Doctors who have shopped for healthcare software have sometimes come to regret their purchases, according to a story reported by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund.
In her feature, Emma Schwartz “finds that physicians are often frustrated with their switch from paper to electronic medical records – spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on software programs, only to find that the new systems are faulty or ineffective. Sometimes, the software vendors go out of business, leaving the doctors with no choice but to file suit in order to recoup their investment. One Florida surgeon called his experience with new IT “a disaster.”
While Schwartz concedes that the doctor’s dealing with a bankrupt software company is “an extreme example,” she does highlight many of the pitfalls experienced by providers so far, as health policymakers push for a changeover to electronic records in the next five years.
Beyond faulty software, Schwartz finds that fast-evolving technologies often complicate things, especially for doctors who are unfamiliar with new and complex systems and who aren’t well-versed in the proper questions to ask in order to ensure quality purchases.
“I’ve seen physicians buy EHRs where they’ve spent less time buying them than their house and car,” she quotes one IT consultant.
That’s a problem, the consultant continued, because in an emerging market with many vendors making big promises but having limited past performance to judge by, “there’s a lot of risk.”
Meanwhile, with so many new players in the industry, it’s expected that there will be considerable contraction in the coming years – and it’s possible that providers might purchase expensive systems from a company that may go out of business.
In that case, as one lawyer for a provider who won a judgment against a bankrupt software vendor put it, “the doctors are left holding the bag.”
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