March Madness and the EHR Vendor Shakeout

I’m not sure how many of my readers love March Madness as much as I do. I just love the emotion and the all day experience of March Madness. Unfortunately there haven’t been quite as many last minute buzzer beaters for the win as there have been in years past, but I still love the emotions of the games. These young kids have worked almost their entire life for this moment. I love to see the raw emotions from both teams.

As I think about March Madness, I couldn’t help but think about the EHR Madness we’re experiencing right now. We don’t have 68 teams in the EHR tournament. Instead, there are more like 300+ EHR vendors. In fact, in just the last week or two I’ve had two EHR vendors I’d never heard of contact me. Yes, we’ve seen some EHR software put out to pasture, but we still have a long ways to go before the EHR market really shakes itself out.

The nice thing for EHR vendors is that unlike the NCAA tournament which only has one winner, the EHR world is likely going to have many many successful companies. First, because many EHR vendors will likely get acquired by larger EHR vendors. Second, because it’s fair to say that the EHR world is going to be a heterogeneous environment. There won’t be one EHR to rule them all (although some EHR vendors still think they might get there).

Which type of vendors am I putting my money on in the EHR battle?

While many EHR vendors might win some short term battles, I think the big EHR winners are going to be those who end up battling through the mess of regulation while still having a laser focus on the impact to doctors. The most expensive employee in every healthcare institution is the doctors. EHR software that takes these high paid doctors away from seeing patients is going to have a real challenge long term.

I’ve written about the EHR Backlash a number of times before. I think productivity is going to be at the core of the EHR backlash. I’m hopeful that EHR vendors are taking this idea to heart, but I also still see a very long road in front of us to reach EHR nirvana.

I’ve been digging into the idea of a Smart EMR lately. At the core of the idea is how to make a doctor more efficient at what they do while increasing the quality of care provided. That certainly stands in stark contrast to many of the other EHR initiatives we see out there today.