MaineHealth to pump $55M more into computer system

MaineHealth said it has upped spending on a problematic health care computer system to $200 million from $145 million to expand training for employees and fix issues that resulted in millions of dollars in billing losses, according to the Portland Press Herald.

The computer system was designed to make it easier for patients to access health records and medical professionals to track the health care provided. Instead, it caused issues for MaineHealth, the parent company of Maine Medical Center. Because of the problems, Maine Medical Center was unable to send out accurate bills, and that in turn became a major factor in that hospital’s $13.4 million loss in the first six months of fiscal 2013, according to officials.

The Epic software was installed at Maine Medical in late 2012, according to MaineHealth President Bill Caron, who told the newspaper, “It’s a good investment once you get it right.” The system is to be installed throughout the dozen or so MaineHealth system hospitals by 2017.

Caron said the system ultimately will make the organization more efficient and cut operating costs. He added that MaineHealth originally underestimated the resources needed to train employees to use Epic. It also may have been a mistake, he said, to start out the new system in such a large medical center.

The startup problems were unrelated to the software, Andy Crowder, senior vice president and chief information officer for MaineHealth, told the newspaper, adding that the software performed as designed.