I had a routine appointment at a large dermatology practice this morning. When I first saw a dermatologist there, for a biopsy that turned out to be melanoma, they had paper medical records. Six years later, they still don’t have an electronic medical record system. Appointment scheduling and billing yes, but EMR no. Why that is, I don’t know, but it’s interesting they’re a holdout. My guess is the owners don’t want to invest the money and deal with the hassle of transcribing all of those records, because their long-term plan is to sell the business.
A hospital in a small neighboring city is one of the last in the area to still be a customer of my former employer. Cost is the obvious reason why. The leading HIS/EMR software, from Epic Systems, is typically much too expensive for a small community hospital. Last year I chatted with an employee at the hospital, who said of my alma mater’s system, “you get what you pay for.” Ouch! Well now it appears they’ll be getting Epic after all. A pattern that I have seen played out many times over the past 10+ years is about to be repeated. The hospital has announced its intention to be acquired by a regional medical center that, I’m certain, will convert them to their existing Epic system.