Kaiser finishes major phase of costly EMR project

Kaiser has put the finishing touches on a major phase of its costly, high-profile EMR project, giving all of its 8.7 million enrollees and 13,000 physicians access to its outpatient system. To date, Kaiser has spent $4 billion on the EMR installation, which has been in progress for years. In recent times the project has been dogged by allegations that it had been botched, so much so that last year the California Department of Managed Health Care formally requested information on its progress.

Despite reaching an important milestone, the Kaiser EMR project still has a ways to go, given that it's got miles to travel on its inpatient rollout. To date, only 13 of the system's 36 hospitals have put Kaiser's Epic EMR system in place. It expects to see 14 hospitals to bring up the system this year, with the remaining nine hospitals slated for implementations in 2009 and early 2010. No word yet as to how much that $4 billion number will increase over the next year or two, but I doubt the remaining inpatient installs are going to be cheap.

To learn more about the Kaiser EMR project:
- read this Healthcare IT News article
- read this Pacific Business News article

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