Slashdot Mirror
Healthcare Giant Faces IT Nightmare
Joan writes "Kaiser Permanente, the largest HMO in the U.S., has spent about $4 billion on an unreliable electronic medical record system that is impacting patient care, according to a 722-page internal report revealed by Computerworld. The CIO resigned after the news came out, and CEO George Halvorson is telling the media that the goal is an alarmingly low 99.5% uptime and that all the problems are really just power outages. Yesterday, Slashdot covered a story about the possibility that the NHS in the UK could now claim the 'biggest IT disaster' prize, but Americans, fear not: so far, the Brits are running a much more efficient failure at $24,000 per physician per year, while America's KP is spending $76,920 per physician, per year on its failing project."
From the Epic Systems website (emphasis added):
Problem Solver / Technical Services
Are you interested in learning more about software development? Combine your problem solving skills and technical interest with our comprehensive training to support our nation-wide clients. You will have the opportunity to participate in many aspects of the software field, including analysis, training, quality assurance, troubleshooting, install, and implementation. Most importantly, you will help clients get the maximum benefit from their software.
Because we train internally, no prior technical experience is needed. Candidates must have a BS or BA, a history of academic and professional success, and a willingness to travel 10%.
Regarding Justin Deal, am I the only one who thinks the idea of a "25 year old project manager with a background in IT Management for Non profits" is a bit of an Oxymoron? At 25 you hardly have any background at all, especially in managing a large scale project such as this!
They inflated their own importance for years until such time as they garnered sufficient funding to fuck up whole companies. But in fact "IT" is not anyone's core competency - unless you are an outsourcer or service provider. That's the MBA factoid all these CIO's miss - technological glorification for its own sake. I don't care how large your company is, there is no such thing as a patient records DB system that costs billions of dollars. It simply can't happen. So when they embark on these grand missions to the new world in the name of Empire of Spain or whatever the hell they think they're doing, they're just creating a messy boondoggle.
As an actual physician working at KP, I can tell you the system actually works. From my end the downtime has been truly minimal, and it is proving to be powerful despite intial misgivings. I don't doubt our IT has messed part of this up, but the system does actually work and I am already seeing some significant advantages when treating my patients....
Elian Paiuk