Physicians Practice - June 2008 - (Page 59) TECHNOLOGY AN EMR FOR FREE? BY KEN TERRY JUST LIKE LUNCH, THERE’S NO SUCH THING. Have you ever been offered a pair of “free” tickets in exchange for subscribing to a concert series? Likely, you enjoyed the concert, but the real price tag — the entire series — was quite a bit higher than you initially wanted to pay. In the end, the concert wasn’t free at all, was it? Something comparable happened to Sumir Saghal, an internist and geriatrician in New York City. Saghal and his two colleagues are among 200 New York physicians with large Medicaid practices who took advantage of a “free” EMR from the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Since last December, when Saghal’s Bronx practice starting using the eClinicalWorks software, the internist has surmounted the steepest part of the EMR learning curve, and IN SUMMARY If you’re in the market for a budgetpriced EMR, you may be able to find some “financial aid,” but don’t expect anyone to hand you a no-cost system. In fact, it still won’t come cheap. Be prepared to make a substantial investment of money and time, and be ready to change how you work. • More and more hospitals are donating up to 85 percent of the cost of EMR software, but you’ll still be responsible for hardware and support. subsidize the cost of EMRs; some do offer significant incentives. EMR adoption. But don’t expect Uncle Sam to foot the bill. • Only 9 percent of health plans currently • The government strongly supports • Beware of “free” EMRs that come with strings attached. Instead, consider discount deals on certified products. he’s proud of his now-paperless practice. An advocate of quality improvement, he’s not concerned about the fact that he has to share his clinical data with the city, which will give him feedback and perhaps issue a public report card on his performance. But the EMR turned out to be far from free. Yes, the Department of Health footed the software bill of $12,000 per physician, and it’s even paying for two years of support from eClinicalWorks. But Saghal’s four-physician practice had to pay $4,000 per provider for technical assistance from the city. In addition, the group had to purchase several extra computers, including a server, as well as the services of a technical consultant to install the system. The hardware bill alone totaled about $45,000. And the grand total invested in the “free” EMR? At least $60,000, Saghal says. That doesn’t include the costs of lowered productivity (that can last up to six months), as well as ongoing support for the computer system. So while the initial price of the EMR was considerably lower than what the practice would’ve had to pay on its own, all those necessary accoutrements represent a large investment. Indeed, EMR software represents only 15 percent to 25 JUNE 2008 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM 59 http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM
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