Methodist Hospitals settles lawsuit with computer provider
By Teresa Auch Schultz tauch@post-trib.com October 15, 2012 3:28PM
Updated: November 17, 2012 6:17AM
The Methodist Hospitals has settled with several companies it claimed wasted more than $16 million on a computer system that never worked during a time when the company was running into financial problems.
Details of the settlement will remain confidential, according to records at the U.S. District Court in Hammond.
Methodist sued FTI Cambio, HealthNET and Medical Information Technology Inc. in January 2011. Methodist had to hire FTI in 2006 to help it recover financially, and part of FTI’s job was to steady the hospital group’s information technology.
FTI in turn hired HealthNET to look at a new software system Methodist was already installing. FTI and HealthNET then told Methodist to drop that system, on which it had already spent $26 million, in favor of another system they favored.
However, that system cost about $25 million more than the companies told Methodist, according to the lawsuit. Methodist claimed the companies lied to it about the true costs.
On top of that, the system also came with technical problems and wouldn’t work until the security and anti-virus protections were lowered. The hospitals then got hit with a computer virus that infected about 40 percent of its computers.
Methodist finally abandoned the system in 2009 when employees found it was losing patient information and causing other problems.
