by Joel Berman
The latest version of MEDITECH’s HIS software, known as FOCUS or Client/Server (C/S) 6.0, is the talk of the community. FOCUS represents the biggest change in MEDITECH’s technology in the past 25 years. When C/S was introduced in the 1990s, everyone thought it was a whole new technology. It, however, represented more of a change in where the software executed (client vs. server) rather than a new technology. C/S was built on the same proven MAGIC database/ programming language that had been around since MAGIC was introduced in the early 1980s. Consequently, most MAGIC customers wondered why bother. Very few MAGIC customers converted and there were even a few C/S to MAGIC conversions. However new customers purchased and installed C/S successfully. The reaction to FOCUS has been radically different. Many longtime customers are lining up to upgrade. Why?
From talking to most of the early converts, the main reason for interest in FOCUS is that it has a whole new user interface (UI). Rather than lots of menus, keystrokes and drilling down to get at data (like in PCI) most screens consist of a list of things the user needs to work on, the information they need to see, a quick way to access more information and a way to work with the items on the screen. The list might consist of all the patients on a doctor’s rounds or a list of patient accounts for a biller to work on. The screens are created based on the user’s role within the hospital. MEDITECH also makes use of Windows and a mouse rather than keystrokes to make screens easier to learn and more usable for physicians. That’s the good news and the feature most people see and want.
The other part of FOCUS is the new database technology. FOCUS is built on a new database technology and design. While there are some new features like an audit trail for every change made to every field in the system, the new database comes at a very high cost. The cost is that every report, every attribute, every rule, and every interface you’ve created for your existing system has to be rewritten. This means throwing out years of work whether you are an existing MAGIC or C/S customer. It also means that conversions will be much harder than if they had not changed the underlying database technology. MEDITECH has over 2000 customers. If they converted one a week (which I doubt they could come close to) it would still take over 40 years to convert everyone. Many of you have talked to me and asked, why didn’t MEDITECH just create a new UI on top of the existing database? I agree. If all you had to do was to load a new client but could leave the database and database technology alone, then this would be a valuable and relatively easy upgrade. Unfortunately that is not the path upon which MEDITECH focused (sorry, I couldn’t resist).
Obviously the story of FOCUS will be written over the next few years. Whether I agree with them or not, we are committed to continuing to the deliver of software products, interfaces and report writing to FOCUS clients. At the recent International MUSE conference in Vancouver, MEDITECH publicly stated that they are committed to supporting and developing MAGIC for many years to come. Are they trying to tell us something with that commitment? What do you and your hospital think about FOCUS?
4 responses so far ↓
1 Vert Rayner // Oct 3, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Joel – this blog is a great idea but could I ask that separate discussions be catalogued for Magic and C/S. As you have noted, a FOCUS migration is very different for these 2 platforms and most of the on-line info (including MT’s website) does not properly distinguish which platform is under discussion. I’m sure I’m not the only C/S customer who is confused -thx vert
2 iatricjb // Oct 5, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Vert, you raise a good point. The good news is that you have the hardware/networking infrastructure in place for Focus. The bad news is that your database is almost completely based on MAGIC technology so that means that you would need to rewrite all your NPR reports, all your screen attributes, all your interfaces and any custom applications. So far I’ve seen MAGIC conversions and new sites but I don’t recall inquiring about C/S to Focus conversions. I’ll see what I can find on the subject. Alan Goldstein, of Meditech, referred to the C/S to Focus conversion as a big ring release in Vancouver but I suspect its much harder than that. I will keep your thoughts in mind for future posts to clarify C/S vs MAGIC conversion issues.
3 Andrew // Dec 6, 2009 at 4:54 pm
As usual, there is the easy way and the Meditech way. Wish Microsoft would buy them out and turn it into a end user centric product.
4 iatricjb // Dec 9, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Andrew. Yes it seems that way sometimes. On the other hand Meditech is incredibly successful. You just wonder if there are ways they could be more successful.
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