Gee,
But in the reverse, if I felt that the Imported Items sections was better and still allowed me to pull my "paper" back out in an easier fashion, just in case AC blows tomorrow I wouldn't even want or use a FAP. Sometimes the main product should still do what the main product can and should do. As much as I think I'm OK with the concept of a SDP the devil is in the details. And the owner of the main program should not use it as an excuse not to continue to grow and develop their program.
At what point do I need to now purchase five sepatate programs with five separate EULA's, support packages, and all the other headaches just to have the features that perhaps should have just been there all along??? Now I have to pay Gee and Bert goodness knows how much plus perhaps another fee to Jon for the interface activation just like with the ECG's and the rest??? It may be a cozy relationship for all the software vendors, but it may be living expensive hell for all the users.
At some point the product should do the main things it should do. And it bothers me that certain obvious flaws like the imported items section has been left there to roit as it has when people talk about it's limitations all the time. There is a new thread on it right now as we speak. Tell me with a straight face that any EMR in today's medical enviornment shouldn't have a section like II's that works really well with all the tests and paper that come flying into an office every day. Bert should never have felt so left alone in left field that he finally designed an alternative in the first place that now some of us are seriously considering using. This really should be in my EMR. And good cusomizable way to store papers in relation to the patient and their chart. It almost shouldn't have to be said. Just like better more accurate tracking and recording in the Rx section. I don't want some extra expense add-on Rx writer, I just want the one we have already in AC to work the way the rules say we should record these things and to allow us to "E" fax them without having to pay those other mandate bozos who are trying to take over that one part of the market by buying our government for thier own greedy needs too.
Now perhaps something as Not as real EMR as a PM module, perhaps a relationship with a few more folks like EZ Claims is now that I could understand. But as much as I like FAP and mainly because it saves my data my way, and names the darn files with the patient's name and the date of the scan, simple standard naming system, the Imported Items should blow FAP out of the water and poor Bert would not have to had to have written and developed the darn thing in the first place. Granted Bert loves playing with tech, but he has an office with patients to run. This is a feature that should just be there and that it should work as needed. It shouldn't be another $500 add on. Same thing with the Vaccines too. Bert has been working on Viper and it seems really good. But tell me again with a straight face that a really good vaccine tracking and recording system shouldn't be part of any valid EMR that's core users are PCP's??? Jon should have Viper on steroids already... Get it???
So pardon me if I reserve judgement on all of this, but I think my middle of the road view here is the correct one. EMR should do what any and most EMR's are attempting or are doing, or what paper charts can now. Then and only then can you sell me at added prices and "added value" other add on programs do neat but not everyone needs them features. Like a USB direct to chart ECG or Spirometry. And even there, most EMR's are doing this these days. Us small underpaid offices just can't afford to pay for five more expensive taxi-meter leases and relationships just so we can get done what is part of everyday life and business in our world. That the main program, parent company should see as it's core responsibility.
I would rather pay Jon and AC a few hundred dollars more to clean up and develop these things inside their own programs many times more, than I would to be in the future that you seem to envision with the users purchasing half a dozen modules from other vendors (whether thru AC or privately) that then pumps the price right thru the roof and turns AC into some emasculated version of what it is today with lots of holes that then need to be plugged with lots of "Added Value" I believe is the term add ons. AC always tried to stay away from too many modules because the idea was that it had most of what you needed and wanted already for one really great price. I hope she stays that way....
