Mother Jones piece hits Epic hard: 5 criticisms of the EHR vendor

For a company that is notorious for its lack of media interaction, Epic Systems often finds itself in headlines, for better or for worse. The latest Epic media storm was delivered by a Mother Jones piece in which the author criticized the vendor and the health IT marketplace as failing in its mission to help patients and save money through digitization.

Author Patrick Caldwell wrote the healthcare industry has largely underachieved in its goal to digitize medical records and cut waste and costs associated with paper records. "In some ways, our medical records aren't in any better shape today than they were before," he wrote in his piece called "Epic Fail." Mr. Caldwell directed much of these shortcomings at Epic in particular. Here are five criticisms of Epic from the Mother Jones piece.

1. Epic may be comprehensive, but the system's individual modules are below average. Epic's EHR has numerous modules and solutions that run the gamut of the healthcare continuum. Different specialties have their own modules, like Stork for deliveries and prenatal care and ASAP for emergency room visits. While comprehensive, the individual modules aren't all that great, according to the report...