by Joel Berman
To convert or not to convert. That is the question. Over the past year or so, many of you have struggled with whether you should rush to get in line to convert to FOCUS or stay with what you have, whether it’s MAGIC or Client/Server (C/S). A few months ago at HIMSS I chatted with one Information Services (IS) director from a hospital in a large metropolitan area who told me that he has to convert to stay competitive. He knows it’s a risk and he’s keeping his fingers crossed that things will work out well. At the same time another IS director from a more rural area told me that they intend to stick with MAGIC for the foreseeable future. He didn’t see the need to convert nor could they afford it. Seems like those are the only two MEDITECH options… Or are they?
What many people forget, including other vendors I’ve spoken with, is that 6.0 is mainly C/S and only a few modules (EMR, PCS, MIS, EDM and others) are based on the new Advanced Technology. This means that if you are a MAGIC site, you have to convert most of your system to C/S and some to FOCUS. When 6.1 is released, ABS, ADM and BAR (among other modules) will be converted to FOCUS. So that means if you just converted your BAR system from MAGIC to C/S, you now have to convert it from C/S to FOCUS. When 6.2 is released, you get to convert LAB from C/S to FOCUS. I know you’re also wondering: what happens to the data each time you convert? I keep asking that question but no one seems to know the answer. Good question to ask MEDITECH. Going through a series of conversions for the next few years wouldn’t be high on my list of things to do if I were in your shoes.
So what’s the best strategy? Each of you needs to figure out what’s best for your facility. Maybe the best idea is to get in line for 6.2. At that point you would have a product that’s mostly FOCUS and you’d only have to convert most modules once. Can you afford to do this? Others might ask, “Can you afford not to do this?”
1 response so far ↓
1 Tweets that mention FOCUS: Now or Never? -- Topsy.com // Apr 21, 2010 at 4:56 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Iatric Systems. Iatric Systems said: Thinking about a FOCUS/6.x/MEDITECH Advanced Technology migration? Iatric's Joel Berman shares his thoughts: http://bit.ly/focusnever. [...]
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