EMR Vendor Busy Hiring, Not Worrying

Last year eClinicalWorks began offering its e-health record system bundled with Dell computers to small doctor offices via Sam's Clubs. Wal-Mart recently said it was closing 10 Sam's Clubs in the U.S. as the company's discount warehouse outlets struggle in some markets. (Wal-Mart is also cutting 10,000 jobs at Sam's Clubs, mostly related to product demos. Think free frozen pizza samples.) But eClinicalWorks isn't troubled by Sam's Club's problems.While physicians in small practices often buy their office gear and supplies directly from Sam's Clubs, for the most part, physicians end up "working with an eClinicalWorks rep" to get the SaaS package up and running, says an eClinicalWorks spokeswoman. The closing of some Sam's Club stores won't make much of an impact on that, she says.

In the meantime, eClinicalWorks is busy hiring the 500 or so new people the company predicted last spring it would need over the next couple of years to help with doctor office EMR installations, training and support.

So far, "a few hundred" new employees have been hired. The majority of them are based in the company's Westborough, Mass. headquarters. However many of those people spend lot of time traveling across the U.S. to customer sites helping doctor offices get going on eClinicalWorks.

The vendor also recently opened an office in Pleasanton, Calif. So far it's hired about 30 to 50 people to help with west coast physician office deployments.

So, who is eClinicalWorks hiring? Many are recent college grads or others who (surprisingly?) don't have heavy hands-on backgrounds in IT or healthcare, but are anxious to learn.

Key traits eClinicalWorks is looking for in its new employees? "Good personalities…and good attitude" to handle working with doctors in the field as well as in-house support roles and other positions "across the board" at the company, says the spokeswoman. What's your attitude like these days?

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