This lawsuit alleges Allscripts “misled its physician customers about the quality and functionality of MyWay” electronic health record (EHR) software which was sold to approximately 5,000 physicians across the nation from 2009 until Allscripts withdrew it from the market at the end of 2012. The cost of the software, according to the law firm’s website was “approximately $40,000 per physician to implement.”

The attorneys created this website to provide information about the suit: http://allscriptsmywayclassaction.com/

According to the site "Allscripts misled its physician customers about the quality and functionality of MyWay. The product never worked well and, after four years, in the face of mounting complaints and market pressures to resolve the issues and provide refunds, Allscripts “sunsetted” the product. Rather than ensure that MyWay met its customers’ needs, Allscripts made the decision to unilaterally “upgrade” its customers to another – and more expensive – software named Professional Suite Electronic Health Record System (“EHR Pro”). The “free upgrade” was anything but free. Unlike MyWay, EHR Pro was not developed for small physician groups, is more complicated and more expensive to maintain, and requires more complex integration and staff training."

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To us, this seems a bit similar to the class action law suit against Target by the National Federation of the Blind. Target settled out of court for $6 million!. The Target website lawsuit was a wakeup call to e-commerce vendors telling them that they needed to take Section 508 of the ADA more seriously. Target didn't consider blind users when creating their site and it cost them big time.

It seems to us that Allscripts also forgot to take their users into perspective. Had they conducted formative usability evaluations before launching these products they could have saved these projects--and the company millions. They still haven't learned: a recent article mentioned that Allscripts was partnering with outside software development organizations (http://healthcareusability.com/article/ehr-companies-partnering-outside-...).

Too bad they didn't reach out to The Usability People.

For expert usability evaluations of your companies EHR: Contact The Usability People