If your view of web-based medical software was formed five years ago - or even one year ago – it’s time to look again. Web-based, or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), applications have gained tremendous momentum thanks to Microsoft, Google and innovative technologists that have enhanced core SaaS technologies.

Physician practices are a prime beneficiary of these advances. SaaS systems for EMR and practice management now provide the security, interactivity and dependability that they may have lacked in the early days. Moreover, few practices are without the minimum bandwidth required to take advantage of the SaaS model.

Advantages web-based EMR systems include:

• no server hardware of software to maintain;
• no software to install or upgrade on your PC;
• the ease-of-use of a “web page” user interface; and,
• subscription or transactional pricing, rather than up-front licensing.

SaaS Systems
Examples of great web-based ambulatory care systems include the following:

OfficeEMR is one of the leading web-based, fully-integrated EMR and practice management solutions on the market today. It is one of the only CCHIT Certified SaaS EMRs.

SevocityEHR provides physicians and health centers secure, on-demand access to clinical information via the Internet. They partner with CollaborateMD for practice management.

AdvancedMD has an excellent SaaS system for practice managemt. The EMR is fairly new, but great for physicians that want to start with a simple EMR and grow over time.

So what are the drawbacks of SaaS? First, integration to external devices (e.g. ultrasounds) remains limited. Second, if you are one of those few practices that do not have access to dependable broadband Internet, SaaS is not for you. But our biggest problem with SaaS for EMR, however, is that there are just too few solutions available. We can’t wait to see more specialty-specific SaaS systems, as well as SaaS offerings from the established EMR software leaders.

If you want to read more about SaaS, check out Is Web-based EMR Software Right for Your Practice.

Application Service Providers
Looking for a happy medium? Many of the leading client/server or n-tier EMRs are available in an application service provider (ASP) model. ASP means that the system’s server is hosted at a professional data center and a technology like Citrix can be used to extend “thin-client” access to users. Examples of these systems include the following:

Greenway PrimeSuite is 2007 CCHIT Certified, consistently top-ranked by KLAS and 100% referenceable by 16,000 users across America.

iMedica PRM is an integrated EMR and practice management solution, built on Microsoft .NET, which offers a robust single application for clinical and financial functions.

Practice Partner provides a host of innovative tools to improve both office and clinical efficiency, while helping to improve quality of care.

While each of these vendors provides on-premise and ASP options, we expect to see them offer more SaaS options down the road.

Next Steps
View a free demonstration of one or more of the products above to better understand how they can meet the needs of your medical practice. From there, you can request a detailed price quote from the software vendors you like best.

FREE Consultation Still need help sorting through the options? Tap our expertise by calling for a FREE consultation. We don’t sell software and we don’t implement software, but we can save you weeks of research in one brief phone call: 1-800-918-2764.