Area IT companies fill prescription for health care software
10/24/2005 - By Dyke Hendrickson
There’s an old saw surrounding the physician-care business that “doctors
don’t embrace technology,” but it would be difficult to convince the
management team at eClinicalWorks of this supposition.
The company’s employee count recently soared to 172 and last week it
finalized a deal with a national electronic prescribing company so that it
can provide even more services to medical practices.
In fact, filling the needs of physician groups is one of the fastest growing
segments of the region’s software business.
Probably the largest New England company involved in electronic medical
records (EMR) — defined here as scheduling, billing or prescription services
for doctors — is IDX Systems Corp. in Burlington, Vt., with 4,500 employees.
Perhaps because the industry has a bright future, General Electric bought
IDX for a whopping $1.2 billion in late September. In terms of emerging
companies, eClinicalWorks is just one that has moved into the sector.
AthenaHealth in Waltham, which provides services for physician billing, has
ramped up to 500 employes in just five years. Medaptus in Waltham offers
dictation, electronic prescribing, ambulatory orders and the archiving of
clinical content.
Physician’s Computer Co. designs systems for medical billing for pediatrics
and other medical officers. Medical Systems Inc. in Peabody offers software
that includes registration, billing, scheduling and insurance verification.
Escription Inc., based in Needham, offers speech recognition and other
medical transcription products to aid medical professionals in logging and
transporting information.
“When we started (in 1997), doctors were slow to sign on,” said Girish
Kumar, chief executive and a founder of the boot-strapped Westborough
company. “But since 2003, the growth in business has been like a tornado.
Doctors are very active in seeking technology, if it will help them and make
their offices more efficient.”
About 10 percent of U.S. physicians have invested in EMR, according to the
Medical Records Institute of Boston.
There are about 600,000 physicians nationwide. Industry figures also show
that one-third of medical practices have an EMR project in their plans over
the next two years.
“There is much potential for growth,” said Peter Waegemann, chief executive
of the Medical Records Institute. “President Bush as well as insurers and
reimbursement officials want every doctor to be involved in EMR in 10 years,
which is one reason the business is growing.”
Hospitals, as opposed to physician practices, have a 20 percent to 25
percent usage rate of electronic billing, scheduling and prescription tools,
industry statistics show. eClinicalWorks offers a range of services that
includes scheduling, prescribing, data entry, and billing.
Company officials say they serve 4,000 medical providers in 50 U.S. states.
It recently linked with SureScripts, the nation’s largest network provider
of electronic prescribing services, in an effort to increase its capability
of linking doctors and pharmacies.
Proponents of electronic records say EMR can provide a variety of efficient
measures, which include offering legible prescriptions that reduce
medication errors, providing easy access to patient records that minimizes
guesswork, and providing a structure that facilitates compliance with
clinical guidelines.
An additional asset, in the wake of recent hurricanes, is that online
records make it easier to recover from natural disasters that can wipe out
hard copies of patient histories.
“This is a fast-growing area,” said Joyce Plotkin, who heads the
Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council. “It is at the intersection of
medicine, information technology and health care.”
At this point, the industry remains decentralized.
Statistics show there are about 130 medical-software companies in the United
States, headed by Siemens and IDX (now GE).
But Kumar of eClinicalWorks doesn’t think EMR will go the way of the early
Internet service providers. Hundreds of ISPs existed a decade ago, but now a
minimum of high-visibility corporations handle most of the business.
“This is a decentralized industry right now,” said Kumar. “I think it will
stay that way, because there is much personal attention that must be paid to
a system that includes nurses, doctors, billers and all the many agencies
involved in health care.”About eClinicalWorks
Founded in 1997, eClinicalWorks is a leading provider of
unified ambulatory clinical information systems. The company's EMR
(Electronic Medical Record) and PM (Practice Management) solutions, ideal
for multi-specialty and multi-location practice networks, are designed to
streamline a practice's front-, mid- and back-office operations to ensure
superior patient care. eClinicalWorks has an established U.S. customer base
of over 3,000 medical providers, covering 50 specialties across all 50
states. eClinicalWorks has been awarded top industry honors including Best
in KLAS' Ambulatory EMR (1-5) in 2004, the top Practice Management solution
and Medical Records Document Imaging/Management System by TEPR 2004, the top
EMR solution by TEPR 2003 and the 5-STAR rated EMR solution by ACGroup in
2002, 2003 and 2004. Based in Westborough, Mass., eClinicalWorks boasts a
talented, energetic and highly educated staff of over 170 people. More
information on eClinicalWorks can be found at
http://www.eclinicalworks.com or
by calling (866) 888-MY-CW.
Contact:
Dimple Dedhia, eClinicalWorks (508) 836-2700
marketing@eclinicalworks.com
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