News in brief - April 4, 2011

Study examines EMR costs

An average five-physician practice spent $162,000 implementing an electronic medical records system and $85,500 in maintenance expenses in the first year, according to a study in the March Health Affairs (content.healthaffairs.org/content/30/3/481).

The study looked at the total cost of implementing an EMR in 26 primary care practices that belonged to a physician network in north Texas. The study also examined hardware and software costs and the time and effort the staff invested in implementation.

Researchers found that the implementation team needed an average of 611 hours to prepare for and implement the EMR, and 134 hours per physician were needed to prepare for the use of the EMR in clinical encounters.

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Hospital mass layoffs decline

The number of mass layoffs at hospitals and the count of people affected went down in February, according to a monthly report issued March 22 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The bureau defines mass layoffs as at least 50 people losing their jobs at a single company.

Seven mass layoffs leading 383 people to claim unemployment benefits occurred at hospitals in February. The numbers were significantly higher in January, when 16 mass layoffs involving 1,133 employees occurred at hospitals.

The year 2010 was second only to 2009 in the past decade for hospital mass layoffs. A total of 137 occurred in 2010 and 152 in 2009. At least 10,490 people lost jobs as part of a mass layoff in 2010, and 11,787 did so in 2009.

The year 2005 set the decade's record for the highest number of people affected, mostly because of Hurricane Katrina. That year, 97 mass layoffs occurred, prompting 13,282 hospital employees to claim unemployment benefits.

The latest BLS Mass Layoffs report is available online (www.bls.gov/news.release/mmls.nr0.htm).

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