Epic Does Not Play Well in the Sandbox With Others

Remember when your parents told you to place nice in the sandbox? Well, Epic Systems did not grasp that idea as they continue to feel the heat over their "perceived lack of interoperability between its EHR systems and other systems" according to Darius Tahir of Modern Healthcare. This is nothing new for Epic. They are seen as the system of "closed records" which U.S. Rep Phil Gingrey (R-GA) pointed out while citing a RAND Corp. report.

The sole purpose of implementing Electronic Health Record Systems (EHRs) for healthcare providers was to create a seamless flow of patient data at minimal cost. However, companies like Epic tack on extra fees for custom built interfaces which are incredibly expensive and do not truly create interoperability. 

Even Verizon has a difficult time dealing with these large EHR vendors and echoed how expensive these interfaces and data dumps are. In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission Verizon slammed the amount of time it takes to integrate hospital or medical practice data and claimed they are “impeded by the lack of standards governing how biometric values from remote monitoring devices will be displayed or where the information will be stored in EHRs.”

It is safe to say that these large EHR vendors, and more specifically Epic, claim they want interoperability but in reality interoperability takes away from their bottom line.

To read more on EHR issues click here

To review EHR software on our Directory click here

To read more from Modern Healthcare click here