HIT: Epic implementation for Ore. system to cause problems

A $21 million Epic implementation at clinics in the Oregon Health and
Science University system will cause a 25 percent to 50 percent decline in productivity over the first six weeks of use, officials rather candidly admit. The gains afterward make the sacrifice worth it, they argue, even though it will take up to 10 years to break even. The problem of lost productivity during the "switch" period has been a major roadblock to the adoption of the EMR by docs in solo and small practices. At one of Epic's first major installations at the Permanente Group in Oregon in the 1990s, each doctor had to take a week's worth of training on the new system. Docs in solo and small practices can't afford a week off without generating patient income and can't afford the short-term productivity loss. A 10-year wait for ROI payback is not a number that will have physicians flocking, nor one which will be too popular among EMR vendors.

- see this article from The Business Journal of Portland

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