The cost for each Queensland Hospital and Health Service to roll out the Cerner integrated electronic medical record (ieMR) has been underestimated and the hoped for benefits of the system have been slow to be realised, but users are generally positive about the system, the Queensland Audit Office (QAO) has found.
The Queensland government estimated in 2016 that the total cost of rolling the ieMR out to 25 hospitals would total $1.2 billion in capital and operational expenditure from its inception in 2011 up to 2025, but the auditor has found that this does not take into account the extra resources the individual HHSs will require.
It also found that the benefits were slower to be realised than expected, and there were differing opinions on whether the decision to use a single vendor rather than explore the market for alternatives is the right one. However, overall the audit found that digitising Queensland's public hospitals is delivering benefits in terms of improving health service delivery and patient outcomes.
