Grassley probes 31 providers on health IT deployments

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has sent letters to 31 U.S. hospitals asking about their experiences in implementing health IT under the $19 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). He is seeking to ensure the “effective and efficient use of taxpayer money” in implementing health IT, such as computerized provider order entry systems and EHRs.

“Given the taxpayer investment and the investment of the healthcare system overall in the IT industry, the more Congress and others overseeing implementation of this program dig into the problems and work to get them sorted out now, the better,” said Grassley, who is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Finance. “Hospitals are on the front lines and their perspective will be very valuable in this effort, so I look forward to hearing what they have to say about expanded use of healthcare IT.”

In the letter, Grassley wrote that he has been made “increasingly aware of difficulties and challenges associated with health IT implementation. The reported problems appear to be associated with administrative complications in implementation, formatting and usability issues, and actual computer errors stemming from the programs themselves, as well as, interoperability between programs.”

He added that healthcare providers may be “ignored or dismissed” when they report such problems to their facilities and/or the product vendors. “Often this is attributed to alleged ‘gag orders’ or non-disclosure clauses in the health IT contract that prohibit healthcare providers and their facilities from sharing information outside of their facilities regarding product defects and other health IT product-related concerns,” according to Grassley.

For health IT products that may not fall under FDA regulation, Grassley said, there appears to be a lack of a national system for reporting product errors or failures and adverse events associated with the use of such products.

The senator asked the 31 providers to provide a response to the 11 specific questions and requests set forth in the letter no later than Feb. 16.

In October 2009, Grassley wrote directly to major health IT vendors regarding these kinds of issues and concerns. The senator said he is currently reviewing responses from the vendors. The vendors are Cerner, 3M, Allscripts, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Computer Sciences Corporation, Eclipsys, Epic Systems, McKesson, Perot Systems and Philips Healthcare.

This week, Grassley sent his letter to the following hospitals: Banner Health, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Case Western Reserve University Hospital Health System, Catholic Healthcare West, Cedars Sinai Children’s National Medical Center, Geisinger Medical Center, Hackensack Hospital, HCA TriStar, Intermountain Healthcare, Indiana University Hospital,  Jefferson Regional Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente System, Marshfield Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital, Mayo Clinic, Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, Methodist Hospital of Indiana, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, Saint Mary Mercy Hospital, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Stony Brook University Medical Center, Trinity Hospital System, Tufts Medical Center, University of California San Francisco Medical Center, University of Pennsylvania Health System, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, University of Virginia Medical Center and Vanderbilt University Hospital.