If you search health IT sites looking for gossip and kvetching, you’d get the impression that Siemens’ Soarian EMR is buggy, hard to use and a general pain in the tuchus. But some of that gossip goes back a few years, and from what I can see, it’s died down a lot. These days, things may be different indeed.
I remember Soarian in the early days when it was first showing off for the HIMSS crowd. Man, they had a gorgeous booth, all light and silvered glass anchored by an enormous, translucent television screen (yes, you heard that right.) It wasn’t just slick — it looked like a Porsche dealership. When I stopped by, I felt like I should have been in evening wear.
Still, despite the big, big, massive bucks behind Soarian (Siemens AG has a market cap of about $93 billion), to date our friend Epic has won the day often than not. I’ve reluctantly been assuming that Epic would remain on top for some time to come.
But today, I stumbled across a piece of HIStalk chatter from this summer which made me think different.
While most IT posters have taken a gotta-deal-with-it approach to Epic’s antiquated MUMPS core, one took a contrarian view that got me thinking:
“Without a J2EE or .NET underpinning, at some point [Epic] will simply be too difficult to maintain and enhance?)… guessing the logical conclusion is that ultimately Soarian will gain a lead – a sustainable lead – over Epic.”
What gives the comment some kick is that Soarian is creeping up in customer satisfaction. In late 2010, for example, KLAS reported that the Siemens had seen a “pointed increase” in adoption and a nine-point growth in customer satisfaction scores.
Not only that, within a few weeks of the HIStalk posting, Soarian racked up a few more deals which must have brought in several million bucks. Sure, that might be chicken feed to a giant like Siemens, but my feeling is that the product is gaining momentum, and that’s no joke.
Could it be that like it or not, Soarian is the Next Big Thing? Moreover, and maybe I’m stretching here, could it be the system that steals pride of place from our Epic Systems?
Yeah, yeah, we all know the story of how little old Netflix out-maneuvered WalMart and Blockbuster to carve out an astonishing chunk of the home entertainment market for itself. But let’s face it, that’s a big story because it so seldom happens. Brute force investment usually trumps spunk.
When it comes right down to it, I’m shifting my “gonna win the big hospital business” vote to Soarian. For today. Until something else happens. Oh, OK, I don’t know more than any of you…but the whole Soarian trend’s a bit of something, isn’t it?
[…] Judy Faulkner- read about the CEO and Medical Records CZAR EXCERPT FROM EPIC SYSTEMS ARTICLE- http://www.hospitalemrandehr.com/2011/10/20/soarian-does-siemens-finally-have-an-epic-killer/ Article continues below […]
Used it. Pretty lousy. Would rather use Meditech if that says anything. Couldn’t build an ED product that worked. They held endless meetings to the point where it seemed we were designing the product for them. My hospital fired them after 30 million down the tubes.
[…] are worth anything, it’s that they give us a chance to stop and challenge our assumptions. Is Soarian really an up-and-coming platform? Do customers feel OK about Meditech, or are they bummed by […]
Soarian is the most asinine and ridiculously slow system. Ever. Using the One Sign On tab is the only “up” they have over Epic. I worked with epic for three years at a major hospital in clevleand. now working for a competitor hospital and using soarian; I want to quit my job and go back to the militant competitor just because their technology is better.
[…] some of you may recall, a few months ago we took a look at Soarian’s prospects for taking some of Epic’s ever-growing EMR marketing share. At the time, we noted that […]
worst system I have ever used, using the most updated version. meditech was way better.
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