Today’s Wall Street Journal article titled Shopping Secrets of the Pros applies to buying an EHR as much as it does clothes.

Cloud EHR is becoming very popular.  What is Cloud EHR and how does it differ from SaaS and ASP EHR?

“Make it easy for your customers to talk to you.” – Kevin Stirtz

That is such a simple statement.  But how often does a company make it easy for you to talk with them?  And when you’re in the middle of a patient’s chart and have a question, how important is it to talk with someone right away?  In this last part of the series on the cost of “free” EHR we examine customer service and support.

“Be as careful of the books you read, as of the company you keep; for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as by the latter.” – Paxton Hood

In part 1 of our Blog series on The Cost of Free EHR we examined the use of your data by “free” EHR vendors and in part 2 (link) your risk and liability for the use of such systems.  In addition to selling your data, many “free” EHRs are only free if you use the version that includes advertising.

Again, to find out you need read (yeah, really read!) the user agreement for one of the “free” EHRs.  You are likely to find contract terms such as:

“If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees” – Kahlil Gibran

In part 1 of our Blog series on The Cost of Free EHR we examined the use of your data by “free” EHR vendors.  If you agree to the EHR vendor’s use of your data in exchange for a “free” system, what is their liability for errors and/or disclosure?  What are your responsibilities?

Again, to find out you need read (yeah, really read!) the user agreement for one of the “free” EHRs.  You are likely to find contract terms such as:

“There is no such thing as a free lunch.”

We all remember that old adage but in this golden age of online services we sometimes want to think it doesn’t apply to computer-based products.  Google and other tools are “free” so why can’t other software and computer-based tools be free?

In reality there is still is no such thing as a free lunch.  Just ask any of the pay per click advertisers using Google – and influencing your Google searches and buying decisions.

Is EHR any different?

Almost daily I see an article about data security.  These articles almost always discuss a company or organization having data stolen or someone introducing a new data protection product.

Recent survey results show that a doctor with at least 3 to 5 days of training is more satisfied with his or her EHR system.

For some this may make perfect sense, but I question if an EHR should really take a full 3-5 days to learn how to use.  Is the issue training or is the real issue the usability of the EHR?

Our experience shows a direct correlation between a practice's implmentation/training and support experiences and their usage and satisfaction.  That shouldn't come as a surprise.  But the way some EHR companies provide those services might!

We're hearing more and more aconyms when reading about Health Information Technology (HIT - there's another one!) - what are they and what do they do? (updated Aug 2011)