Buyers Beware
I’ve recently come to the unfortunate conclusion that the old saying of “If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door” no longer applies, especially in the healthcare information system world. We are seeing an alarming trend of healthcare facilities whose administration is being convinced by the large ‘single source’ vendors to abandon their ‘best of breed’ products and switch to ‘single source’. The primary motives behind such a move are; 1) claims of ‘total integration’ and 2) claims of elimination of interfaces.
I totally understand the concept of ‘single source’ but I would argue the point that most vendors who claim ‘total integration’ are, in fact, not totally integrated. Likewise, I would argue that most vendors who claim they will eliminate interfaces might eliminate interfaces to 3rd party products but they themselves contain numerous interfaces so you just trade interfaces for interfaces. If I were a facility contemplating making a switch to ‘single source’, I would have an expert attorney draw up a contract, with sharp teeth and a money back guarantee, to make the vendor guarantee their claims of ‘total integration’ and their ‘elimination of all interfaces’. Ironically and sadly, that would eliminate many vendors from consideration.
The worst parts about ‘single source’ vendors are; 1) they usually have one or two core components that are strong while the rest of the components are very limited in their capabilities, 2) once you commit to a ‘single source’ vendor, there is no turning back regardless of how bad their product and/or service proves to be and 3) having all your eggs in one basket. Thus, even though the facility might save money on the surface in the reduction of IT staff, there will likely be intangible, long term ramifications that take time to become evident such as an overall reduction in productivity, a reduction in physician goodwill, a reduction in patient goodwill, a reduction in staff moral and a lack of accurate statistical data that is necessary to effectively and efficiently run a department.
As a ‘best of breed’ RIS vendor, I am deeply concerned about the future of vendors, such as Swearingen Software, who have superior products and services than their ‘single source’ counterparts. Will the Goliaths eventually push the Davids out of competition? Anybody got a stone?