Freedom of 'best-of-breed' HIT systems costly

While best-of-breed IT systems allow hospitals to be more innovative with their technology implementations, it's not all fun and games, according to Lehigh Valley Health Network Chief Medical Information Officer Donald Levick, M.D., who spoke at an event at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia this week. By not choosing a single vendor for its IT needs, Levick said, Lehigh has had to build all of its own interfaces to enable interoperability between systems. "We have several full-time staffers just building and maintaining these interfaces," Levick said, according to Healthcare Informatics. "It is our biggest problem." Article