electronic health record (EHR) systems, announced today that it completed its acquisition of Bond
Technologies.
The two companies announced on Feb. 25 that they had signed a letter of intent for MediNotes to acquire
Bond Technologies, which offers the industry’s most advanced integrated, award-winning .Net-based EHR
and Practice Management (PM) solution. Following the merger, MediNotes renamed that solution from Bond
Clinician™ to MediNotes Clinician™. It also created separate national sales forces to market MediNotes
only healthcare IT vendor offering physicians the choice of either a stand-alone EHR or an integrated, singlevendor
EHR/PM system.
Does anyone have any inside info on this?
It looks like MediNotes' days are also numbered.
I wonder if I can nurse MediNotes 5.1 and MediSoft 12 along until I retire?
>>MediNotes is a good product. I like it a lot. But the truth it is that is not a "great" product.<<
Integration of PM and EHR is a worthwhile concept. Perhaps their resources have been on this subject for years, which is why, I agree, they failed to be a, "Great," product.
Years ago, Medinotes was ahead of the pack with the the ability to produce a custom template and edit that template on the fly, always seeing your final note on the screen, color coded for specifics, without backtracking to multiple screens for input. They never refined this concept, for resource reasons, or so I am told.The Medinotes concept is too good to fail. I wish them success and progression.
Chris Wilkerson, D.C. Carson Doctors Group TabletPCs in Medicine Editor-in-Chief www.MedicalTabletPC.com Home: www.Digital-Doc.com
As I suspected Medisoft and Edgemed and the hundreds of other Medinotes Dealers that are really PMS software manufactures will eventually have the PMS portion replaced and eventually Medinotes will take this business over.
I still can't understand why these companies did not just write there own EMR's. I guess they will now, or else face eventual corporate decision to simply provide the whole solution to the clients.
In any case this is a obvious slap in the face to all those PMS companies that bought into the Medinotes need for PMS negotiations they made. They gave a great deal to these companies and that is the primary reason Medinotes, a average EMR Template System, has been able to gain so much market share.
If I was a Medinotes partner that resells other PMS or Manufactures PMS this certainly would not be good news for me.
I believe and agree they like everyone needs a integrated PMS. If you are a PMS company without it you need it and you need to write it. If you are a EMR/EHR like Medinotes and eMedRec and don't have it, you better buy a failing PMS or EHR company with good software.
Medinotes will be a great product with this acquisition.
Bond is a great product, with limited sales and resources, even given the long marketing process. What a nice product. Medinotes customers and Medinotes EMR/EHR with PMS is great for the consumer. Not so much for Medisoft/PMS vars who fill there whole with EMR from Medinotes. I think in the long run this might be better for Medinotes also since they will have to get together and write a Integrated EMR for there large VAR Network.
Medinotes VARS will benefit overall because they can now compete with a integrted solution.
Regards,
As a leading National MediNotes reseller who has been involved with EMR Update since its inception I can if I may add the following thoughts:
MediNotes now offers two distinct EMR options via its reseller channel with eventual migration availible but no intent to "kill" the existing product line as they serve disparate functions.
You still get to keep your existing PMS or Scheduler with Medinotes E or recieve a complete solution with Clinician. At AutoMED we strive to bring the physician the best value in addition to the best and most fitting solution for each unique practice which is why our clients recieve what they need along with what works best, Hardware and Software at a reasonable price.
We remain committed to Medinotes E and will support and assist our nationwide clients for the long haul from our four nationwide offices in CA,FL,WV and NY.
For this reason we have NEVER sold Communication Manager/Medical Connect etc. or other failing products discussed above. We sell what works period and we tirelessly advocate for our clients day and night. We are here committed to the readers of EMR Update with multiple products for medical offices with our assurance of satisfaction with our price, service and product performance. Rest assured that Medinotes E is here to stay!
You may reach me at 516-369-7091 to discuss any issue or concern at any time, 24/7
Joe
Joe,
You are a great reseller, but you surely know that overtime they will offer the integrated solution as the primary solution. They would be foolish to effect the great channel they have with people like yourself.
You are independent, but there are many PMS vendors who depend on the EMR Medinotes. This is less then a independent relationship and who knows how long it will be beneficial for the PMS vendor or Medinotes. Your guess is as good as mine.
You may perhaps be right Brendon, and I do not wish to argue with you as your comments are extremely substantiated and in time the industry (along w/ technology) will change exponentially. however I have two comments to add:
They (Medinotes) have an existing client base of 4,300+ practices on medinotes E and Clinician has substantially less then that (I don't know how many) and they will not risk losing their current base and its recurrant maintenance income. Additionally they will need to move medinotes e foward to retain CCHIT compliancy (which though I know many on this forum do not seem to care about it I must respectfully argue with many of my colleagues on this) It currently is the leading certification arm in the industry and medinotes has invested tremendously to remain compliant and will continue to do so.
Also they still will appeal to many who wish to retain their existing PMS which clinician will not allow for.
While we used to sell PMS systems in house we no longer do so as we wish to remain independent and focused on EMRs, However to complement this we have a great network offerring PMS solutions to our clients at substantial discounts.
However as to your concerns we will not be affected as you correctly point out as we are not a PMS vendor, nor a PMS reseller. We have clients using over 47 differrent PM solutions ranging from web-based to customized local systems all interfacing via text, HL7 or proprietary bridges, some being great interfaces and some being weaker. The point is that with medinotes you do not need to throw away your existing software and this is a great benefit with Medinotes E.
For new clients Clinician will be considered as we consider numerous EMR options for our clients.
Futuristically, those vendors dealing with medisoft will be geared to Practice Partner ( I believe that Clinician which will be availible thru us is heavily superior to PP) and the future of medisoft would be a great forum topic in of itself in light of this.
So yes this is why people who did/will wish to buy medinotes will be best served thru us as our independence from any PMS product allows us to remain focused on our clients needs vs. our PM relationships along with selling products like communications manager etc. which does not serve our clients needs.
We remain unique as the only true independent nationwide EMR only company in the nation which offers full range solutions covering all hardware and software needs for any practice.
Did anyone actually purchase Bond Clinician ? They couldn't have been worth much.
Medinotes customers seem happy, hope this isn't disruptive to them. Will be interesting to see how frequently these two code bases get updated.
Bond Clinician was CCHIT certified...
Al Borges, M.D.
● Oncologist in a Small Group Practice in Virginia
● My website URL: http://msofficeemrproject.com/
Jason,
What do you know of Bond Clinician? I would be interested in your insight and knowledge from your review of the product.
I reviewed it at many EMR Shows and Conferences held by Courtney and her crew. I can say the Marketing was handled first class and the product is very well developed and flows nice. Like many companies right now with this downturn in the economy they will be suffering. Only the strong will survive.
I am sure that Bond sold for a good price given it is a CCHIT certified EHR with PMS and EMR. This is a tough industry, look at Medcomsoft, one of the best Decision Support Based EMR's on the market with Medcin and a good product only having a few hundred physicians on the product.
There are very few companies, less then 20 that have over a thousand physicians on the products. If this was not the case there would be better prices and values in the market place.
Brendon,
There is a common thread in the two products (Bond, Medcomsoft) and that is expensive marketing and sales teams. As noted in Medcomsoft's press release, they are looking for another method of selling.
With a downturn in the economy, sales diminish among expensive EMR's. When sales diminish, then the sales staff, almost always working on commission, go hungry.
Medtuity does not have an expensive sales team to support. We rely on our product's reputation and word-of-mouth to sell it. As I wrote several years ago, with a pay-as-you-go (turnstile) pricing structure, we don't suffer the ups and downs of the economy. We don't rely on commissions for payroll. There is only one factor-- our customers must be satisfied or they will stop using Medtuity. Instead of a sales process that drives a company, instead it becomes a customer satisfaction process. That is an important distinction. It is not unlike the OpenSource/free software movement where there is little in terms of sales and marketing budgets but much in terms of satisfaction.
It is also very difficult to go from "up-market" to "down-market" when the company's entire structure and economics is based on a up-market EMR price. Simply dropping the price is not adequate for many reasons. For example, software companies want and need the income from product support. That decreases the incentive to make the product "support free"-- it would limit the company's income. Installation is often an additional charge. It a vendor can install the software in minutes, it would appear foolish to the customer to pay. Thus, there is incentive for the vendor to not spend large resources in creating an easily installed product. Clinical content has been discussed many times here. There are companies that actually charge for content-- content that was in part developed by another customer! The list goes on but the point is that the underpinnings of an up-market company cannot simply be changed by lowing the price of the software.
IMHO,
Coming soon, I just did an ooVoo video interview with the CEO of MediNotes, Mr. Donald Schoen(Pronounced "Shane") in which he answers some tough questions about how he intends to support TWO product lines, their original MediNotes-e "Best of Breed" EMR system with 20,000 users PLUS the new MediNotes-Clinician "All-IN-ONE" EMR/PM acquisition from Bond, where BOTH are CCHIT Certified.
Don't miss this video interview, and although I must apologize in advance for my bad microphone, Donald sounded and looked great, so we decided to go ahead with the production, even with my voice sounding scratchy.
I believe I have solved my audio problems, whereby future ooVoo interviews will be 10 minutes of pure listening and viewing enjoyment!
Thanks for your tolerance regarding my first real video interview, and thanks to Don Schoen for his pioneering spirit!
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.
I saw Bond at TEPR 2004 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, and they had a massive, impressive display and a huge sales force. My husband quietly watched them for a long time, and came to the conclusion: "big hat; no cattle". He claimed that the demonstrations were inflexible - almost as if certain data were hard-coded for display purposes - they never varied from their script.
A year later, I saw the Bond implementation team on a Saturday morning outside a doctor's office in Tampa. They were waiting for someone to let them in the office - and they looked very professional in their matching polo shirts. I struck up a conversation with one young man, and he mentioned how excited the team was to be working on their first implementation. He said he had worked for them for six months, but this was the first implementation. I went back home and told my husband that Bond may have roped a calf, but there was no herd in sight.
All that overhead will drain the funds out of even the deepest pockets. The product may have been great, but EMR sales have been way under everyone's expectations. I am surprised that Bond lasted 4 years with selling out sooner.