Fourteen Health Systems Extend Altera EHR Contracts
Fourteen health systems have renewed or extended their contracts with Altera Digital Health. The move reinforces the high barrier to displacing core EHR platforms, even as CIOs express dissatisfaction with existing systems.
- Altera Digital Health is the former hospital and large physician practice business of Allscripts, which was acquired by IT company Harris Healthcare in 2022. - The health systems renewing multi-year contracts for Altera's Sunrise EHR platform include Phoenix Children's, Grand Lake Health System, and the Hospital for Special Care, which extended its partnership until 2032. - Switching EHR vendors involves significant "vendor lock-in" costs, with contract departure and data export fees ranging from $3,000 to $10,000, and total switching costs potentially exceeding $50,000 for small practices and much more for large systems. - Beyond software fees, the process of changing EHRs includes often-underestimated expenses for data migration, hardware upgrades, and integrating the new system with existing applications for billing, labs, and pharmacies. - Data migration alone is a complex and expensive barrier to displacing an incumbent EHR, with estimates ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 depending on the volume and complexity of the records. - Common CIO complaints about EHRs include a lack of user-friendly design, systems that are better optimized for billing than for patient care, and a failure to meet mobility needs for physicians using smartphones and tablets. - Altera recently released a major platform update, Sunrise 25.1, which included around 700 system enhancements designed to simplify navigation and reduce cognitive burden for clinical staff. - The company also expanded its ecosystem by introducing new tools, including a native AI ambient scribe for documentation, a mobile patient engagement platform for self-scheduling and billing, and an intelligent faxing solution.
