Dive Brief:
- Last week, James Thaw, president and CEO of Athens Regional Medical Center in Georgia, resigned in the wake of a troubled implementation of a new EMR system.
- After going live with a Cerner EMR in most areas of the health system, more than 12 physicians affiliated with the system sent a letter to Thaw and his CIO arguing that the timeline to install the EMR system was too aggressive.
- The physicians said problems included emergency department patients leaving after lengthy wait times, an admitted patient who had not been seen by a physician for five days, lost or overlooked orders and medication errors.
- In the wake of a 270-0 vote by hospital staff expressing "no confidence" in the hospital's administration, Thaw resigned.
Dive Insight:
Thaw is not the first, and is unlikely to be the last, senior hospital executive who ended up being shown the door after an EMR implementation went wrong. With so much at stake, EMR rollouts can be a make or break moment in a hospital leader's career. What's more common, however, is having hospitals force malfunctioning or poorly adapted EMRs on their staff, with health leaders paying too little attention to their complaints. As hospitals install or adapt their EMR, they are likely to get lots of feedback from their staff — and if they don't respond to it, facilities could have a real problem.