For a small physician practice, the change to an EMR or a change of EMRs is fraught with real costs and potential productivity costs. But EMR changes are costly as well for large organizations, as evident from last quarter's move by a major healthcare system. Partners in Boston, MA has selected Epic for a massive EMR overall from its internal electronic medical records system to the Epic system with customizations. Partners plans to invest $600 million to $700 million in the new EHR over the next 10 years.
As indicated in this Fierce EMR story, such a change has not been out without challenges for the organization. EMR comes with a cost, and last quarter Partners took a 138 million dollar hit in operating income as the result of a switch.
