Epic EHR Adoption Partly To Blame In Maine Hospital Debate

The decision to shutter the emergency room at St. Andrews Hospital in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, has one local selectman questioning the high costs of the implementing an electronic medical record provided by Epic Systems.

In an open letter published in the Boothbay Register, Stuart Smith, Selectman for the Town of Edgecomb and a member of the St. Andrews Regional Task Force, charges MaineHealth (MH) and Lincoln County HealthCare (LCH) with failing to deliver benefits to its constituents as a result of choosing an EHR solution from the Wisconsin-based EHR vendor.

“We are told that MaineHealth has spent over $150 million on an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system that helps all of its ‘subsidiaries,’” writes Smith. “I can appreciate this because my work is in software development.”