Hello everyone, I have been searching the site for a while and searching around the internet in general for information about EMRs. I am a PA in a 2 physician family practice that is looking to transition to EMR. Apparently they have been looking into it for a long time, even before I came to the practice. I am young and very eager to get the information about EMRs. My issue is finding the right EMR for the right price. I have looked at some programs so far and most of them seem to be over 20K and it seems as if my boss wishes to go below that number. I was wondering if anyone had any recommedations on some of the less expensive EMRs that are still of good quality. Thanks.
SPSMED
spsmed:My issue is finding the right EMR for the right price. I have looked at some programs so far and most of them seem to be over 20K and it seems as if my boss wishes to go below that number. I was wondering if anyone had any recommedations on some of the less expensive EMRs that are still of good quality.
Many of the products you will read about on this forum offer a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. This will allow you to pay for the service you use monthly as opposed to a big capital layout upfront.
Please feel free to look at what we offer. I'll let the other vendors comment about their offerings, but I do know that most of them have a SaaS or ASP offering.
I would urge you to continue to look around at products and try to find the one that meets the requirements of your practice. You should be looking for a product that can grow with your practice. Choosing a product that may not "keep up" with the fast paced changes in software development can lead to a big headache down the road and make a transition at that point painful. With that said, if you find a product that meets your needs, and it is cheap, go for it. You'll find that many practices have different objectives when looking at EMR's. Don't fall prey to the "hype" that comes with many of the sales pitches. Know your practice, know your objectives, search for the right product. When you narrow your search, please post your thoughts and allow this community to help you weed through the information.
Cheers.
Chuck.
SPSMed,
Good luck in your search.
Medtuity has "turnstile pricing" where you pay a nominal charge when you create a new encounter. There are no upfront licensing fees or recurrent maintenance, training, support, and upgrade fees. Though the pricing is similar to ASP pricing, you house the data on your server at your facility so that you have control over your data. As a 3-practitioner practice, Medtuity has no problem with speed in handling 100+ pts per day-- again, you house the data locally. Medtuity has good pediatric content (well-child, anticipatory guidelines, growth charts, vaccinations...), not simply adult medicine. As a PA, if you need your charts co-signed by a physician in your state, Medtuity tracks that and allows quick co-signing. Medtuity is different than most EMR in allowing you to easily document pertnent positives, not just negatives (see video).
Good luck in your search. There's a lot out there.
Very interesting request since I was just recently asked to write an article for Medscape on this very subject. I'll be interested to hear people comments on the subject.
Rest assured that you don't have to spend $20k if you don't want to. There are plenty of alternative pricing models out there. In the end though, I think it's more important that you focus on the featureset that best matches your practice. Sure price is a major part of the consideration, but no matter what the price is you don't want to get something that won't work for your style of practice.
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spsmed: I was wondering if anyone had any recommedations on some of the less expensive EMRs that are still of good quality. .
There is a spreadsheet somewhere here that you can pull out all the EMRs below $20K. That will give you a start.
Graham http://www.synapsedirect.com/ Synapse - the EMR for smart users
Amazing Charts is $995 for the first provider plus $200 each additional provider.
http://www.amazingcharts.com/software_pricing.htm
It ranked very well in the Family Practice Management's recent User Satisfaction survey:
http://www.aafp.org/fpm/20080200/25user.pdf
Brian Cotner, M.D. - Family Practitioner First Amazing Charts Users' Conference Branson, Missouri - June 20-22, 2008
PatientOS is an GPL v3.0 Open Source system which means it is not only free (0K) but you are also free to distribute it - even sell it if you so choose. Hardware and your own time is never $0 cost of course.
But if this is your first EMR you might like to get something that has many years of maturity (and more features lol). As a software guy I like what I have seen in Synapse and Medtuity - call it a developer recognizing other good developers work.
Greg
http://www.patientos.org
Coming to a clinic near you March 2008.
gchiu: spsmed: I was wondering if anyone had any recommedations on some of the less expensive EMRs that are still of good quality. . There is a spreadsheet somewhere here that you can pull out all the EMRs below $20K. That will give you a start.
I believe Dr. Chiu is referring to this, http://www.emrupdate.com/blogs/doctorspartner/default.aspx , listed as "Price Comparisons" on our Home Page, in the upper-left menu box. This spreadsheet is based on a two-doctor office, and it can be a very useful resource for getting a person into the proper "ballpark" as far as pricing and basic configuration models.
Robert Gleeman, Medical Journalist for EMR Update.com Email: robert@emrupdate.com Tel: 1-650-968-6359 Skype and ooVoo user name: robertgleeman EMR progress is a matter of fact. EMR Update supports your right to know.