Halamka: 5 reasons Boston hospitals are switching to Epic--and why BIDMC is not

FierceHealthIT Advisory Board member John Halamka, M.D., writing in his Life as a CIO blog, outlines why he thinks electronic health records vendor, Verona, Wis.-based Epic, has been so successful. The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CIO points to recent traction in the Boston market: "Partners Healthcare is is replacing 30 years of self-developed software with Epic. Boston Medical Center is replacing Eclipsys (Allscripts) with Epic. Lahey Clinic is replacing Meditech/Allscripts with Epic. Cambridge Health Alliance and Atrius already run Epic." Halamka cites five reasons the company is succeeding--among them: the system helps clinicians standardize work, is a safe bet for future stages of Meaningful Use--and no CIO ever got fired for buying an Epic system.

But, he adds, there is a reason--or reasons--that Beth Israel continues to build its own systems and will likely continue to do so.  "I continue to believe that clinicians building core components of EHRs for clinicians using a cloud-hosted, thin client, mobile friendly, highly interoperable approach offers lower cost, faster innovation and strategic advantage to BIDMC," he writes.  Post