This is the third post in the series of posts(see the previous ONC-ATCB Certified EHR Breakdown and ONC-ATCB Certified EHR Breakdown by Certifying Body) looking at the EHR certification numbers put together by HITECH Answers. The following is a list of Certified EHR products by vendor:
Top 3 Vendors by number of Products Certified
– Cerner Corporation – 13 products
– Siemens Medical Solutions USA Inc – 9 products
– Epic Systems Corporation – 4 products
I guess these are the EHR software you want to avoid. Ok, that’s partially facetious. Just, can you imagine trying to battle the other 12 certified EHR to get support. Granted, most of them are likely hospital EHR and so there are usually support contracts in place to deal with this kind of thing. Don’t worry though, Allscripts should be on this list soon. I think they have something like 7 EHR software for just ambulatory right now. I guess that’s the nature of acquisitions.
It will be interesting to continue to see this evolve.
Having extensively used hospital products from the top two vendors on this list I can assure you that certification does not correlate with quality, usability, interoperability, stability or domain expertise.
Oh Brian, you’re ruining it for all these EMR vendors who like to promote the misinformation about what EMR certification actually provides.
Of course, my favorite message is that EMR certification provides no value to the doctors. It is a great marketing tool for EMR vendors to sell more software.
Sad, but true. Too bad EMR certification made it into the legislation.
I used #1 and #3 when I was a resident at Penn. For 1 we used only the lab inerface to look up recent blood test results. But I hated Epic, which we used in the outpatient setting. To be fair, we didn’t have anyone training us, and what we did know came as a trickle down effect from the other residents who used it before us. I remember staying late after clinic was done, I think it was every Tuesday night to get all the notes typed in because it was too hard to do while the patient was there.
Hi John, I have to say you come up with some creative topics and interesting too. Yes; some of the Ambulatory Care setting EHR will be sun set; some of them within the bigger umbrella will become specialty specific, if you will. Overall, yes, there is going to be a wave of consolidations and its detrimental to the early adapters – as always. Its a price you pay for early adoption and its sadly the truth in technology, especially the software industry.
As far as your comment about EHR certification, I consider EHR Certification is a way to get the basics checked out by an agency so that at least the bases are covered. Nothing more than that…………. Is it required; yes; its required. Will it become better in the future; yes, I would think so. Similar to the FDA and other regulatory bodies, its required to have such a certification agency/ies to validate the basic tenets. Does it in anyway guarantee usability and ease of use; absolutely not. Can it be used for advertisement? Possibly, to let the prospects know that they can be assured of the MU monies.
As you might already know, the first two years of monies are the easiest ones to take. And any basic system will enable them to meet the 15 core set and 5 of the 10 menu sets.
Having gone through the certification process ourselves, I can attest to the fact that the basics are vetted out and its in one way, a process of eliminating the not so serious solution providers.
Keep up the good work.
“Its a price you pay for early adoption and its sadly the truth in technology, especially the software industry.”
I love that this is early adoption. I remember when my personal doctor was using an EMR 15 or so years ago. Good stuff! Of course, the caution for switching EMR’s is not about waiting (since this risk will ALWAYS be present. Instead, it’s a caution to be sure you hold your EMR vendor accountable in your EMR contract.
“Can it be used for advertisement? Possibly, to let the prospects know that they can be assured of the MU monies.”
Not just that. Many EMR salespeople are making all sorts of false claims about EMR certification. Some do it through lack of information and just people’s own impressions. Others do it through blatant lying about what EMR certification is. Of course, my goal is to spread the truth about EMR certification to as many people as possible.
“I can attest to the fact that the basics are vetted out and its in one way, a process of eliminating the not so serious solution providers.”
I’ll be surprised if it really vets out any solution providers. At least not this first stage of requirements. Maybe the later stages will have more of that affect.
“Keep up the good work.”
Glad you like it and thanks for joining the conversation. When are you going to start advertising Enable Healthcare Inc. on my sites? 😉