EHR Part Of MaineHealth's Financial Woes

In a memo to its employees last week, Maine Medical Center, part of the MaineHealth system, said it has suffered an operating loss of $13.4 million in the first half of its fiscal year. The rollout of MaineHealth's estimated $160 million electronic health record system, which has resulted in charge capture issues that are being fixed, was among several reasons Maine Med's CEO cited for the shortfall.

“Through March (six months of our fiscal year), Maine Medical Center experienced a negative financial position that it has not witnessed in recent memory,” Richard Petersen, president and CEO of the medical center, wrote in the memo to employees.  MedTech Media, publisher of Healthcare IT News and Healthcare Finance News, obtained a copy of the memo.

In order to bring the medical center to breakeven by year’s end, the health system’s leadership has determined $15 million needs to be saved.