Specialty EMR
I am simply going to voice my concern about using a Specialty EMR - for example, an electronic medical records company built specifically around Chirporactic EMR, Dermatology EMR, Ophthalmology EMR, Podiatry EMR, Nursing Home EMR, etc. Let's consider a "Urology Specific EMR": First off, how many Urology practices are there? Let's assume the best case scenario - that 100% of those urology practices bought a "Urology specific" EMR. When the last sale is made of the software, how are these companies going to stay in business? My guess? They either go out of business or they hit you with huge maintenance and support fees. Hence, I see some risk in going with a Specialty EMR Company because I wonder how they will sustain themselves for very long and be competitive. There are standard EMR packages that have the built in flexibility (by design) to enable a good vendor to customize the software not only to the specialty level but even farther – to the individual provider within a practice. To me, "vendor survival" is going to be a huge player. And - while it is worth asking questions about a potential software company’s financial strength and what happens if they can’t continue in business - don’t expect definitive answers. It is far from obvious which software companies will be around in five years. There are many reasons why small and medium sized companies die, merge, or sell out, and why large ones drop certain lines of business. I am concerned about these electronic medical companies that are simply sprouting up everywhere, hiring as quick as they can, and have no history of maintaining an "actual business."
|