[ Tuesday, September 20, 2005 ]
VISTA update: Continuing to move in fits and starts, CMS has released an "evaluation" version (or "beta" version) of the VA's electronic medical record system, known as "Vista." As previously announced, as a part of the Federal government's initiative in pushing EMRs, CMS decided to make the VA's EMR program available for free to whomever wanted it. Popular opinion is that Vista is not the easiest program to work with, and that medical practices that take advantage of the "free" program will still have to pay someone to install it, train employees on it, and maintain it.Then again, it is free. You can get more information about the evaluation version, including advice on whether your practice site would make a good beta site, here.
Jeff [11:17 AM]
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Bad name choice. Isn't Uncle Bill's new Windows version gonna be named Vista? That should be confusing.
And there is always that free thing. I must agree with you Adam Smithers on this one, the invisible hand seems to write much less buggy software, plus it is there for you when you need support.
Free is a very good price, but as my Grandfather used to (sort of) say "Free lovin' is the most expensive kind." Backend expense on something like this can be fierce, and unless the documentation is immaculate, which in my experience has happened, oh I don't know---- never, you will have to keep a pretty savvy crew to maintain it.
There are exceptions, of course, and I would never want to get into the endless looping debate with the open source folks, but generally (not always, not always) a commercial enterprise requires commercial tools.
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And there is always that free thing. I must agree with you Adam Smithers on this one, the invisible hand seems to write much less buggy software, plus it is there for you when you need support.
Free is a very good price, but as my Grandfather used to (sort of) say "Free lovin' is the most expensive kind." Backend expense on something like this can be fierce, and unless the documentation is immaculate, which in my experience has happened, oh I don't know---- never, you will have to keep a pretty savvy crew to maintain it.
There are exceptions, of course, and I would never want to get into the endless looping debate with the open source folks, but generally (not always, not always) a commercial enterprise requires commercial tools.
