I came across a little bit older article from the Health Care Blog that asks the question, “What if I Had to do HIT All Over Again?”

I must admit that I was pretty struck by the thought of what could be done with an EMR that was built from scratch. Don’t get me wrong, I still think you’re crazy to develop your own EMR. However, I couldn’t help but wonder what might be done differently today knowing what we know about EMR now and the technology advances that have been made.

My mind then drifted off to think about what it would be like to build an EMR without any special interests. For example, you were building an EMR that focused on improving patient care. You were building an EMR that focused on improving doctor productivity. You were building an EMR that made everyone’s lives easier.

Contrast this with an EMR vendor who develops their software in order to sell more product. There’s a wide gap between the two methodologies. Unfortunately, I’ve heard too many stories of EMR vendors focused on building their EMR software to sell more of it. In the short term, this might be a great business strategy. Long term it will catch up with them.

How does someone selecting an EMR vendor identify this in the company?