Best of the Blogs

Here are this month's blog highlights from HealthLeaders Media.

CABBIES AND HEALTHCARE
Gienna Shaw: On my cab ride from the airport (to the annual PRC conference in New Orleans), the driver talked about a healthcare system still devastated nearly four years after Hurricane Katrina. He talked about the lack of charity care. And he understands why, when denied financial help, the hospitals turned their attention back to patients who could pay. "How else are they going to stay open?" And we drove the four blocks around what used to be the 550-bed Charity Hospital, a behemoth art deco building now surrounded by chain-link fencing.

"It's empty," he said. "Empty."

And as discussions continue about the best way to bring comprehensive healthcare back to downtown New Orleans, the cab driver (and several others I spoke to) said they're tired of all the arguing, all the delays—they just want the hospitals and the doctors to come back so they can start telling stories again about nice nurses and bad hospital food.

WAL-MART AND EHR
Jim Molpus: Small-town retail shops went the way of the dodo bird because Wal-Mart came in an undercut them on price. I wonder if the big EHR vendors are as nervous now that Wal-Mart reportedly plans to launch its own package of EHR hardware, software, installation, and support.

Timing is pretty obvious, now that the stimulus package has created a large pool of funding for even small physician practice EHR adoption.

Bob Coli, MD: The Wal-Mart partnership offering only an ASP (i.e., Software as a Service) model does makes good business sense for both the sellers and the buyers. Some experts now consider the "client/server" model physician office systems that provide integrated EHR and PMS (Practice Management System) functionality and an initial cost a total of $25,000-$65,000 per doctor to be higher maintenance, antiquated products, vestiges of a pre-Internet seller's market.

Competitive pricing is already being advertised by CCHIT-certified vendors with annual leases for ASP model ambulatory EHRs ranging from $5,000 to $6,000 per doctor.

The usability and lower prices of these products both appear very attractive, but the ARRA's federally legislated mandate for interoperability and CCHIT certification may ultimately turn them into the next generation of ambulatory EHR dinosaurs.