By, Bernie Monegain

SAN JOSE, CA – The market for electronic medical record systems in North America will exceed $5.4 billion by 2015, according to a new report from Global Industry Analysts.

The same report, “Electronic Medical Record Systems: A North American and European Market Report,” pegs the European market at $1.4 billion by 2015.

Global Industry Analysts, Inc., (GIA) is a publisher of off-the-shelf market research. The company employs more than 800 people worldwide and publishes more than 1,100 full-scale research reports each year.

The main factors contributing to the adoption of EMR systems include effective management of the medication process, substantial clinical improvement, minimization of staff, and extraction of detailed data, according to GIA. The report does not mention recent government incentives tied to the meaningful use of healthcare information technology.

Though cost is the major constraint for healthcare centers in adopting EMRs, the ultimate reduction in costs is likely to drive the demand for EMR systems in the future, the report states.

The market growth will be driven primarily by the increasing recognition by healthcare providers that digital records help in effective communication between the clinical staff, and thereby increase operational efficiency, the GIA report notes. As clinicians and physicians spend less time on searching and filing data, there is an increased level of patient satisfaction.

“Healthcare information technology gained attention in recent years for its ability to lower medical errors, provide transparent modes for reimbursement procedures, decrease costs, and transform the healthcare delivery system,” the report states. “There are prolific opportunities in less-penetrated markets as physician practices and inpatient centers continue to adopt electronic medical records and digitize relevant areas. Though the operating costs are high and continue to increase, providers are sizing up their portfolio for better positioning in the future.”

North America and Europe dominate the global electronic medical record (EMR) systems market, according to GIA. However, it adds, the market has excellent potential in healthcare systems worldwide.

Above article publish on http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ehr-market-forecast-54b-2015

By Anne Zieger

If the state’s governor gets his way, Kentucky will soon be home to a statewide electronic health records system. To foster that goal, State Gov. Steve Beshear (D) has created the Governor’s Office of Electronic Health Information.

The state is creating the office to make sure it gets its share of the Obama administration’s stimulus funding package for EHRs, which goes to states who adopt them by 2014.

To get those funds, states are required to create a department that oversees its EMR project. These state offices serve as single points-of-contact for federal and state agencies helping to get the EMR ball rolling. In this case, the office will also work with the state’s three regional health information organizations, healthcare providers, consumers, insurers and the whole kit and kaboodle involved in sharing health data.

It will be interesting to see if any of this comes to fruition. Despite some big talk, RHIOs aren’t going great guns, and getting a state’s worth of EMRs in place by 2014 sounds a tad optimistic at best. But hey, press releases wouldn’t exist if people weren’t optimistic!

Above article published on

http://www.fierceemr.com/story/kentucky-launches-initiative-designed-foster-statewide-emr-system/2009-08-20

by Sven Gustafson | Oakland Business Review

Money included in the $787 billion federal economic stimulus package will allow Beaumont Hospitals to expand a new electronic medical records system to at least 300 of its affiliated physicians by year’s end, hospital officials said Thursday.

The Royal Oak-based health system launched its centralized EMR system at its Grosse Pointe hospital last year and at its Royal Oak and Troy hospitals on Feb. 1. The system, which is now in place with 136 affiliated physicians, is expected to streamline a complex web of mostly paper-based record-keeping, improve patients safety and lower costs.

“The opportunity for us in the stimulus package is to be able to more quickly push this out to the 3,000 doctors that serve our patients,” said Beaumont CEO Ken Matzick. “That’s where the maximum benefit comes from so that the physician who’s in his office is on the same platform as the hospital.”

The stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama earlier this week includes $19 billion to help hospitals implement more information technology, said U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, who toured the hospital Thursday to learn about the new system.

Peters, a Bloomfield Township Democrat who serves on the House Science and Technology Committee, said the panel will work with local hospitals to determine how the funding is allocated.

“Some of those next steps have to be developed… but they’re going to be developed very quickly,” Peters said. “The idea is to get this money out as quickly as possible to create those jobs in the short run and get this technology going.”

Advocates for years have argued for the adoption of electronic medical records as a way for health systems to save money by rooting out inefficiencies and waste. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated mass adoption could result in savings of $12 billion over 10 years.

But mass adoption has been slowed in part by costs and by a lack of a consistent operating system that can link providers, insurers and patients.

While hospitals such as Metro Health near Grand Rapids and various large group medical practices have adopted EMR technology, Beaumont is believed to be the first health system to become fully integrated in Southeast Michigan. The hospital has invested nearly $100 million over five years to bring the technology online but expects it to take a few more years to go completely paper-free in record keeping.

The new system still won’t necessarily be able to communicate with EMR systems from competing hospitals or outpatient facilities, said Paul Peabody, Beaumont’s vice president and CIO.

What’s needed, he argues, is more standardization across the health care industry for mass adoption and the ability to share data between different health systems. Such standardization, he said, should include consistent patient identifiers, a standard data format and consistent clinical nomenclature within those data envelopes.

“If we have those three things, we will have completely portable records because we have the Internet to be able to go and access information,” Peabody said.

Beaumont’s new system replaces a software system that pre-dates the Internet.

Features include the ability for doctors to access real-time patient information and treatment histories, enter computerized prescription information and patient instructions and immediate access to prior test results without having to call outside physicians. A separate program to be combined later this year will allow patients to view online chart information and review billing information and schedule appointments.

“It links the entire health record of patients I see in hospitals and ambulatory settings with information that I can see easily and that is highly accurate,” said Dr. John Tower, a rheumatologist at Beaumont’s Troy hospital.

“It’s a little bit of a learning curve but it’s a Windows-based platform that is intuitively user-friendly.”

Under the new system, doctors won’t duplicate tests because they can easily obtain copies of test results ordered by other physicians, Peabody said. Physicians will also be able to get patient information faster than they would having to phone other doctors.

“That then means faster decision making to apply to whatever that disease is that they’re treating,” Peabody said. “That has to lower cost. That has to create a better quality outcome for patients.”

Above article published on

http://www.mlive.com/businessreview/oakland/index.ssf/2009/02/beaumont_hospitals_expects_to.html