More than half of healthcare executives — 64 percent — expressed concern about the future of their employment during an EHR implementation or replacement, according to a seven yearslong survey commissioned by Black Book.
Here are eight survey insights:
1. Most large health system providers (93 percent) reported few regrets over their EHR vendor selection.
2. However, 88 percent of respondents from modest-sized regional health systems were dissatisfied with their EHR selection, citing hidden costs, unexpected consultant fees, interrupted revenue cycles, consumer frustration, time-extended rollouts, physician and clinical burnout, system downtime, reliability issues, and mismatches in vendor-client cultures.
3. Seventy-six percent of community hospital respondents said they doubted the supposed benefits of switching EHR systems for brand recognition, instead noting value propositions such as increased functionality, usability and interoperability.
4. Ninety-five percent of "financially threatened" hospitals in the fourth quarter of 2018 said they regret the decision to change EHR systems, according to Black Book.
5. Ninety percent of hospitals systems with more than 500 beds reported they've consistently been over budget each year since an EHR replacement, often due to consultant costs, post-implementation support, EHR-related staffing and optimization initiatives.
6. The majority of respondents — 71 percent — agreed that interoperability and patient data exchange functionality had declined after implementing a replacement EHR.
7. Very few respondents at the manager level or higher — 5 percent — claimed they or their peers were fired or asked to resign due to EHR replacement costs or productivity impacts.
8. Twenty-two percent of respondents said their organizations issued intermittent or permanent staff layoffs due to implementation delays, cost overruns, budgets underestimated or unavailable trained personnel.