Benefits Outweigh Costs of EMR Implementation
According to a new report by Millennium Research Group, the US market for fully integrated EMR systems is expected to increase more than fourfold.
Toronto, ON (PRWEB) November 3, 2005
By allowing practitioners across the health care continuum to store and share a patient’s entire medical history, electronic medical records (EMRs) will dramatically improve the delivery of health care in the US. According to a new report by Millennium Research Group, the US market for fully integrated EMR systems is expected to increase more than fourfold.
Over the years, many health care facilities had adopted components of an EMR system incrementally in order to alleviate the heavy investment burden. As a result, the market for integrated systems was still relatively small in 2004, generating only $900 million in revenue. Care facilities have, however, begun to recognize that the full benefits of EMRs can only be realized with the full implementation of all parts of the system. Facilities, therefore, have slowly started planning the integration and re-engineering process necessary to achieve this, and by 2009, the market is expected to reach nearly $4 billion.
EMRs promise to facilitate the storage, transfer, and sharing of medical information among various institutions throughout the life of a patient. The technology could also support clinical, financial, and administrative decision-making processes. The ability to automatically cross-check new prescriptions with a patient’s electronic record would eliminate harmful drug interactions and thus greatly reduce the almost 100,000 deaths that occur each year in the US due to medical error.
The implementation of an EMR system is, however, a long and onerous process. Because this task entails the automation of a facility’s entire care delivery process, larger organizations require up to 5 years simply to plan the adoption of an EMR system. Despite such delays, the penetration of EMR systems among hospitals, physician offices, and long-term care facilities will more than double over the next 5 years.
MRG’s US Markets for Electronic Medical Records 2005 examines the ambulatory, acute, and long-term care markets and covers over 20 of the leading competitors, including Cerner (CERN), McKesson (MCK), Siemens Medical Solutions (SI), Epic Systems, and Eclipsys (ECLP).
A leading source of competitive intelligence, MRG is now the largest provider of medical device market research in the world. Located in Toronto, Canada, MRG covers global markets and has pioneered reporting of numerous emerging products.
Contact Information:
Chris Bondarenko
Millennium Research Group Inc.
+1 (416) 364-7776 ext.160
Www. mrg. net
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