Sen. Grassley voices concerns about HIT vendor practices
According to the Wall Street Journal's Health Blog:
In letters sent earlier this month to 10 companies, [Senator Chuck] Grassley says that he’s “received complaints” about systems that allow doctors to enter medical orders by computer. (Here’s a copy of the letter.) This is a big deal these days because the stimulus bill provides billions of dollars in federal incentives to encourage doctors and hospitals to start using these sorts of systems.
Grassley asks the companies to send him copies of “complaints and/or concerns” that health-care providers have expressed about the systems. He wants to know whether the companies typically include legal provisions in their contracts that “shift responsibility for errors in the … systems to physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other health care providers.”
And he cites reports that contracts sometimes “include ‘gag orders,’ which prohibit health care providers from disclosing system flaws and software defects.” He asks the companies how many settlement agreements they’ve executed in the last 18 months.
So far, representatives of Cerner, McKesson and Allscripts indicated that they plan to cooperate with Sen. Grassley's request.
You can find more information on Grassley's letters via the Washington Post, here.
You can see a copy of Grassley's letter to 3M here.
"Chuck Grassley Has a Few Questions for the Health IT Industry," Health Blog (October 26, 2009).
"Electronic medical records not seen as a cure-all," Washington Post (October 25, 2009).
