Study: EMR failures fairly common

A new survey suggests that it's not that that rare for EMRs to be deployed and then uninstalled-and that nearly 10 percent of installations fail outright. The survey, which has been conducted annually for nine years, found that nearly 19 percent of respondents have either seen an EMR system uninstalled in the past or are now going through the installation. That in and of itself may not be so surprising, given that some organizations have had EMRs in place for many years, and that some of those may be showing their age.  However, it's worth noting that in addition to predictable systems turnover, over 8 percent of respondents had de-installed failed EMRs and gone back to paper. The same study noted that nearly 30 percent of respondents said some physicians had refused to use their EMR.

In another interesting note, researchers said that when organizations switch EMRs, they often downgrade to a lower-end system which seems simpler for clinical staff to use-and has the additional benefit of being cheaper and easier to maintain.

To learn more about the study:
- read this Modern Healthcare article