Health Care Information Giants Like the Auto Industry?
Rick Peters, MD over at The Health Care Blog thinks so, describing them as "a few large players who build big, expensive systems on outdated technology platforms."
Finally someone who understands what we need to realize all the potential of EHRs. Coupled with your post regarding silos of health care information you are smack dab on the mark, Wes. We need open source information that will allow different platforms to talk to each other and to store information from providers in different EMR systems. You have to beleive that the big EHR providers are stymiing this idea since it will allow innovative and less expensive products to be created and tailored to specific types of practices. Instead we get giant IT behemoths offering us their soup to nuts software that will do everything but brush your teeth for you. Only problem is they want 20-40 grand per user for the license and will continue to drain your wallet for support and upgrades afterward, all but erasing any cost savings you might have otherwise realized.
Big health centers love these systems since they allow them to control all this information and they need better coordination among all the multiple health care tasks they perform. But the rest of us who wish to practice outside of the corporately dictated model of health care find the economics of these systems difficult to digest.
Once the model of health care IT becomes more open source, it will drive down the costs and you will see the small practices of the world jumping on board the EHR train like crazy. Lets hope the next administration gets it right and doesn't just listen to the GE's and Epic's of the world before it spends its money on this endeavor.
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Finally someone who understands what we need to realize all the potential of EHRs. Coupled with your post regarding silos of health care information you are smack dab on the mark, Wes. We need open source information that will allow different platforms to talk to each other and to store information from providers in different EMR systems. You have to beleive that the big EHR providers are stymiing this idea since it will allow innovative and less expensive products to be created and tailored to specific types of practices. Instead we get giant IT behemoths offering us their soup to nuts software that will do everything but brush your teeth for you. Only problem is they want 20-40 grand per user for the license and will continue to drain your wallet for support and upgrades afterward, all but erasing any cost savings you might have otherwise realized.
Big health centers love these systems since they allow them to control all this information and they need better coordination among all the multiple health care tasks they perform. But the rest of us who wish to practice outside of the corporately dictated model of health care find the economics of these systems difficult to digest.
Once the model of health care IT becomes more open source, it will drive down the costs and you will see the small practices of the world jumping on board the EHR train like crazy. Lets hope the next administration gets it right and doesn't just listen to the GE's and Epic's of the world before it spends its money on this endeavor.
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