Use of Medical E-Records Might Rise
Health care advocates have long encouraged physicians to switch to computerized medical records, saying they could improve patient care and increase efficiency.
Doctors, however, have been more concerned about the high price tag — often more than $20,000 per physician for software, hardware and Internet connections — as well as having to maintain a computer network. Surveys estimate less than 20 percent of doctors have fully automated their offices.
“They’re saying, ‘I’m shelling out the money and everybody else is getting the benefits,’” said Tom Leary, director of federal affairs for industry group Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.
But federal officials last month paved the way for hospitals to come to the rescue, allowing them to donate medical record systems to physician practices to blunt some of the financial bite.
In addition, those inside the industry recently agreed on technology standards that allow software from different companies to share data, taking some of the fear out of the purchasing decision.
Those moves are apparently loosening purse strings as medical software makers say they’ve seen a surge in new interest and new customers and predict this may be the spark they needed to pull the $1.5 billion electronic health records industry into the medical mainstream.
“It’s been a month since the (new regulations) were announced and the increase in engagement has been immediate,” said Sunny Sanyal, group president for clinical solutions at San Francisco-based McKesson Provider Technologies, which serves about a third of the nation’s hospitals. “Physicians weren’t ready to provide a big investment. The fact a hospital can now provide it for them completely changes the picture.”
Added Rick Heise, an executive with Kansas City, Mo.-based software provider Cerner Corp., “It’s created a huge amount of excitement so there’s an opportunity for a lot of money to go around.”
Electronic medical records have slowly gained acceptance…
