As you may have noticed, subscription-based licensing has become increasingly popular recently, overtaking perpetual licensing. Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems are no exception. If you’re looking for an EHR system, there’s a 9 out of 10 chance you’ll be offered a SaaS subscription. We won’t go into the general pros and cons of software subscriptions here. Instead, we want to talk about the advantages of EHR systems purchased under a perpetual license.
A Valuable Asset
The outsourcing principle is well known: anything that is not the core activity of your business should be outsourced. At first glance, an EHR may not appear to be a core factor in your business. However, that’s not the case. Your patients—and more specifically, their data—are an invaluable asset to your business. Patient data enables you to provide high-quality care, assess health risks, offer effective prevention, grow your patient base, and cross-sell additional services.
If for any reason your subscription provider changes their policies (e.g., due to selling their business) or experiences financial difficulties, what will happen to this valuable asset—your patients’ data? Will you be able to retrieve it? If you can, will you be able to import it into a new system? And how much will that cost? After all, if an empty EHR is expensive, an EHR tailored to your data could cost significantly more.
An EHR with a perpetual license is your asset and your property.
Security
Do you know where your patients’ sensitive data is physically stored when using a subscription-based EHR? Are you sure that your local laws allow personal and medical data of citizens to be stored abroad “somewhere in the cloud”?
Owning a perpetual software license gives you the ability to control exactly where your most valuable asset—your patients’ data—is stored.
Confidentiality
Are you confident that no one outside your authorized team has access to your patients’ data? Can you be sure that your data isn’t being used to train AI models? Or worse, to offer your patients products or services targeted at their specific health conditions?
Your patients’ data is your asset, and only you should have the right to manage it.
Customization
Can a SaaS EHR fully meet your country’s standards or your clinic’s specific needs? Perhaps you want your EHR to be tailored to your clinic’s particular workflow? It’s unlikely you’ll get a fully customized solution built specifically for your business.
With a perpetual license and an agreement with the developer, you can get the perfect product for your needs.
Compatibility
Switching from one EHR system to another is a complex, costly, and not always technically feasible process. Suppose you have an outdated EHR, both technically and morally, and it’s no longer viable. Do you think you’ll be able to migrate your data into a new SaaS EHR? Unlikely. Most SaaS vendors won’t want to deal with such a non-trivial task.
However, if you buy a perpetual license, you can ask the developer to handle the migration without data loss.
Cost
Of course, if you purchase a perpetual license for your EHR, the upfront cost may be significant compared to a subscription. For example, a perpetual license for 10 users might cost $50,000, whereas a monthly subscription for the same 10 users may cost only $1,500 (at $150 per user).
But in less than three years, you’ll have paid off those $50,000—and still continue paying $1,500 each month. After five years, your EHR will have cost you $90,000. And yet, the EHR won’t belong to you.
Miss just one payment, and your staff will immediately discover they can no longer use the system. Wouldn’t it be better to negotiate a payment plan with a perpetual license provider? For example, pay 50% upfront and then 10 monthly payments of 5% each?
Conclusion
A subscription-based EHR is a simple and relatively inexpensive solution. At the same time, purchasing a perpetual license can give you all the benefits of a customized system—often for a reasonable price—while ensuring you meet all privacy and security requirements for your patients’ data.
