“We had an EHR system in place,” Brown said, “however we wanted a system that combined both the practice management and Electronic Health Record on the same platform.”

Brown heralds EHR as the “key to the modernization of healthcare,” and notes that her practice did not take the decision of implementing a system lightly.  “Selecting an EHR vendor is a 10 to 20-year decision,” she said. “We wanted to ensure that the supplier is going to be there to support us in the decades to come.”

The Doctors Clinic began its selection process from an initial listing of 110 vendors, then narrowed that field to include only those providers scrutinized by MGMA. From that list, Brown says they pared the field to those vendors offering EHR and PM on the same platform. The organization narrowed it to their top three choices, then had their physicians test the EHR for user-friendliness. Sage Software Healthcare was ultimately selected based on their hands-on  evaluation, Brown added.

“Ultimately, Sage Software Healthcare’s system proved to be the most efficient and user-friendly,” she said. “Physicians are concerned about being slowed down. We wanted them to have ample hands-on opportunity to work with the system prior to our purchase.”

For The Doctors Clinic, Brown adds that physician recruitment is a top-line priority. They currently bring aboard about five new physicians each year, according to Brown. And those physicians demand technology and functionality.

“The younger doctors have been exposed in big university settings to EHR systems, and they don’t want to go back to paper charting,” Brown said. “From our perspective, having an EHR system is an important recruitment tool.”


Sage Software Healthcare, Inc., provides integrated Electronic Health Records, EDI applications and practice management systems to thousands of ambulatory care practices throughout North America. www.sagehealth.com


The Doctors Clinic is a physician-owned multi-specialty medical group with more than 75 physicians serving the healthcare needs of the 250,000 residents of Kitsap County, Washington. www.thedoctorsclinic.com