Here's the point that everyone in this CCHITTY arguement doesn't get or is sort of going around or half getting too but not stating directly enough, So here it goes.
There are standards and then there are standards. I used to be a tech in theater and TV and without standards in such places we would be lost. But standards shouldn't get so out of hand as to basically say, everybody basically has to make the same exact product. In their present CCHIT model, they may as well pick one single EMR, and then hand out quantities that the few inner circle companies can produce and sell. Much like when the Bantam Car company designed the original 1/4 ton 4X4 vehicle for the army back in world war II. You all know it as the original JEEP. Then the gov't took ownership of the design with it's all powerful powers and handed out contracts to produce it to Bantam (who got screwed) Ford and Willies.
Take TV broadcast standards and the recording standards of such. Old NTSC standard def is 525 lines of interlaced resolution at 29.97 frames per second, and when recorded whether on tape (VHS let's say) or DVD there are certain standards for that as well. Now that data can work in any machine in the country. But SONY can make a "Cadillac" or Bemmer type TV or disc player while some chinese company can make a leaky row boat. They all talk the same language and this is where things should be working to. My NTSC DVD will play in either machine, be it that the SONY may have a higher fidelity or clearer picture with less jitter and better solid dark areas while the other one kind of looks like CCHIT. But to tell everybody that they must have all these bells and whistles, as well as all these taxing features that may or may not pay off that is just insane.
Anyway, one makes standards so everyone can work or talk together and then step back and let the market do what it does best. Lastly, I don't think we have had nearly enough "incubation time" here to allow the market to shake itself out no less finish creating new ways and methods to accomplish things we need them to do. By setting this all on stone tablets so early, basically freezing all major changes or standards that are yet to even be realized, then we are really screwing ourselves no less the many brave souls who stepped out on that ledge (Like Jon and AC) and took that freemarket chance to design and produce a decent working product.
As much as I have been a thorn here at time, it is because I sincerely want AC to be the best that it can be. I believe in my heart that if Jon and AC stay of target and stick to the game plan (while polishing and evolving it too) that AC just might become one of the dominant products in this market. As I have called it before, the "QuickBooks" of EMR's for small and medium sized practices. There are now multi-million dollar companies that basically run themselves on QB's, so why not AC for us in our business. What we want to do is let the physicians and providers have a real say in this matter simply by letting them, like us vote with their dollars and their practices. Just look, if the stats that have been thrown around here lately are correct, AC is one of the few "growing" products out there that seems to have a real loyal following. Why shouldn't that kind of "voting by committee" be better respected then this CCHIT we are having shoved down our throats???
Funny how "freemarketeers" are never really freemarketeers... Blackwater, Haliburton, No-bid contract handouts, CCHIT, Reading Kits for Schools, Medicare Part D without negotiating prices against big Pharma like they do to us, Medicare Advantage plans that allow for "open hunting season" on our seniors while we pay UHC approx. $1K more a year than if folks were back in old fashioned fee for service Medicare. They simply use the cover of freetrade so as to better assist their friends in picking our pockets and CCHIT is no different. Energy policy written only by big oil and coal, EMR requirements only written by GE and a select few, it's all the same. Well screw that CCHIT.
Good Night and Good Luck,
Paul
