Prominent EHR vendor eClinicalWorks is now facing a class-action lawsuit that revolves around the inaccuracy of their medical record software. The lawsuit alleges that patients cannot trust eClinicalWorks medical record’s accuracy due to several flaws.
The mentioned class action lawsuit was filed by the estate of a cancer patient (Stjepan Tot estate). The estate claimed that the patient was unable to determine the initiation of cancer symptoms began because of the faulty EMR software.
The new suit has been filed just six months after eClinicalWorks had to deal with a $155 million settlement in order to resolve a False Claims Act suit. The suit alleged that the company gave customers kickbacks in a bit to publically promote its products.
Stjepan Tot estate is reported to have filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York. The estate is asking for $999 million in monetary damages.
Although Stjepan Tot has died of cancer, but the suit is actively in place and is there to ensure that other people may not die just the same as him. The lawsuit claims that Tot was unable to reliably determine the first appearance of his cancer symptoms and this happened because eClinicalWorks medical records failed to precisely display his medical history on progress notes.
The lawsuit further claimed that due to the negligence of the company millions of patients today have compromised patient records. The reason for this is that eClinicalWorks’ software fails to meet the meaningful use and certification requirements that are placed by the Office of the National Coordinator. According to the lawsuit, there are more than 850,000 healthcare providers in the US that use eClinicalWorks software.
Other shortcomings of the company listed in the complaint include company’s failure to properly record diagnostic imaging orders; failure data portability requirements; failure to audit log requirements and failure to satisfy required certification criteria.
News sources are now waiting for a response from eClinicalWorks and an explanation to the mentioned lawsuit. EMR software are developed to help providers save lives and if there is a software out there that is doing the complete opposite of it, then something needs to be done about it.
