Since we are going to be discussing the pros and cons of various Hospital Information Systems on our podcast, I thought I would add some comments here.
Being that the majority of my experiences have been in the community hospital market, I tend to give a lot of attention to “Integrated” hospital information systems. When I talk with other CIO’s about these types of systems, I always hear comments about Meditech. Just so you know, I have used Meditech MAGIC, Meditech C/S and even used the Columbia / HCA variant of Meditech. At one time, I was a huge proponent of the Meditech system. Although I never liked the look the software presented to the end user, I found the system reliable and fairly easy to manage.
I have expanded my horizons a bit in the integrated HIS market over the past few years and there have some really nice developments in the marketplace. Currently, at San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center (SLVRMC) where I am CIO, we are using McKesson’s Paragon HIS. This system has impressed me more than just about any of the other systems that I have seen lately. What is interesting is that when I was recruited to SLV Regional Medical Center, the executive team hired me because of my experience with Meditech C/S and Magic. The executive team was disenchanted with Paragon and wanted to pull it and install something more “capable”.
What I found was that the system was a poor installation, not poor software. I was nervous about what I was going to do to get this system working, because my experience with McKesson in the past was limited to Methodist Healthcare, where we were primarily a McKesson HealthQuest and Horizon shop. The system was so complex that it required approximately 200 IT staff, numerous interface engineers, and we always seemed to be in the middle fixing some sort of interface “emergency”. And god help you if you needed assistance from McKesson, because they were going to nickle and dime you for everything you were worth. I never could figure out just what our maintenance dollars covered.
What I learned was that McKesson is like Ford Motor Company. Ford is a huge company, and you can buy a Ford Festiva, an F150 pickup, a Lincoln Navigator, a Volvo S80, or a Land Rover Range Rover…but regardless of what you buy, you purchase a Ford. Likewise, the quality of vehicle between the Ford Festiva and the Range Rover is completely different. When you go for service, chances are you will have a different experience when you take in your F150 versus when you take in your Volvo S80.
What I learned was that McKesson is the same way. McKesson Provider Technologies has Healthquest, Series, STAR, and Paragon all as “hospital information systems”, each with its own market target. Just like with the Ford example, the service experience is quite different between the various products.
McKesson’s Paragon group is completely different than my experiences with HealthQuest and Horizon. I have a single group to contact for problems, they are responsible for any internal conversations that need to occur, and probably 90% of my issues are covered under my annual maintenance agreement. I also get a Microsoft based product that runs on Microsoft SQL, only requires 4 servers to run both my test and live environments, and actually has a viable plan on keeping up with technology.
Posted under Hospital Information Systems
This post was written by Spencer on January 5, 2008
Our 3 community hospital system has begun a review of integrated systems for replacement of our current Mckesson Series (AS400) integrated system. With small IS staff and minimal budget an integrated system is about the only viable solution in this market niche. So far I have been disappointed but not suprised about the very few number of truly integrated systems. A true SQL based “.Net” system with the broad modules/functionality needed is rare. I am currently looking at Mckesson Paragon and AHN’s (American HealthNet) Clarus products. As a current Mckesson customer I am tired of being nickle and dimed to death by Mckesson but am trying to look by that to the best product. My view of this process is that we could take the comfortable route and ’settle’ on a tried and true system (Meditech, CPSI the list goes on…) or make the jump to a modern system with the uncertainties and current lack of modules that comes with that decisison. I am interested in hearing what others are finding in similar searches for a replacement HIS.
Thank you for your comment. You are absolutely right…and perhaps I should discuss this on the next podcast. McKesson is notorious for Nickel and Diming their customers, especially their Horizon and Healthquest customers. Meditech uses horribly old technology, and their hardware requirements will kill you. Would you be interested in being a guest on the show and we can discuss these topics?
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Don