For the past few years the media has been reporting on the hot topic of EMR. This has lead to many ‘experts’ giving their opinions and citing statistics on EMR adoption. Much of the postulating has been negative. Take a few outdated systems that cost way too much money, sprinkle in a few data breaches, and add in some preconceived notions and that’s all they need to know.

Recently U.S. News reported on EMR adoption. They claim that implementing an EMR across a five-physician office will cost around $230,000 and take 134 hours of training time. Well with those type of statistics there is no wonder adoption is low.

But that is only part of the story. The other part is about rampant innovation and the integration of new and easy to use technologies into the EMR space. For instance, the entrance of SaaS vendors into healthcare has taken the burden of a large capital outlay off of the shoulders of healthcare professionals. Not only does this model make the cost of electronic health records affordable, but also eliminates the need for the government to shell out $44,000 dollars of tax money for doctors to impliment EMR.

Clinicians wanting to impliment an EMR can’t because of huge cost barriers. That fact forces the government to incentivize adoption. However, the free market has already offered an alternative in the form of affordable SaaS solutions.

The next problem with the article is the amount of hours it claims training time would take. 134 hours of training!? I wouldn’t be too excited about learning how to use an EMR either if that were the case.

I’m not sure where they derived that number and from what systems.  We can only speak to WebPT.  It take new members of WebPT 1-2 hours to train on the system.  After that, they are up and running.  

A number of other EMR companies don’t even have live training and somehow get new clinics up and running with manuals that have a few screen shots here and there. As long as you have done your due diligence, you should end up with an EMR that is easy to use, secure and affordable. 

I think the perception of EMR among the public is heavily influenced by these type of publications. The stats around the scenarios that they present are relating to archaic technologies, already outdated in the marketplace. When you consider the innovations available in EMR, it seems high time for journalists and publications to focus on the future instead of the past.