Provider Lawsuit Against Two Health-Care Information Technology Firms

When things go wrong with software and IT providers, it is often almost impossible to find relief because of the way their contracts are written, Amazingly, a New Jersey health-care provider was allowed to proceed with its lawsuit against two health-care information technology firms that represented they could convert patient files from NextGen to Allscripts, computer software programs physicians use to track all aspects of patient care. Nearly 200,000 patient charts were corrupted when the conversion attempt failed. The plaintiff sued under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act and the defendants argued the Act didn’t apply. The court had none of it. They found the defendants apparently offered a guarantee of results, and professed to have expertise in the conversions when they had never done it before. The court found the risk of harm was obvious, the nature of the data was of public significance and that the case could proceed. It offers tantalizing possibilities in contracting with IT and software vendors.