WASHINGTON – Close on the heels of a letter sent to several IT infrastructure companies this past fall, in which he investigated “complaints and/or concerns” he’d received about electronic medical records, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) has issued another missive to 31 American hospitals.

In his letter, Grassley asks those providers 11 detailed questions about their experiences so far with the purchasing and implementation of healthcare IT.

With $19 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act earmarked for medical information technology, Grassley writes that he has “a special responsibility to protect the health of the [IT] programs’ more than 100 million beneficiaries as well as the congressionally authorized tax dollars used to fund” them.

Grassley cites reports he’s heard about “difficulties and challenges associated with HIT implementation,” including “administrative complications,” “formatting and usability issues,” “computer errors stemming from the programs themselves,” and problems with “interoperability between programs.”

More specifically, he raises concerns that “when [providers] report such problems to their facilities and/or the product vendors, their concerns are sometimes ignored or dismissed.” Often, he writes, “this is attributed to alleged ‘gag orders’ or non-disclosure clauses in the HIT contract that prohibit health care providers and their facilities from sharing information outside of their facilities regarding product defects and other HIT product-related concerns.”

Questioning the “lack of a national system for reporting product errors or failures and adverse events associated with the use of such products,” Grassley makes clear in his letter that his mandate as a senator is to ensure that patients are treated safely and that tax dollars are “appropriately spent on effective and interoperable HIT systems.”

The list of 31 providers Grassley contacted is on the next page.