BUSINESSSmall practices fuel sales of EMR systemsPressure from payers and a growing interest by physicians have analysts expecting large growth in electronic medical record sales to small groups.By Tyler Chin, amednews staff. Feb. 9, 2004. Five years ago, colleagues in small practices had zero interest in hearing Dan Heslinga, MD, discuss his electronic medical records system, or watching him enter progress notes on a computer while doing rounds. "Now, people will walk up to me, look over my shoulder from time to time, quietly observe, shake their heads and say, 'I know I'm going to have to do that one of these days,' " said Dr. Heslinga, a family physician at a four-doctor practice in Kaneohe, Hawaii. "I get a tremendous amount of probing questions -- how do you do that, which product are you using, how did you get it set up, who can I talk to?" This change of heart has analysts expecting that small practices -- and nearly 78% of physicians in private practice are in groups of eight or fewer doctors -- are going to start spending money like crazy on EMRs. EMR sales to physician practices should go up from $816 million in 2003 to about $1.4 billion in 2008, predicted Forrester Research Inc., a Cambridge, Mass., market research firm. During that same time, small practice spending is expected to more than double, from $366 million to $829 million. By next year, Forrester said, sales to small practices (projected to be $622 million in 2005) for the first time will be larger than sales to larger practices ($585 million in 2005). There are many reasons for greater small-practice interest in EMRs, Forrester said, including mounting pressure to use the technology to boost patient safety. Other emerging trends include insurers offering pay-for-performance initiatives or financial incentives to compel or encourage doctors to use computerized records, growing sentiment among physicians that information technology can improve productivity and efficiency, and the fact that the technology has gotten better and less expensive, said Eric Brown, an analyst at Forrester. [...]Full text of American Medical News content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2004 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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