White Paper: Discover ECM Opportunities In Healthcare

By Vicki Amendola, Business Solutions magazine

When it comes to exploring potential markets for ECM solutions, a content management VAR's eyes should light up when exceptionally paper-rich environments are identified. However, some VARs continue to overlook one of the most paper-intense markets of all — healthcare. Despite the desire for a paperless patient experience, paper documentation in healthcare isn't anywhere near extinction. If anything, paper documents present a bigger challenge in this vertical than in just about any other. I recently spoke to three industry vendors who all agree that the healthcare market is prime for ECM solutions. They shared with me some insights on how VARs can position core ECM technologies to win more business when targeting the healthcare market.

"The healthcare industry is under intense pressure to move beyond paper," says Chris Wacker, senior VP at Laserfiche. "However, despite the President's [George W. Bush] 10-year EHR initiative and post-Katrina disaster awareness and public concern, only small percent have converted to electronic documents." Software applications such as EMRs (electronic medical records), EHRs (electronic health records), and practice management have been designed to reduce the amount of paper generated within the healthcare system from the first point of patient contact. For example, hospital registration is increasingly being done via direct entry of patient information into one of these software tools, rather than by filling out information on a paper form for future data entry. However, registration is only one small part of the entire patient encounter.

Used with permission from Business Solutions magazine.