The thing to do now is to chip away at the fundamental statement from the CCHIT bosses, that somehow CCHIT offers "assurance" when one purchases an expensive EHR and places money at risk. One particular statement that I'll never let go of is the 2006 fighting words from Mark Leavitt MD, the Chairman of CCHIT who stated that concerning certification:
"If you don't see an acceleration in the [EHR] market, then we have failed!" One particular fight right now is with the chief editor of
Medical Economics, who included in a recent set of articles one titled
"EHR companies: How financially stable is your vendor?". In that article he listed all of these CCHIT-certified EHRs and boasted how they are all doing so well financially. I reminded him of Bear Stearns and sent him 6 stock charts of his so-called "stable" EHRs. He was so off the mark that just in the past week I've had to update my
"What is Wrong With the HIT in the USA" slideshow with 3 companies that have had to join forces, be repurchased, or reorganize. I've written 2 letters to the editor, and neither have been posted (to be fair, one is only 24 hours old). The emrupdate thread has been viewed by a record 660 times in just 8 days! (URL:
http://www.emrupdate.com/forums/t/13444.aspx )
The fight continues; we have to choose our battles. It looks like we're winning, as can be read here:
http://www.emrupdate.com/forums/t/13488.aspx which confirmed what my lawyer-patient (who used to work on one of the Congressional oversight committees) told me a month ago- that their will is beginning to crumble. Fortunately, she is tied to my office by her monthly PT check (she's on warfarin). The atmosphere of the current recession has also dampened things on the push to forcing docs into purchasing expensive CCHIT certified EHRs.
We, the owners of the very EMRs that they wanted to make disappear, will rule the day at the end of all of this...
Cheers,
Al
