I was just browsing an EMR company’s website(which I shall keep nameless) and I clicked on a link that I thought would be interesting. Here’s what I found:
Appointment Scheduler
Automatic Call&Confirm Phone Appt. Reminder.
Electronic Medical Records (EMR)
Complete Billing
Web Access and Security
Call Center (Document Calls)
Transcription Integration
Electronic Prescription Writer
Electronic Orders (Labs, X-Rays)
Image/Document Management
Wireless Enabled
Secure Internal Email
HIPAA compliant security
Solo/Group Features
FREE Customization
I’ve put in bold a few of the features that actually sound pretty nice. Having the Automatic Call and Confirm built into your EMR is great. Web Access to your EMR could be great if that means you could access it remotely. There are some security questions there, but they could be dealt with appropriately. Web access also is nice if you can avoid managing client installs. Secure Internet Email could be a nice thing, but unfortunately that requires your patients to have a secure messaging system too. There are ways around it, but that’s a topic for a different post.
When I took a look at the rest of the list I couldn’t help but laugh. Appointment Scheduler, EMR and complete billing seems a bit vague. Isn’t that what the page is suppose to describe? I was hoping to see a list of how they implemented appointments, EMR, and billing. They did at least tell us that their billing is complete.
It is nice that they told us that their EMR has security. Although I still don’t know what that really means. Is there such a thing as an EMR that doesn’t have security? None that would claim that as a feature.
The rest of the features are pretty vague, but the one that killed me most was “Wireless Enabled.” Amazing!! Maybe someone can point me to an EMR that isn’t.
At least you can feel comfortable with buying this EMR because if you don’t like something there is FREE customization. I’d get that one in writing!
My point is that if an EMR vendor wants to have a website then they should offer some worthwhile information and not just put up junk because “They Have to have a website.”
