Readers Respond: Why Epic Adoption Requires Governance

When an EHR vendor selection process ends with the choice of Epic Systems, it is going to require a significant financial investment upfront that impacts a healthcare organization’s bottom line. Whether that initial expenditure is later accompanied by unexpected capital contributions tends to be the direct result of poor planning rather than having made the wrong choice of an EHR system.

That is the takeaway from the latest Epic EHR-related implementation snafu taking place at University of Arizona Health Network which made news earlier this week. The health system revealed that it is $28.5 million in the red for the first eight months of its fiscal year ending June 2014. UA Health’s estimated cost of implementing the EHR system from Epic, which totaled $115 million, was then followed by $32 million in unbudgeted costs during that period of time.

Operational losses are not unheard of for hospitals and health systems adopting an Epic EHR. Obviously, a sizeable investment on the frontend is going to have an immediate effect on an organization’s finances before any return-on-investment appears. What may not be as obvious is why UA Health is in the company of other healthcare organizations...