To the Editor:

Your review of EMR systems [“Electronic Medical Records: The FPM Vendor Survey,” January 2001, page 45] was comprehensive and accurate – if you're a salesperson for the different companies surveyed. For this reason, an obvious follow-up article might be a survey of practices actually using the systems.

Our practice recently contracted with one of the highly rated EMR systems and has had a frustrating four months attempting to implement the system. After wasting time and money, we have a network but no functioning software. Despite our constant complaints, the company never got our EMR system functioning.

I hope we're the exception in this case, but I would be interested in hearing other practices' opinions on implementation and support on the same companies surveyed in the article. I remain positive that our practice will eventually have a functioning EMR system, but we must all remember that a convincing sales pitch or a good software program does not guarantee a good implementation process.

Editor's note: The EMR vendor survey does have its limitations, as you and the authors of the article have pointed out. We're looking into practical ways of getting similarly detailed information about purchasers' experiences with the systems and the companies.