Smart Approach for Small Hospital EHR?
As most of you know, I’m really active in various LinkedIn groups related to EMR / EHR and healthcare IT. In one such discussion Chris Councilor offered the following suggestion for small hospitals considering a new HIS or EHR system:
Occam’s razor: The simplest explanation is usually the right one. Cloud based HIS and hardware financed by hardware company. Deployed in 90 days. Rope in support from SMEs & HIT integrators. Predictable costs, no added headcount & MU ready. On average, a small hospital will get $1.3M in 1st year payments which is a #gamechanger.
What do you think of this approach? Is this what you see happening in many small hospitals? Who are the hospital EHR and HIS vendors that could benefit from this approach?
The last comment is quite interesting as well. If these small hospitals can’t implement EHR with an average of $1.3 million in EHR incentive money, then will they ever implement EHR?
Two problems I see. The software companies know about the $1.3 payment, and price accordingly, and there’s a big difference between “implementation in 90 days” and actual user acceptance. Other than that, it’s the perfect plan.
There’s a smaller vendor called VersaSuite that appears to have a very flexible HIS that has an offering in this vein. I think they work mostly with critical access and smaller acute care hospitals.
Bill,
I’ve seen and talked with the people from Versasuite a few times before. I’ll be interested to hear how they do in that market over time. I’m glad to hear they’re still kicking.