The world is predicted to generate as much as 181 zettabytes of knowledge by the top of 2025, with healthcare contributing as much as 36% of that complete. However as much as 97% of that knowledge goes unused, trapped in digital well being report (EHR) programs that don’t successfully use, manage, analyze, safe, share, or make accessible the dear knowledge contained inside them. This leads to compounding results on effectivity, decision-making, burnout, and even reliability. For CIOs managing outdated EHRs that don’t meet the technological knowledge wants of as we speak, the stakes have by no means been greater. The strain to enhance monetary and medical efficiency is matched solely by the problem of modernizing programs with out disrupting care. But, regardless of advances in synthetic intelligence and System as a Service (SYaaS) fashions for EHR programs, long-held misconceptions in regards to the dangers, prices, and complexity of transitioning EHRs proceed to face in the best way. Shifting previous these limitations means difficult yesterday’s assumptions and re-examining what’s doable with as we speak’s EHR.
Fable: EHRs All Have Excessive Hidden Prices
Prices are hovering throughout healthcare for every little thing from mattress linens and lab tools to staffing and IT operations and assist. So, it’s no shock that in a 2025 survey CliniComp carried out with CHIME, 19% of healthcare IT leaders named price of AI implementation as a high concern. An EHR, whether or not mixed with AI or not, is a considerable funding that always consists of not solely the preliminary prices for licensing, implementation, integration, but in addition misplaced productiveness through the transition. Traditionally, issues like these have made transitions and even upgrades appear dangerous or unpredictable. A 2022 survey discovered that small practices sometimes price range $1,200 per consumer for EHR programs, whereas massive practices and enterprises budgeted $685 per consumer. Even with baseline estimates, the prices usually multiplied to greater than 10 occasions the first-year price range, demonstrating how conventional approaches have failed and why CIOs have believed EHR upgrades are too costly.
Reality: SYaaS Fashions Ship Entire Service Single Pricing
The market has modified and now gives options that tackle these challenges immediately. A SYaaS system delivers all facets of the EHR— software program, {hardware}, coaching, assist, knowledge migration, ongoing optimization and upkeep— in a single contract. A more recent SYaaS mannequin integrates immediately with current programs, connecting seamlessly to a hospital’s present infrastructure and will be carried out in months, not years, to shortly see the ROI. CIOs particularly worth options which might be cost-efficient, predictable, and scalable, avoiding the hidden pitfalls of previous fashions.
SYaaS gives a sustainable path ahead to a future the place know-how upgrades and new options— together with embedded AI— arrive as a part of the service, and never as separate initiatives with separate worth tags.
Fable: Workflow Disruption and Downtime Are Inevitable
Downtime in healthcare impacts operational continuity, monetary stability, and affected person security, making it a main concern for healthcare CIOs contemplating an EHR transition. Simply 10 years in the past, 96% of hospitals had been experiencing not less than one EHR outage each three years, and in 70% of circumstances, that downtime lasted longer than eight hours, placing care and safety in jeopardy. Extended downtime, along with difficult go-lives, and steep studying curves in EHR have left lasting scars throughout the whole business.
This concern is amplified by that of supplier burnout. CHIME respondents reported that not less than 21% of their clinicians have skilled, or at present are experiencing, burnout from EHR use, and plenty of extra organizations are seeing greater charges. These widespread disruptions to work and care have made CIOs understandably cautious.
Reality: Trendy EHR Fashions Remove Disruptions and Downtime
Important disruptions demand a unique strategy. Trendy EHRs, like SYaaS, tackle burnout and downtime with trendy programs which have intuitive, customizable workflows, focused coaching, and ongoing sturdy assist programs.
Practically 55% of CHIME respondents cited the burden of documentation as their group’s greatest workflow problem that might be solved by AI. Whereas conventional, piecemeal EHR programs layer on the complexity, trendy SYaaS fashions present all the knowledge in a single place to finest leverage AI to cut back display screen time and current related affected person knowledge in real-time for actionable insights.
And as we speak’s fashions go a step additional, remaining on-line by means of upgrades and upkeep, and eliminating the deliberate downtime that after appeared inevitable.
Fable: Integration and Interoperability Stay Unsolved Issues
For many years, healthcare organizations have settled for EHR platforms that not solely depart them hanging in downtime, however that additionally create pointless silos, pressure workarounds and “band-aids,” whereas requiring organizations to keep up and proceed to pay for previous programs “simply in case.” The result’s frustration for IT and care groups and missed alternatives to enhance affected person care.
Chief amongst present issues for CIOs are interoperability and integration. Within the CHIME survey, 26% of CIOs named rising interoperability and knowledge accessibility as a high precedence for his or her AI technique. Moreover, 32% mentioned that AI-driven interoperability is extraordinarily necessary for knowledge sharing and care coordination of their group.
Integration challenges stay a number one concern for 16% of healthcare CIOs, and the business has demanded options that take away limitations moderately than creating or compounding them.
Reality: Integration and Interoperability Are the Coronary heart of the SYaaS EHR Mannequin
Trendy EHRs are constructed to resolve interoperability and may simply combine rising applied sciences, whereas sustaining safe, dependable connections with current medical and monetary instruments. In different phrases: they’re plug-and-play, and simpler for everybody to make use of. With built-in migration companies, versatile APIs, and vendor partnerships centered on steady enchancment moderately than one-time installs, SYaaS fashions have turn out to be the brand new gold customary for EHR by way of interoperability and integration.
A Highway Map to a Higher EHR
Though new EHR fashions are busting the myths of the previous, transitioning nonetheless requires cautious consideration to a few elementary finest practices. First, set up clear governance and safety protocols so that each new function—particularly AI— has correct safeguards. Second, insist on price transparency that anticipates quick and long-term wants and emphasizes partnership. Third, choose programs designed for speedy implementation, steady operation, integration and interoperability, making certain worth with out disruption. Principally importantly, interact medical groups early and sometimes to show their suggestions into lasting adoption, and make sure that EHR transformation turns into not simply doable, however a strong lever for progress.
As adoption of SYaaS fashions accelerates, one message is evident: yesterday’s myths not outline the way forward for healthcare. By changing outdated assumptions with confirmed options, as we speak’s leaders can flip EHR alternative right into a strategic benefit, unlocking new efficiencies, empowering clinicians, and driving higher outcomes for sufferers and organizations alike.
About Kem Graham
Kem Graham, VP of Gross sales and Development at CliniComp, is a vision-driven and strategic Senior Gross sales Govt with a demonstrated historical past of innovation, management and outcomes. Gross sales, advertising, and enterprise improvement chief in healthcare, know-how and schooling with a demonstrated monitor report of driving change and representing firm mission with exterior audiences, enterprise leaders, legislators and administrative coverage makers on the native, state and federal ranges. A breadth {of professional} expertise which incorporates entrepreneurship, enterprise-level gross sales, philanthropy, administrative management and enterprise improvement in each start-up and established company environments.
