A recent survey (Black Book Market Research) showed that client satisfaction from the usual EHR vendors such as Epic, Cerner, and Meditech are still rating above all other competing vendors. However, new factors such as accessibility to records and other web-based services are coming on top of the list of demands from such consumers. Unfortunately, these features did not rank so high for Epic, Cerner, and Meditech; instead, EHR interoperability and the ease of use rankings went to Google and Amazon.
This could pose a significant threat to the three big healthcare vendors, but it could also serve as a nudge to all EHR vendors. In order to stay at the top of their respective games, they need to step up their research and development, improve end user participation, and look to leap frog their techie rivals by providing the services their consumers want. This will have the added benefit of potentially making EHRs accessible to all all the while making it easier to consume and use.
Younger generations are now seeking to sign onto a health system with a good grasp on technological advancements with the patient in mind. In a time where social media is available to everyone and personal, private services such as banking, bill-pay, insurance, and personal management are available in apps, consumers want to be able to make an appointment or be made aware of an upcoming event or refill with the touch of a button, all on their mobile device.
The root of interoperability does not lie with the consumer. 36% of internal administrators admitted to having issues with health data and interoperability on their end as well.
Previously mentioned in last week’s blog, the ongoing issue of exchange and easy access amongst EHR systems could be resolved with a cloud-based solution. Like Amazon and Google Cloud, coming up with a working method of making this information available to patients stems to having one place to get the data from – the cloud.
The time is now; 50 or 60 years ago, the youth imagined a modern world where amongst flying cars, there would be a digital revolution – never realizing that pretty much everything is now widely available without having to travel far or leave the house. While we are still away from flying cars, the digital expectations have beyond exceeded. We have reached that goal and should start planning for the next 50 to 60 years. It seems wild to think that in a few years, big tech names will have taken over healthcare. As Vox puts it, “It is way, way, way too early to start imagining a world where health care is truly owned by Big Tech — you order prescription drugs with your Amazon Prime account, see a nurse at the Apple Clinic, get your benefits statements from Google, and call an Uber instead of an ambulance when you need to go to the hospital.”
To discuss cloud solutions further, please contact Michael Williams directly at MikeW@globalhit.com
For more information on this subject, or to arrange for one of our Healthcare IT Subject Matter Experts to present at a healthcare forum, please contact Bettsy Farias at BFarias@globalhit.com
