors who have jumped on the SaaS bandwagon (or at least have trend-aware marketing folks):MedPlexus :  “MedPlexus focuses on the business and clinical issues of the medical practice; using a combination of Software as a Service (SaaS) platform, BPO services, and a 360º practice performance analysis to provide solutions for its clients of all sizes.”RelayHealth : In their interview of this company, the blog HISTech Report writes:

RelayHealth’s SaaS Intelligent Network Encompassing Award-Winning Consumer Services, Revenue Cycle Management, and Pharmacy Transactions Prove the Power of Connectivity as a Service“.

Axolotl : From their press release about their product: Elysium’s community-wide Master Patient Index, EdgeServer(s), Interoperability Hub, Community Virtual Health Record, and EMR Lite with integrated e-prescribing are all provided as a software service (Saas).There are many others and expect more to join in.Of particular interest to me was a comment (in the TechCrunch’s note about a new product called Producteev- A SaaS product, recently announced and available):

Andy - March 18th, 2009 at 11:13 am PDT

I am a Systems Administrator for a small rural critical access hospital. We will be beginning implementation of a Electronic Medical Record system within the next 3 months. Producteev would help us manage this project more effectively. This project is going to last at least 2 years and affect over 200 employees. It is going to be very important that all tasks involved with the project are managed and communicated well to insure that the implementation goes as smoothly as possible. I have gone through the Producteev tour, and it looks like a product that would help us immensely.

It seems to me that SaaS- or rather, Xaas - will bring powerful solution options to the healthcare space in general and EMR/EHR area in particular. 

Posted in EMR, Reporting, PreviMed-General, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

March 17, 2009 by Atul.

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.

Posted in EMR, Reporting, PreviMed-General, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »