Wipeout: Lessons on protecting Web-based EMR data

Some practices thought they had found a way to afford an electronic medical record -- and then the company that ran it pulled the plug, risking the loss of thousands of patient records.

By Bob Cook, AMNews staff. Aug. 19, 2002.

Orly Avitzur, MD, is about to lose her electronic medical records system while trying not to lose faith in the ideal of a small practice with a paperless office.

In June, GE Medical Systems sent a note to her and other users of Encounter that the company no longer would support the Web-based EMR product. It was a corporate decision; Encounter, acquired by General Electric when it bought MedicaLogic out of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in March, cost too much to run and had too few users. As of July 31, no one could enter new charts and notes. As of Sept. 30, the charts and notes would be gone.

"It's the equivalent of a fire," says a downcast Dr. Avitzur. The Tarrytown, N.Y., solo neurologist faces the daunting task of either printing 1,350 patient charts and their accompanying notes, or retyping all the information into a new EMR system, before the Sept. 30 deadline.

To go back to paper, she says, is "almost unthinkable."

Making things worse, the pullout comes at a time when corporate buyers of health insurance are demanding more data showing increased physician quality and reduced costs, and demanding the use of technology to achieve both those goals. One of the most active players in this vein is the Washington, D.C.-based Leapfrog Group, a consortium of some of the nation's largest corporations -- including General Electric, GE Medical Systems' parent company.

Encounter user Ken Ponder, MD, part of a two-doctor family practice in Niceville, Fla., fears for the future of solo practitioners and small groups if technology is priced out of reach. Another GE electronic medical record product is being offered at a discount to Encounter users, but Dr. Ponder says that still would cost him $40,000 in upfront hardware and software fees, plus at least $400 per month in licensing fees. [...]