For companies who provide EHR services, technologies differ in order to compete with other companies. Medicware claims to provide a complete EHR service for health care facilities that is easy to use and affordable. Their EHR system was said to be packed with several features such as Charting-by-Exception, applications that are available for use in pocket pcs, and assistive in managing the workflow, especially laboratory related work.
The company is offering free demonstration for those who are interested to subscribe to the offerings of the company. (Medicware) Sevocity is another company that manages the production of EHR systems for health care facilities. The software from Sevocity boasts of the health care professional’s ability to monitor health disparities, accurate and efficient reports, and 24/7 access to records anywhere through the use of the Internet.
(Sevocity) Cyramed incorporated the messaging system to the EHR, and allows health care professionals to double the EHR system as an organizer with the feature of scheduling and task management. (Cyramed 5) There are several other companies that offer EHR software and integration services, such as Cyramed, Praxis, Allscripts, and even Microsoft, however, the services that they provide are descriptively similar. For instance, all of the companies claim to be producing high quality and low cost services for EHR systems that are HIPAA compliant.
Some companies only provide EHR softwares, while others provide the full package which includes the hardware and maintenance for the system. Moreover, all of them incorporate most of the basic needs of the health care profession, thus leaving all the companies on a fair and equal playing field in the marketing arena. The costs are almost the same with insignificant differences. Perhaps, the competitive advantage lies on the company’s ability to take one step further and reinvent the current EHR system.
The benefits and advantages of EHR systems remains to compensate for the high cost that health care facility and professionals spend for the particular service. Aside from the need to address accuracy of record keeping and time allotted for the retrieval of medical records, lessening the occurrence of human error during the entire health care process is also crucial. For instance, the indistinct handwriting of medical doctors are said to cause several human errors, especially in drug and treatment administration and drug prescription.
Systematizing record keeping lessens this human error. (Gitlin) According to the HIPAA, other benefits of EHR systems include total access for concerned staff and personnel to the records, easier way to search and browse through the database of patient medical records, keeping the records such as lab reports and results within the database for safekeeping, lessening of paperwork that shall be processed by patients and health care facilities alike, etc. (Upham)
On the other hand, one of the disadvantages, which is high cost, of establishing an EHR system goes unnoticed due to the demand of the technology in the market. More and more health care facilities and professionals are subscribing to the idea of an electronic health record, even with the high cost of installment and maintenance, replacements for system changes and errors, etc. Apparently, EHR systems still remains to be the trend in the health care industry because of its functionality.
Another disadvantage comes with the time and effort for training and development of EHR system users. Health care facility staff must be trained in order to gain knowledge in operating the system. (Gurley & Rose 4-7)
Works Cited
AAFP & CHIT. “Partners for Patients Electronic Health Record Market Survey. ” 01 Mar. 2005. Retrieved from Center for Hit. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://www. centerforhit. org/PreBuilt/chit_2005p4pvendsurv. pdf>. AHiMA. “Medical Records. 2008. Retrieved from the American Health Information
Management Association. 24 Apr. 2008 <http://www. ahima. org/medicalcoding/medical_records. asp>. CPSA. “Transition to Electronic Medical Record (EMR). ” Sept. 2004. Retrieved from College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta. 24 Apr. 2008 <http://www. cpsa. ab. ca/publicationsresources/attachments_policies/Transition%20to%20Electronic%20Medical%20Records. pdf>. Cyramed. 2008. Retrieved from Mountain Medical Technology. 24 Apr. 2008 <http://www. mountainmeditech. com/pdf/mmt_brochure. pdf>.