It seems like everyone is trying to get in on the EMR selection game. At the end of the game, I think this is actually a really good thing. I’m all about lots of competition which drives people to provide better service and quality at a lower cost.
The latest entrant I’ve seen to this arena seems to be basically an EHR Selection Consultant group. It’s being run through the wholly-owned subsidiary of the American Academy of Family Physicians, TransforMED.
There are three consulting paths that they offer as follows:
EHR Prep-Select is a 10-step project that is further broken down into nearly 40 individual assignments. The program includes four hours of consulting with an experienced industry expert and provides access to a Web portal that contains electronic worksheets, templates, surveys and tables designed to streamline the process of capturing, analyzing and disseminating EHR project data between internal staff and EHR vendors.
EHR Prep-Select “Plus” provides additional consulting time to help supplement the internal resources required to complete a full EHR selection project, and the Prep-Select “Premier” offers consulting from start to finish.
No doubt there’s a need for doctors to have some help in selecting from the 300+ EMR vendors that exist out there. The problem today is that doctors need to hire a consultant to tell them which EMR consultants are good and which ones are smoke and mirrors. For example, I find the above program interesting, but I have no clue how good it really is.
If I were starting the EMR selection process today, I’d go and check out EMR Consultant first. Hard to get better than a free service.
