U.S. Coast Guard EHR Project Ends in $67M Fiasco

The VA and the military continue to have problems managing large IT projects and particularly those relating to EHRs (see, for example:Why the Military and the VA Healthcare Systems Are Not Amenable to Change;Epic Partners with IBM for Military EHR Proposal; This May Be a Problem;VA-Cerner EHR Deal Paused Over Interoperability Concerns). The U.S. Coast Guard turns out to be no exception to this rule based on a recent story about the travails of this branch with an attempted Epic EHR install (see:U.S. Coast Guard ’s $67 Million EHR Fiasco). Below is an excerpt from the article:In late January, the U.S. House of Representatives ’ Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation held a hearing to review the United States Coast Guard’s $14 million, five-year electronic health record (EHR) system project.The project, which began in September 2010, ballooned into a $67 million fiasco that the USCG [U.S. Coast Guard] finally ended in September 2015. But the Coast Guard didn ’t officially confirm its termination until April 2016. At the time, the USCG public affairs office vaguely explained that there were concerns about whether the project could be completed in a reasonable time and at a reasonable cost....Finally, at the House subcommittee meeting, the reason for the agency ’s uncommunicativeness became crystal clear: sheer embarrassment....[T]he project was originally envisioned and sold as an EHR modernization effort based on Epic ’s EHR software that would beg...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Electronic Health Record (EHR) Healthcare Information Technology Hospital Financial Source Type: blogs