I’m sure many of you are recovering from the Super Bowl right now. I got exactly what I wanted from the Super Bowl: a great game. I didn’t care too much either way, but I am glad that I predicted the Giants to be the winners. Too bad I’m not a betting man. Although, I guess that’s the trick with betting….but I digress.

Time for my regular weekend round up of interesting things happening in the healthcare IT and EMR twittersphere. We’ve got some really interesting tweets this week. Here we go.

@NateOsit We also have a webinar of @eCollab12 for those that wont’ be able to make it to #HIMSS12.ecollab12.eventbrite.com #hitsm

— Leonard Kish (@leonardkish) February 3, 2012

When I created and posted my list of HIMSS 12 sessions, they hadn’t created the agenda for the eCollaboration Forum at HIMSS and so I couldn’t add any sessions. However, the eCollaboration Forum at HIMSS 12 agenda is up now, so check it out. I know there are a number of sessions I’m going to add from the forum. I also love that they have the online option linked in this tweet for those not attending HIMSS 2012.

Yes, stage 2 #meaningfuluse NPRM will be out before #HIMSS12. meaningfulhitnews.com/2012/01/30/yes… #healthIT #ONC #CMS #hitpol #EHR #EMR

— Neil Versel (@nversel) January 31, 2012

This is really important news. I think a lot of us are REALLY interested to see the final meaningful use stage 2 details. Good find by Neil Versel.

Speaking doctor-to-doctor(s) using healthcare social media bit.ly/wiqbyu #hcsm #hcsmeu

— H2Online (@H2Ohu) January 30, 2012

I’m sure we’re going to continue seeing the trend of more and more doctors gleaning value from engaging in social media. At a minimum doctors are going to start finding more and more new patients using social media including things like physician blogging. A well done practice website and social media effort is going to be really valuable for the doctor of the future.

3 reasons why you should start a blog for your hospital bit.ly/ypCE78 #hcsm #blogging

— Mark Ragan (@MarkRaganCEO) January 30, 2012

Yes, blogging will also help hospitals in a number of ways too. Social media can benefit hospitals, doctors, practices, etc.

@DonRosenthal Tablets are for content consumption. PCs are for content creation. Much more intellectual flexibility w/ PCs. #HITsm

— Erica V. Olenski (@TheGr8Chalupa) February 3, 2012

I was fascinated by this tweet. First because I wonder what changes will make tablets more than just great for content consumption. Second, the idea of PCs being more intellectually flexible.

RT @patientslikeme: “my healthcare data is not nearly as portable/accessible as my financial data.” @jeff_cole #hcsm

— Jacqueline Thong (@jacthong) January 30, 2012

I know there are reasons why financial data is more portable and accessible than healthcare data, but it still irks me that we haven’t overcome those reasons…yet!

In a number of my online conversations we’ve been having really in depth discussions about the idea of whether it’s better for a hospital HIS system is better as an All-In-One system or whether Best of Breed healthcare IT systems are better. Much of this discussion has been sparked from posts done on my Hospital EMR and EHR blog. So, if you’re in the hospital space and are not following that site, you should. You can even sign up for the Hospital EMR and EHR list if you’d like. Anne Zieger writes most of the content there and she doesn’t mince words.

In all of these discussions, something became really clear to me:

The best reason to use Best of Breed healthcare IT systems is for usability.

The best reason to use an All-in-One system is for interoperability.

Some people may see this as too simplistic, but I loved a quote I read recently that said you don’t truly understand something until you can describe it in a simple form. I actually heard Bill Belichick do this talking about what he looks for in receivers for his Football team (Anyone excited for Super Bowl Sunday?). He said he likes a receiver that can Get Open and Catches the Ball. Seems far too simplistic, but it’s so simplistic it’s genius.

I think the same could be said for evaluating hospital IT systems:

The thing I like most in a healthcare IT system is one that’s Usable and Integrates Well.

I think that after 6 years and some ungodly amount of posts later, blogging is just a part of who I am now. So I found this article about 10 Tips for Hospital Blogging quite interesting.

[1] Define your hospitals goals
[2] Know your audience
[3] Be Consistent
[4] Be Persistent
[5] Be Inviting
[6] Be Visible
[7] Take Risks
[8] Ask for Help
[9] Keep Learning
[10] Be True to your Hospital

Definitely an interesting list. I think the first two points are a real challenge and you should be careful worrying too much about your specific goals and your audience when you’re starting to blog. Part of the blogging experience is learning new things that you didn’t expect to learn. Plus, you will learn who your audience is over time. Of course, you can make general goals of wanting to learn about your audience, etc.

I think the rest of the points hit 3 areas that I believe are essential to blogging: consistency/persistence, learning, and authenticity.

The hardest part of blogging is doing it consistently. I call it the content beast for a reason. Not because it’s a bad thing, but because the beast is always hungry. It takes real consistency to always feed it. The beauty is that the internet will reward your persistence in surprising ways.

The internet and blogging is moving so quickly that there’s always something else to learn. Don’t think that you need to know everything to start. Just start doing it and you will learn an amazing amount a long the way. Interesting that consistent persistence matters with learning too.

The best blogs have an authentic voice. I believe the key for this is having someone passionate about your blogging topic. The passion will show through and you will create an authentic connection with those interested in what you’re writing about.

More and more as I look at products, companies, etc I look to see if they have a blog. I find a blog is a great way to get a feel for who and what a company represents. It humanizes the relationship in a really great way.

I hope everyone has started to enjoy their holidays. I may go a little light on the content this Holiday season. Although, I’ll still be publishing plenty during the holidays. The funny thing is that this website was first created over a holiday break. Now on to my usual Sunday Twitter roundup.

Healthtech Accelerator Rock Health Peels Back The Curtain On Its Second Batch Of Startups zite.to/seKPAR via @zite #emr #healthit

— Blackford Middleton (@bfm) December 19, 2011

This is a pretty interesting list of 15 Rock Health startup companies. It’s their second batch of startup companies in the healthcare space. I talked to one of the other health startup incubators (and I know some don’t like to be called incubators) who said that they got about 100 applications. I wonder how many applications Rock Health got before they narrowed it down to this 15.

There’s definitely a lot of interesting momentum happening in the health startup area. In fact, I’m working on something related to it that could be really interesting. More on that in the new year.

@schwartzbrown very true, I’m hopeful (even though I think we’re far from this) that #EHR‘s will help w/collaboration on this info #NHDD

— renee berry (@renee_berry) December 16, 2011

I hadn’t really thought about the impact of hospitals buying up all the primary care physicians on interoperability of healthcare data. On face it seems to me that more sharing would happen since it is easier to share health data within the same company than between two different companies. However, these tweets make me think I need to do a little more thinking ont he subject.

@ehrandhit @ampilsner I am seeing & talking to lots of doctors who are wondering why #EMR products lack simple outcome & QC functions #HITsm

— Arjun Maini (@AMaini1) December 16, 2011

Doctors are wondering why EMR software doesn’t have a lot of things. I’m not sure I have a good answer to why EMR products don’t have some of the things that Arjun Maini talks about. I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on it.

Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post by Jeremy Bikman. You can read more about the GE and Microsoft Venture on EMR and EHR.

Guest Post: Jeremy Bikman is Chairman at KATALUS Advisors, a strategic consulting firm focused on the healthcare vertical. We help vendors grow, guide hospitals into the future, and advise private equity groups on their investments. Our clients are found in North America, Europe, and Asia. www.KATALUSadvisors.com

Healthcare is being held hostage and it doesn’t even know it.

It is held hostage by burdensome regulations, by archaic practices, and (oddly enough) by technology itself. In this age of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, an age where anybody with internet access can connect to somebody else on the other side of the globe and share personal information and other data with the click of a mouse, it is impossible that you could visit a hospital in the next town over and they would be able to procure your personal health information as easily or as quickly.

Healthcare, globally and locally, is utterly huge and mind-blowingly complex, and thus absolutely needs the very best innovation of everybody involved. Yet, healthcare technology companies almost universally deliver products which are built on closed-minded concepts. They lock down their platforms, creating real barriers to interoperability, patient data exchange, and actual innovation. This is the present reality within, and across, practically every hospital on earth. The recently announced joint venture between GE and Microsoft offers hope of an alternate reality, one where hospitals can bring together data streams from all over the enterprise, while utilizing new innovations and technology as they see fit, including different best-of-breed sources.

Giving Hospitals a New Choice
There are huge flaws in how technology is delivered in healthcare today, flaws which impact quality of care within a hospital and across the entire industry irrespective of country or region. While the rest of the tech world is moving towards open platforms and collaborative delivery models, healthcare seems to be stuck in the dark ages of single-source solutions which compel all-or-nothing investments to the tune of millions and millions of dollars. Too often those investments fail. But, the more important question is why must hospitals be forced into all-or-nothing decisions in the first place? Why must they choose between integration and functionality, between a single platform, however mediocre, and a best-of-breed mix? We believe those are questions of the antiquated past and that brave new innovation can deliver a new avenue for hospitals who refuse to be painted into a corner. Hospitals shouldn’t have to choose between apples and oranges. They want, and should be able to get, both.

The Basics of the Joint Venture
Selected product lines from both companies’ health groups will be part of the new company. These products were chosen for their specific focus on “empowering connected patient-centric care.”

GE is contributing an interoperable clinical data model and decision support system via Qualibria. GE’s eHealth is an HIE solution in use at a large number of sites in North America. Microsoft is bringing Amalga to the table, which is a data aggregation platform which facilitates interoperability and a host of other advanced capabilities. Vergence and expreSSO come through Microsoft’s acquisition of Sentillion and provide strong context management and single sign-on solutions. The strategy appears to be one of leveraging Microsoft’s platform technology (Amalga) to underpin GE’s clinical depth (Qualibria, eHealth). Additionally, this model will allow hospitals and vendors to integrate best-of-breed 3rd party products into the ecosystem as they see fit. This mix of products and capabilities will enable a true best-of-breed environment emerge while still having the core elements of integration as well. This ecosystem will be powered by the partnership’s own applications and those built by ISVs. No other major vendor offers this unique model and set of abilities, although Allscripts is the one traditional EMR vendor that is building a strategy of accepting of 3rd party solutions.

Tackling the Big Problems

No one is saying that this joint venture is guaranteed to be a resounding success. However, we applaud the visionary model and risks this new team is taking. It looks like they want to address all the big hairy obstacles that every provider organization, region, and nation is facing. Big data? Absolutely. Enterprise analytics and business intelligence? Yes. Clinical decision support? For sure. Population management? You bet. Nobody else in the industry has shown they can tackle these issues even though every hospital is clamoring for this type of model. So why not this joint venture between GE and Microsoft? We say good luck, and more power to them.

The principals of KATALUS Advisors have worked with hundreds of healthcare organizations, vendors, and other consulting firms across the globe. The opinions expressed here are our own and are not intended to promote any specific vendor and do not reflect those of any other organization or individual.

Time for my roundup of interesting topics seen throughout the interwebs and related to EHR and healthcare IT.

@Allscripts
Astounding growth in use of EHRs – 5x in 2.5 yrs – Dr. Mostashari at #ACE2011 (via Skype) – does your doc use an EHR?

I’d like to see where Dr. Mostashari got those numbers. I think there’s little doubt that EHR use is up. If we say that 2.5 years ago it was at about 15%, then that would mean that using his growth number we’re now at 75%. That seems way too high for me.

@shelleypetersen – Michelle Petersen
US are starting to standardise vendor requirements for #healthit and language used in #EHR regions, important move

Is this a misread of what’s being done with meaningful use and EHR certification? I haven’t seen standards really emerge for most of this. I guess it does say “starting.”

Hospital EMR User Tracking Bill
Don’t ask me why, but this post about a CA Bill Requiring Hospital EMR Software to Track Users came across my tweet stream as well even though it was posted back in June. I guess that’s one thing I love about Twitter. It can bring back interesting content that you wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

After reading the post, I wondered if the CA bill passed or not. I’m guessing not. Although, I’m still shocked by the article’s comments that even an expensive Epic install at Kaiser can’t meet the requirements of reporting on what data for a patient in an EHR has been deleted and who’s accessed that patient data.

MGMA Conference in Las Vegas
I’ll admit that I’ve wanted to go to the MGMA conference for a couple years now. This year I’m lucky that it’s hosted in the beautiful Las Vegas. So, I’ll definitely be there enjoying the event. I’ve been thinking about doing a New Media Meetup at MGMA like I do at HIMSS. Are any readers interested if I put it together? If there’s only a few of you, we could just do a dinner or something. Let me know in the comments or on my contact us page.

Looks like Estonia is the new model for system wide EHR http://bit.ly/liYLwe

June 19, 2011 10:27 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@boltyboy

Matthew Holt

I’m always fascinated by other countries EHR implementations. So many other countries are interesting to consider since they’re missing so many of the barriers that make EHR adoption and even more specifically health information exchange between EHR software so difficult. Nice to learn more about the success that Estonia has had adopting EHR software. I’d like to learn a lot more about what’s being done with international EHR implementations.

The difference between an ambulatory and hospital EHR http://goo.gl/fb/YDWaO

June 19, 2011 7:01 am via GoogleReplyRetweetFavorite

@kevinmd

Kevin Pho, M.D.

I often have an internal battle when writing on this blog when I’m writing something that’s ambulatory EHR specific versus Hospital EMR specific. In fact, I was struck when someone recently told me that this site focuses more on hospital EMR and not ambulatory. I had to laugh since when I write, I’m mostly writing from the hospital EMR perspective.

This stuff aside, there are distinct differences between a hospital EHR software and an ambulatory EHR software. The article linked above highlights some of those differences. Coincidentally, I’m going to be working to write more about specific hospital EHR issues on the aptly named Hospital EMR and EHR blog. If you like Hospital IT, then go and sign up for the Hospital EMR and EHR email list. It will be a nice compliment to this blog and the EMR and EHR blog. I’ve got 3 other writers that will be starting to write on that blog as well. I’m excited to learn more about large hospital EHR vendors like the mythical Epic. Plus, as I learn more about hospital specific EHR issues, I think the content on this site will benefit as well.

Guest Post: I got the following story that someone wanted to share about the challenges of EMR and workflow in a hospital. I love reading first hand experiences with EMR. Reminds me of a great experience that Neil Versel documented at an urgent care during HIMSS. I look forward to hearing your comments on the story.

Last month, my wife felt some discomfort in her chest. They weren’t pains, nor were they indigestion so much as a gurgling sensation. After two days and no change, she called our family physician. He told her she could come in for a blood enzyme test, but the lab result would take four days. Instead, he said to go to an ER where they could get the result in half an hour.

That evening, a Friday, we went to the nearest ER, at Large, Modern, Suburban DC hospital (LMSDC.) We walked right up to the triage nurse, a woman in her 60s who stood there and took down my wife’s info on paper: Name, Chief Complaint, Age, and Triage Class, a 3. We were handed the paper, the only copy, and sent to the first of what would be three exam rooms.

The room was for EKGs. It was equipped with a machine, bed, etc., and a desktop PC. After a few minutes, a tech came in and ran the test. I asked how the scan got into my wife’s record. She told us it was sent electronically to imaging where it would be reviewed and put in the record, but she didn’t know how it was entered, electronically or scanned in.

We had three more visitors, two nurses and an admissions clerk. Admissions came in with a COW, a computer on wheels. She started asking demographics, insurance, etc., but was called away. The first nurse came in went over why we were there, about meds, etc., took a blood sample and did something on the room PC and left.

The second nurse came in, went over symptoms, meds, etc., again, and scribbled the information on a scrap of paper in her hand. We never saw either nurse again. While waiting for the next step, I saw that the first nurse had logged into the PC, but not logged out.

We were then moved to a small exam area with five beds to wait for an attending and to wait for four hours until time for another blood sample. The area was run by a tech I’ll call Sam. Sam was a remarkable multitasker. Among other things, we saw him:
• Arrange patients and families in the cramped space
• Look for other staff
• Take blood
• Check orders
• Organize a stack of loose forms into their patient clipboards
• Change bed sheets
• Check the EMR for updates
• Check on patient moves

Sam did all this, and from what I could tell, was the only person who was actually followed the different aspects of his cases.

At first, the area was at capacity with crying children, their worried parents and others typical of a Friday night in an ER. While Sam directed traffic, the admissions clerk caught up with us and finished my wife’s record.

Around nine, an attending came in. He stopped midway in review for a half hour cell call and then returned. He recommended that she should go on a heart monitor and stay overnight. After the attending’s visit, we settled down to wait for a room. Sam checked every now and then to see where it stood, but it went nowhere.

About eleven, while making my second run to the ER vending machines, I saw the attending and mentioned that it was getting pretty boring waiting for a room and a monitor. Surprised, he said he’d ordered the monitor and that it should have been put on in the ER. With that, he checked with the charge nurse to get it done. The charge nurse came to see us and had us move to another area with a monitor, which a nurse started. Just after midnight, still waiting for a room, my wife sent me home. She called about one to say she’d been moved to a medical floor and was on a monitor.

I knew that LMSDC adopted an EMR three years ago and, indeed, it was clear that meds, complaints, orders, etc., were being entered into it. However, it was also clear that their system was a receptacle not a workflow tool. Apparently, LMSDC simply overlaid the EMR on its paper system, eliminating some parts, but keeping others. These other elements persist in their own parallel world. For someone such as Sam, who tries to keep his patients current it means more work not less. This explains why he had to deal with the EMR and constantly sort and organize paper forms into their proper patient clipboards.

Even that is not LMSDC’s major ER workflow problem. The heart monitor problem shows there is no shared task list. That is, once the attending entered the order, and I believe he did, the order is in the EMR. However, who is to carry it out and when should become a task that all others can see. Thus, the conversations among the attending, the charge nurse, Sam, my wife and me should have been unnecessary.

A couple of gratuitous points. LMSDC’s system is heavy on desktop machines. It cries for laptops or pads. Nurses, techs, attendings spend their time flying from one desktop to another, logging in and, sometimes, out. It’s a machine centric rather than a user centric system. Users never have their own workspace. They are always in hit and run mode. Even if they have a good system workflow and a good shared task list, they spend enormous time and energy logging in and out of room machines. It’s no wonder things get lost in the cracks.

LMSDC’s system runs both patients and staff ragged in another way. We moved three times, no record I expect. Nurses came and went. The attending should have been on skates. The only one with a dedicated space was Sam which explains why he could get so much done without exhaustion. How much easier their difficult lives and their patient’s lives would be if the patients came to the staff rather than endure the ER’s fast action minuet.

What’s so amazing is that despite their poor IT support and their constant motion, the staff was invariably professional, focused and friendly.

Best of all, after a night in the ER and a morning on a medical floor, my wife was discharged. She’s fine.

Today I’m happy to officially introduce readers of EMR and HIPAA to my latest project: The Healthcare Scene blog network. If you follow me on twitter (@techguy and @ehrandhit), then you’ve probably already come across one or more of the great blogs in this new healthcare IT blog network. I’m really excited with the group of bloggers that I have working on the network and the amazing content they’ve been creating and will create.

Before I introduce you to the various websites on the network, here’s a little background in why I decided to do this. As I looked at the various healthcare IT and EMR bloggers producing content, I was disappointed that many of them were creating great content that wasn’t getting nearly as much attention and traffic as the content deserved. Plus, many hadn’t benefited financially from all the great content they were creating. Combine lack of traffic with lack of financial rewards and these independent voices often disappear.

I saw this as a real opportunity to leverage many of the marketing and advertising tools that I’d created for EMR and HIPAA to the benefit of many others in the EMR and healthcare IT world. Plus, a number of my current advertisers told me that there weren’t enough online healthcare IT advertising options out there. I see this network as a real win for everyone. Independent bloggers can have their voices magnified while making money doing so. Readers and the EMR and Healthcare IT industry get more independently created content (including content by doctors). Healthcare IT advertisers will have more opportunities to advertise next to great content. I get to expand my network and work with a bunch of really smart people.

Now here’s a look at the websites that will be part of the Healthcare Scene blog network:

• Meaningful HIT News – This blog written by Neil Versel started in May 2004 and has over 500 posts. Neil is one of the only pure healthcare IT journalists out there and has been doing it for the past 15 years across more publishers than you can count, but most recently at Fierce Healthcare. I’m excited that Neil has chosen to move his blog to the HealthcareScene.com blog network. He’s a must read journalist for anyone in EMR and healthcare IT. I borrowed much of my writing style from Neil and so if you like this site, go and subscribe to Meaningful HIT News email list and you won’t be disappointed.
• EMR and Healthcare IT News – The firehose of EMR and Healthcare IT news sent out by vendors. A great way for vendors to get their word out and for industry people to see the latest developments in EMR and healthcare IT. I’m looking to partner with healthcare IT PR firms on the site, so hit my Contact Us page if you’re interested.
• Happy EMR Doctor – This blog first started out as a Doctor’s Blog guest post on EMR and EHR, but the content from Dr. West was too good. So, I rolled it off onto its own blog. Dr. West has been through a failed EHR implementation and now is using one of the Free EHR vendors. So, he has some interesting stories to tell.
• Smartphone Health Care – I recently heard that there were something like 30+ mobile health conferences or conferences with a mobile health track in the past year. That seems like far too many, but it is quite clear that Smart Phones and other mobile devices are going to play a huge role in the future of healthcare. Consider this my foray into the mHealth world.
• Wired EMR Practice – Many of you might remember that I already introduced Dr. Koriwchak’s blog on EMR and HIPAA earlier. Many of you subscribed to his blog and have seen the type of quality content he’s creating. I love doctor’s perspectives on EMR.
• nextHospital – We’ll see how this blog evolves, but it’s the Healthcare Scene’s first blog that isn’t really IT focused. Written by Katherine Rourke (mentioned above), nextHospital will focus on the business of healthcare in hospitals.
• EMR, EHR and HIPAA Wiki – Not a blog, but a pretty cool part of the network nonetheless. Be sure to add your EHR vendor if it’s not on there already.
• EMR and EHR Job Board – Not a blog either, but this job board will be syndicated across all the HealthcareScene.com websites. So, it’s a great places to post or look for a job.
• EMR and HIPAA – Hopefully it needs no intro if you’re reading this post. Let’s just say, 1000 posts, 4713 comments, and over 4 million pageviews.
• EMR and EHR – Very similar to EMR and HIPAA, but only about 2 years old. 300 posts, 1092 comments and 700,000+ pagevies. Katherine Rourke, a healthcare IT journalist with 15+ years of experience, recently started posting on EMR and EHR and is a welcome addition to the site.

I’d say that’s a pretty good start. I’m in talks with a few more bloggers that may or may not join the network. I think there’s still some interesting niches that haven’t been filled. For example, a blog tracking publicly traded healthcare IT stock movements and other healthcare IT investment opportunities could be interesting. Either way, I’m excited to see all the great content that will be created on these sites. Much like this site, each site encourages you to respectfully comment, share the content, and join the conversation. Please let your voice be heard in the comments.

Yes, right now each site looks very much like the rest, but we’re just getting started. Over time I’ll work to give each blogger it’s own brand while also building up the HealthcareScene.com domain to better represent all the activity that’s happening on the network. I see it becoming a virtual hub of the best and brightest conversations happening in and around healthcare IT and EMR.

Let me know what you think of these additions in the comments or drop me a note on my Contact Us page.

In response to my previous post about possibly creating an EMR pricing comparison website, I got a really interesting set of comments from a CPA who’s been assisting their clients in their EMR selection process. You might laugh at the idea of a CPA participating in the EMR selection process. Interestingly, the CPA that I use has also been asked by their clients about the EMR stimulus money and so they were grateful they could ask me some questions.

This aside, I found this person’s comments interesting. I think they also illustrate some of the challenges in EMR pricing and some of the thirst for EMR pricing also. I removed some identifying information and some other comments about EMR and HIPAA. Otherwise, the comments are in tact.

I have been pondering trying to do some sort of price comparison myself, and you’re right, they all differ so it’s tough to just do one basic comparison chart. I’ve seen already how some have things all bundled (ie.Athena, and others do it in separate modules can add on – ie. Greenway)

I have featured remote demo’s for clients to listen/view through our firm so they can avoid the vendor pressure… I thought I would try to get info on others for comparison purposes, but in keeping with the theme… it is just not that easy.

There are a few challenging items for comparison purposes, one of them being support and related costs.
The support/training is many times where the wheels fall off the well-intentioned EMR wagons.
You just don’t seem to get an answer or know the true support/training costs until you have already tied the knot with your new EMR system. If you could get more comparative info on that aspect, that would be very helpful – or better yet, come up with an EMR Pre-Nup.

Another toughy is the interfacing costs
From what I hear a [EMR Vendor] system may charge $30k to interface with another EMR vendor.
The vendors call that “not playing nicely”.
So tack on another layer of subjective complexity to your pricing project.

And yet another cost factor I’ve noticed is what EMR system an affiliated hospital is getting preferred pricing on. There is a hospital by us in an arrangement with [EMR Vendor], and of course advising the outside practice physicians to use the same. I am not to thrilled with this idea, I think there are better products that are not spread so thin in so many markets.

I mention the patient portal separately below as some of my clients don’t seem quite ready for that yet.
They view it as another task and feel could attack it once get the EMR running smoothly.
I know they need it for MU [Stage 1 doesn't require this, but future stages probably will], but they seem to want that a little later than sooner.

In any case, I think some possible approaches for a comparative pricing schematic would be to have different scenarios:
a) 1-5 Docs & Midlevel providers /Web Hosted/ EMR only/ PM Interface/ No Patient Portal
b) 1-5 Docs & Midlevel providers /Web Hosted/ EMR only/ PM Interface/ With Patient Portal
c) 1-5 Docs & Midlevel providers /Web Hosted/ EMR & PM Bundled/ No Patient Portal
d) 1-5 Docs & Midlevel providers /Web Hosted/ EMR & PM Bundled/ With Patient Portal
e) 1-5 Docs & Midlevel providers /Web Hosted/ EMR & PM Bundled/ With Revenue Cycle Mgt/ With Patient Portal