John Moore and Rob Tholemeier write:
A common and somewhat unique aspect to EHR vendor contracts is that the EHR vendor lays claim to the data entered into their system. Rob and I have worked in many industries as analysts. Nowhere, in our collective experience, have we seen such a thing. Manufacturers, retailers, financial institutions, etc. would never think of relinquishing their data to their enterprise software vendor of choice.
It confounds us as to why healthcare organizations let their vendors of choice get away with this and frankly, in this day of increasing concerns about patient privacy, why is this practice allowed in the first place?
Read more on HealthcareITNews. Of course, they take the position that the data belongs to the healthcare organization (and maybe not the patient?), which may raise some ire in some of this site’s readers, but at the very least, entities should not be allowing EHR vendors to assume ownership of data. Responsibility to protect data, yes. Ownership as in with all the rights that go with ownership, no.