Intelligent Healthcare Information Integration 2/11/11

Crossing Platforms

If you are a cloud lover, this story is for you. If you’re not particularly tech savvy or have a small practice and don’t want to bother with the maintenance of servers, licenses, backups, etc., this story is for you. If you like smart design, this story is for you. If you like reasonable EHR costs, this story is for you.

Recently, I have had the opportunity to demo drive a very clever EHR that has moved rapidly up my current list of “Worth Its.” It’s not one I hear discussed in many EHR circles all that often, but it should be. I’ll tell you why.

HealthFusion’s MediTouch – love the company name, not so much the product’s – is a relative newcomer on the EHR scene and you can tell they have gained by waiting to join the EHR party. Their screens are clean and clear and easy to navigate. They have less of the clutter which seems so rampant among most older EHRs.

They are Complete EHR-certified (Drummond) with practice management and clearinghouse solutions. They use the tagline “The EHR that Thinks like a Doctor™” and they may be closer to that than most I’ve seen. They built their EHR to work across multiple browsers, including Windows-based and Apple.

According to Seth Flam, CEO, “Our product is a web-based program… we built the interface so that touch could be the predominant method of data entry. Our team has worked hard to make sure that we have overcome many of the idiosyncrasies of Apple’s mobile Safari browser. We did not build an exclusive iPad "application"…our product works on a several browsers – including browsers that work on Windows PCs and Apple Macs – workstations, laptops and tablets.”

I can attest to its cross-platform workability. Granted a dummy account to test drive, I have successfully tested it on Internet Explorer 8, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari. And, it does indeed work quite well on the iPad.

As a small practice, one of the most important things I look for is the philosophy of the company behind an EHR. I want to know that I don’t get made to feel like a small practice, once they have my money. (Hellooo…support? Helloooo…is anybody there?)

Here are two items that bode well for HealthFusion in that regard:

1. Sol Lizerbram, HealthFusion’s CEO, is a physician. Knowing that a doc runs the shop is somehow comforting.

2. Their call center has two consecutive years of recognition by J.D. Power and Associates for providing “An Outstanding Customer Service Experience.” Another snuggly, feel-good piece of info.

They do a lot of things very well. As a pediatrician, I look for some of the harder-to-do pediatric-specific items. There are only a couple of systems that do these elements well, but HealthFusion does a lot of them and, those they do, they do very nicely.

Then there’s the whole cost thing. This is another very impressive plus for them. There are no upfront costs and the monthly fees seem very “small practice-friendly.”

I’m still looking, but HealthFusion is definitely “climbing the charts with a bullet!”

From the trenches…

“When I was crossing the border into Canada, they asked if I had any firearms with me. I said, "Well, what do you need?" – Steven Wright

Dr. Gregg Alexander, a grunt in the trenches pediatrician, directs the “Pediatric Office of the Future” exhibit for the American Academy of Pediatrics and is a member of the Professional Advisory Council for ModernMedicine.com. More of his blather…er, writings…can be found at his blog, practice web site or directly from doc@madisonpediatric.com.