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What's here / What's not
Welcome To This Electronic Health Records (EHR) Extension Of Our Web site
On behalf of Medical Strategic Planning, Andrew & Associates (Bill Andrew, PE Retired), the Center for Advanced Professional Productivity (Robt. Bruegel, Ph.D.) and Jim Reitsema (Affinity Data Systems), David Ginsburg (Privaplan), and Dr. Caroline Samuels, (CSMed, LLC) - a warm thank you for dropping by. The EHR Interest Group section of this website provides vendor impartial, independent product information. It is intended to empower the transition in the EHR market from its early adopter phase to a more professional market in which vetted and validated information is readily available to those making EHR and other physician office medical information system decisions.
This website is the online home of the Andrew & Associates EHR Benchmark, a snapshot of a LIVE online EHR Developer's feature repository. This repository currently contains approximately 225,000 data elements on 104 EHR developer's systems.
This site is now also a distributor of the well-known and respected POMIS Reports (3 Volumes) and Knowledgebase, published by Vinson Hudson of Jewson Enterprises. In order to access and purchase the POMIS report and certain other content on this site, REGISTRATION and LOGIN are necessary.
The table of TOP LEVEL content will guide you in finding what you want in this unrestricted version of the EHR Special Interest Group. There is additional content that opens up to Registered browsers who are Logged In.
EHR Developers Seeking Access to Andrew & Associates Benchmark - Reality EHR Knowledgebase
If you are an EHR developer visiting us for the first time, then your company may not have participated in the 2006 Andrew & Associates EHR Benchmark Survey. A notice of this survey has been sent to over 200 EHR vendors, 161 have signed up and received access ID and passwords and 104 have completed the survey. If you did NOT receive such a notice, please contact Bill Andrew directly at 863-294-5513 or Betty Gasch at 732-219-5090 X 13. MSP is the permanent home of all Andrew & Associates EHR surveys. The 12th Annual EHR Surveys was completed in 2006 - the 2007 A&A EHR Benchmark Survey will commence October 2007.
The Reality EHR Repository is a LIVING database that EHR developers may update at any time. Data from that repository was analyzed and published in 2006. All EHR developers are encouraged to keep their EHR product files current on this site, which is a focal point for impartial information browsed by group practices, venture capital firms, medical organizations and others looking for independent market research.
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Reality EHR Benchmark Helps Increase Buyer Confidence
Medical Strategic Planning, Inc. is a partner in the Andrew & Associates EHR Alliance, and home of the annual Andrew & Associates EHR Benchmark Survey, now in its 12th year. This Benchmark, being a living repository, is supported by 104 EHR developers who want physicians to know what system features are available and provide realistic (software only) budgetary pricing information. In many cases these EHR developers have gone the extra mile and have provided self-verification of their data.
Growth of the Andrew & Associates EHR Benchmark
The importance of this Benchmark has grown and engendered increasing EHR developer support. Only a few EHR vendors don't participate. Participation in the Andrew & Associates Benchmark has always been free. In 2005 about 74 EHR developers participated in the annual EHR survey and in 2006 that increased 104 EHR developers. The market is becoming increasingly cautious and suspicious about EHR developers that don't publish system characteristics, as vaporware continues to be an issue in the market, in spite of CCHIT certification. Many EHR developer's systems offer features that go BEYOND what the CCHIT standard requires (or tests for). CCHIT certification alone will not completely eliminate vaporware in this industry.
Lack of Premarket Product Qualification Has Contributed to Vaporware
Because there are over 200 EHR developers participating in the U.S. physician and hospital EHR markets and their EHR products are very complex; and because the EHR developers are not required to meet any pre-market scrutiny (no FDA product review), there is much information and misinformation being promoted in the EHR market. Some EHR systems purchased by hospitals and group practices were found after installation, not to provide all capabilities promised, leading some early adopters to have disappointing experiences or expensive failures with some major HIS and EHR developers' products. This has not been widely publicized, as some of these companies are market leaders and spend millions of dollars on magazine advertising, renting trade show exhibits, and these publications and organizations don't wish to lose their business. This fact that former healthcare czar, Dr. David Brailer mentioned such failures in numerous speeches, was amazing. For the EHR market to attract the next wave of physician group practice buyers and become a professional market, there needs to be more verifiable information concerning developers and their products. Achieving this will require the cooperation of providers, EHR developers and interested third parties.
Through their participation in the Andrew & Associates EHR Benchmark, 104 EHR developers have indicated their commitment to making their system performance public, which reduces vaporware by setting system performance expectations among prospective buyers. Those that go further to Self-Verify are making an even more important contribution. Self-verification is a free adjunct to CCHIT certification. EHR developers that participate in the MSP EHR Selector (formerly the HIMSS EHR Selector developed by Dr. Caroline Samuels) have key features vetted (independently verified) by Dr. Samuels. We encourage physicians to give preference to these responsible EHR developers that underscore their commitment to reducing vaporware.
How Does Self-Verification Work?
Every EHR survey available today is based on data supplied by the EHR developers themselves and if unverified in some manner, is subject to exaggeration or misrepresentation. MSP, and all responsible EHR developers want the market to be free of vaporware and misrepresentations. To this end, responsible EHR developers came up with a novel, Self-Verification approach to data verification at an EHR developer reception MSP held at a 2005 TEPR conference. The Andrew & Associates EHR Benchmark is the first online EHR survey to incorporate the notion of Self-Verification in 2006. In key survey questions, self-verifying EHR developers provide extra, supplemental information that verifies their answers. For example, when asked which practice specialties their EHR servse, self verifying EHR developers provide at least ONE reference to an installed system of theirs in each specialty listed. This extra, installed base and contact information allows verification that the EHR system is installed and working in each practice specialty claimed. Self-verification questions are sprinkled throughout the EHR survey, providing supplemental evidence for many EHR capabilities claimed by EHR developers. The survey allows each EHR developer to opt in or out of the free, self-verification process. Twenty three EHR developers indicated that they would self-verifying data.
Self-Verification Is A Needed Adjunct, Not a Replacement for CCHIT Certification
CCHIT Certification and Vendor Self-Verification are complimentary methods, that together reduce EHR vaporware. Neither by themselves are adequate to achieve that objective. Even if 100% of EHR developers were CCHIT certified, vaporware would still exist because virtually all EHR solutions offer features outside of CCHIT-standards, which are never verified by CCHIT. What is needed in the U.S. EHR market, in both the physician and the inpatient setting, is the CCHIT process supplemented by independent verification that validates non-certified features for each vendor. This approach supports vendor system diversity, an important aspect of having systems match the diverse needs of 30 different clinical specialties, which assuring some degree of core functionality. Because of its scope, the MSP Reality EHR Knowledgebase and the A&A EHR Benchmark, are excellent sources of EHR developer assertions about their systems performance, that could be easily and inexpensively verified independently. With verified EHR information and a powerful tool like the MSP EHR Selector, matching practice needs and budgets to EHR systems available is no longer rocket science.
MSP Information Helps You to Select Your EHR Solution
One way to find an EHR vendor that meets your needs is to use the MSP EHR Selector developed by Dr. Caroline Samuels, M.D., and currently available at www.ehrselector.com. MSP is proud to be working with Dr. Samuels to further enhance this already powerful tool. If you are currently in the market for an EHR product, use this tool to match your practice needs and budgets to what's currently available and watch for MSP enhancements to this tool, to be announced in the near future.
Not In The Market To Buy, But Want Reliable Information On EHR Markets?
MSP has conducted research with physician group practices concerning their EHR needs and expectations of EHR solutions. This data was provided voluntarily by the participating physician group practices, providing a source of independently-collected EHR vendor quality and service performance data. MSP is also the site of the POMIS Reports, an annual EHR Market Report produced by Vinson Hudson, Jewson Enterprises. Copies of the 2006 POMIS reports may be purchased on line here by Registered Users that are Logged Into the site.
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