I recently starting running across an EMR website called EMR Edge – Electronic Medical Record Review and Rating. When I went to the website I was impressed by the sites design and some of the ideas they were showing on the site. In fact, the site even said at the top that it is “The Cutting Edge of the electronic medical record.”

Having this website I was of course interested in what other people were doing. I was particularly interested in the rating system they had going on since I’m interested in doing some sort of EMR rating/review in the future(yes, I have been saying this for a while).

My first sign that the site was outdated was when I saw the top 5 user rated EMR companies:
OmniMD, Practice Velocity EMR, SmartEMR, TouchWorks EMR, Accuchart

I’d heard of 2 of the 5 and the top rated EMR didn’t even have an image for it. It certainly made me wonder how good this site was. I will acknowledge that just because I haven’t heard of an EMR doesn’t mean they couldn’t be great. You’ve seen my list of EMR systems and so I definitely don’t know them all. However, I believe I’ve at least heard of most of the finest ones.

Regardless, as I surfed the rest of the site I realized that the site wasn’t being updated and in the list of 200 EMR systems only a quarter of them had been rated at all. The only article ever posted was over a year old and the EMR forum hadn’t been used in a long time and barely had any content.

It just amazes me that a website that looks so good could be so dissappointing. It also makes me wonder how many people have used that website to make a decision on an EMR product because of some ratings that could be very old and were hundreds of releases ago. I can feel the website developers pain. Keeping track of 200 EMR companies is practically impossible. My guess is that most EMR systems are able to put out at least 2 major releases a year. That’s why I haven’t tried to rate/review EMR systems YET. I’m sure I’ll find a way to start some day.

In the end, I think their website is mostly a nice marketing tool for them to find people interested in purchasing an EMR. I hope their emr consulting service is better updated than their website. If it is then I give them my admiration for creating a great marketing tool for an EMR consultant.

A nice little emr website I found has some ideas on getting started with an EMR. I thought I would take a few pieces of their ideas and add my own comments. You’ll soon find out that I found the website very pretty, but the content wasn’t that good. Disclaimer: I’m not trying to be denegrating(however you spell that word), but I do want to point out some of the sites that offer an “interesting” set of information.

If you need to read the following paragraph then you aren’t ready to be getting close to an EMR. Don’t plan on implementing an EMR within the next year. Do take the next year to learn about EMR and what it really means. This paragraph is like descibing medicine as curing people. Does that mean I’m ready to be a doctor? I think not!

Let’s start with the basics. An electronic medical record, which is also known as an EMR, is a computer based system that in theory allows one to practice medicine more efficiently, while at the same time making less mistakes. When searching for an EMR, you can choose from a range of products. You may choose to go with strictly an imaging software, or a notes system. Many of these basic packages are referred to as EMR Light systems. This means they do not have the connectivity or functionality that a full featured EMR has. That brings us to what is called an EHR or electronic health record. The term EHR will be used increasingly in the future as more of these EMR products are able to keep up on the technology side of things. An EHR is a fully functional type of EMR that includes options for interconnectivity outside of a single practice. For instance, an EHR would be able to draw information on a patient between unaffiliated practices or hospitals with different EMR products. In contrast, an EMR Light might not even have internet connectivity.

Has anyone ever heard the term EMR light? I don’t think that’s a term that anyone really uses.

Ideally, you want [in an EMR]:
* An EMR that can expand with your practice size
* An EMR that can expand functionality capabilities
* An EMR that has a great support team
* An EMR that is safe and secure
* An EMR that produces results
* An EMR that fits your budget
* An EMR company that has a lot invested (and re-invested) into research and development
* An EMR company that will stay up on the latest technological advances
* An EMR company that won’t go bankrupt in 2 years

Now how are you going to find this in a company? How do you measure these? Where’s my crystal ball? These are good things to consider, but I think the list isn’t a very practical list for those interested on implementing an EMR. Not to mention a list that newbie EMR users can really use.

This post seems rather cynical. I really am not cynical. EMR is the way to go, but there should be a method to anyone’s madness.

It was very nice to see a well written article that documented 5 cases of users implementing an EMR system. I think there are hundreds of more stories that need to be told. They laid out the stories into 5 phases as follows:
Phase 1: The Spark
Phase 2: The Vendor Search
Phase 3: The Installation
Phase 4: The Payoff
Phase 5: The Future

I love the idea of the 5 phases, but some of the stories didn’t seem to fit the phases described above. Looking at the phases above it does seem like they left out a nice gap between installation until payoff. Thankfully the stories didn’t leave the hard work of implementing an EMR out. Therefore I loved the article from Health Leaders Media. Here’s a little play by play of the 5 stories:

Phase 1: The Spark
This woman is courageous. Running a solo practice by herself with one part time medical assistant. Talk about thinking outside the box and managing costs. I was super impressed by this ladies thought process. I imagine this type of gyn practice allows her a lot of freedom. More importantly for this site was that she sunk $70,000 into an EMR system. I hope those reading this will know that you don’t need to spend that much money. EMR programs shouldn’t cost nearly that much money. Espescially for a solo practice. She does point out an important point to remember with an EMR program. Buy the upgrade package. You don’t want your EMR stagnant. Stay with the latest and greatest in EMR development. Don’t get left behind on an old EMR system where a few years down the road you’ll have to upgrade again.

Phase 2: The Vendor Search
Excellent story of EMR vendor selection failure but eventual EMR implementation success. It really makes me sad that an EMR vendor the size of NextGen couldn’t deliver in this story. I guess kudos go out to Companion’s EMR software (which I’ve never heard of) for helping them be a success. I still think the story needs more detail on what happened with the second EMR vendor. It’s only fair to compare the differences between the EMR failure and EMR success.

Phase 3: The Installation
This story seemed quite off target. Why would they use a home grown EMR system to Illustrate the installation phase of an EMR? Programming and implementing your own EMR system, besides being a crazy idea, is not a good example for those implementing an EMR package. I’ll push that aside and say that there were some good points in the story.
-Katrina proved that EMR’s are essential
-Continuing testing and reworking your EMR processes
-Have physician champions
I loved that they actually payed an IT salary to a few of the doctors who helped test their EMR system. That’s thinking outside the box.

Phase 4: The Payoff
Be careful comparing financial rewards of one clinic with another. They are too hard to compare. I think it is important to see the clinical outcomes he is able to show because of an EMR. If your EMR breaks you even and provides your patients better care then I call that a Win. This should be the hope and expectation when starting an EMR implementation. Isn’t healthier patients payoff enough?

Phase 5: The Future
The Quote of the article:
“For six months, I lived EMR.”
This pretty much describes most implementation and the reason I got the job I did. They needed me to live EMR. Now you see why I call it the EMR experience. I think a lot more could be said about what EMR will allow a doctor to do in the future. This fifth EMR story doesn’t even do the future justice. It does point out one great monetary key to EMR implementation. Transcription cost savings can be a key driver for purchasing an EMR program.