how much does it cost to maintain electronic health records
Study participants on average spent $5,900 on purchases related to hardware, software, peripherals, and network connections. 1  About half of the practices averaged $3,094 for IT and other outside support costs. 2  These costs do not factor in overtime pay or other workflow inefficiencies. Averaged across all 30 practices, out-of-pocket expenses in the first 6 months of an implementation reached $6,516. In a similar study published in the March 2011 issue of Health Affairs, 26 primary care practices in North Texas implemented an EHR across their medical network. The researchers considered the hardware/software costs, as well as the staff members' time and effort to complete the implementation. They determined that a typical multiphysician practice would spend about $162,000 to implement an EHR, with $85,500 for first-year maintenance costs.