Lately i have been keenly focused on the reality Digital Physician is up against in the world of HealthIT. I ran across this article on TechCrunch written by Dave Chase of Avado, a patient portal & relationship management company that was a TechCrunch Disrupt finalist.
The best news for healthtech startups is that, by definition, legacy HealthIT is optimized around the flawed reimbursement model of the past. The disruptive innovators instinctually know that they will either have to build their own software (if there isn’t off-the-shelf software) or they can work with software companies that allow them to be nimble. There is universal agreement that anything less than a fundamental redesign of healthcare will fall short in solving the most important problem the U.S. and the world faces — spiraling healthcare costs.
I have worked with several EMR / Practice Management systems over the years from Vista to Meditech and McKesson, and more recently GE Centricity, and i understand what the challenges the end users have long suffered with. I look forward to providing a “nimble” solution that allows for innovation and the opportunity to tackle the needs our customers have in a time-frame they are not accustomed to. If you are on LinkedIn, please head over to the “Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society” Group. There is a thread on “Top Ten reasons why EMR/EHR implementations are failing.” that has over 2500 comments. It is a good read, if you look past the obvious “We have the solution” advertising posts, there are some really great insights people are sharing.
I am not convinced that every EMR implementation is failing, but i can say this, the end users are not OK living with Legacy software and demand software that can be tailored to the exact needs they have. On top of that, as one user wrote, bad workflow without software will most likely be even worse with even the best software. I see a huge opportunity for training and pre-implementation consulting services from those who have learned the lessons first hand.
please feel free to comment and share your thoughts