An Illinois district judge denied a motion by Draeger Inc. to dismiss a lawsuit from Rush University Medical Center alleging the company’s patient monitoring software was inaccurate and unreliable.
Rush filed the claims against Draeger in August, explaining that the medical center spent an estimated $48 million installing and later replacing a system designed to monitor vital signs. The provider alleges it encountered inaccurate and unreliable alarms, sudden erasures of patient log data, and an inability to provide wireless monitoring shortly after it spent $18 million to implement the system in 2011.
Rush further claims IT staff spent “hundreds of hours” trying to remedy the issues with Draeger and eventually decided to replace the system in 2016.
Draeger argued that because its system went live in 2012, the medical center’s claims didn’t fall within the four-year statute of limitations under Illinois law. Even if the court decided Rush’s claims were timely, Draeger said the provider failed to bring sufficient evidence to warrant allegations of breach of contract, unjust enrichment and fraud.
But a judge at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois denied all of Draeger’s arguments, noting that it was too soon to make a decision on the timeliness of Rush’s claims, and that the medical center sufficiently laid out the facts of its contractual relationship with the technology company.
At the time the case was filed, a Rush spokesperson noted that although there were risks associated with Draeger’s technology, no patients were harmed. Draeger, meanwhile, has previously said it is “committed to working through this matter with our customer.”