Health Care IT Vendor Management

Thinking of automating health care / hospital ?. This is a must read.

The UK government spent over 20 billion pounds only to realise that the vendors have taken them for an absolute ride !. ( GPs dissatisfied with IT system http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5028762.stm)
The ambitious Connecting for health , which envisaged automating and centralising health records of all NHS patients now would offer only a fraction of the information that the vendors had promised it would. If a powerful body like the NHS with all its expert consultants could be taken for a ride, how much more vulnerable are you and me.

Described here is a summary of costly ( worth a 100,000GBP!) lesson learned the hard way. With no intention to malign rather than to warn potential health care IT users and decision makers in health care setting is a summary of the pitfalls one could expect on the journey to health care automation.

Lesson 1 : Presentations are nothing but a bag of Gas.
Don't take anything at the face value of a presentation, verify the details, check with existing customers.
Take that extra effort of making a client visit , don't let the vendor arrange the visit for you. Choose your own client visit site, don't be mislead by the vendors arrangement of a site visit. ( you will never get to see the truth).

Lesson 2 : Any claim about functionality are non-existent until proven otherwise , ask for demonstration, see it working in a real life situation. Talk to the users of the system, user feedback should be given a high weightage in choosing a solution or vendor.

Lesson 3 : What you see on the vendors website is not you get .
If the website say talks about HL 7 or HIPPA , it doesn't mean the solution is HL 7 or HIPPA compliant. . They just mention that such things do exist.

Lesson 4 : Concentrate on Functionality , turn a blind eye to the technology.
Technology ( technical jargon) is one tool that all vendors spice up their presentations with, technology is the last thing you should be concerned with while choosing a HMS or EMR. They use it because its easy to falter you on that front. You know what functionality will help you and the patient , just stick to that. Irrespective of the technology used , ask for the functionality to be addressed and delivered.

Lesson 5 : Open Source is different from Open Platforms.
When a vendor talks about cost saving by using open source, they mean that they will save their costs by using open source tools. Ask for the type of license underwhich the product is being proposed, if its not GPL,then its most likely not open source.