Elmhurst Hospital Center and Queens Hospital Center, which are part of the nation's largest public health system, are installing a new electronic health record system provided by Epic Systems Corp. It's part of a $764 million, six-year health information technology upgrade at NYC Health & Hospitals system that has faced unique controversy and public scrutiny.
Epic will have about 275 of its personnel on hand for the launch, said Eric Helsher, a company vice president.
The project has already experienced several bumps. Allscripts disputed its competitor Epic's award of the contract, and even sued, but later dropped the suit.
Then, last year, two top IT officials, two other administrators and seven consultants at the system departed.
The New York Post alleges the launch is being rushed, possibly putting patient safety and privacy at risk. The Post, relying on unnamed sources, said CEO Dr. Ram Raju was “under the gun from City Hall” to meet the April 1 deadline, and feared he would be fired if he didn't comply.
The Post also reported that a physician, Dr. Charles Perry, resigned from the health system and in a resignation e-mail “urged colleagues ... to sound the alarm” to stop the system from going live. He likened the impending EHR launch to the Challenger space shuttle disaster of 1986, in which its seven-member crew died.
