CAMC may contract out its computer work

DAILY MAIL STAFF

Charleston Area Medical Center is considering contracting out thecomputer work currently done by more than 100 of its employees, butthat doesn't mean those employees will necessarily end up without ajob, a company official said today.

"These people, or a good percentage of them, are going to bepicked up by the outside vendor, if we decide to go that route," saidhospital spokesman Andy Wessels.

The company is considering offers from Siemens Medical SolutionsHealth Services Corp. and McKesson Information Solutions Inc. CernerCorp. and IBM are also considering submitting a joint bid for thehospital's business.

Wessels said Siemens and McKesson have agreed to interview andconsider hiring the workers who would lose their jobs if the hospitalcontracts for computer services instead of doing them in-house, hesaid.

The hospital doesn't expect to make a decision before the first ofnext year, Wessels said.

Hospital officials informed workers Wednesday that they could belosing their jobs next year. David Ramsey, CAMC's chief executiveofficer, said the company may end up contracting all of its computerwork, keep it all in-house or go with some combination of the twoextremes.

If the hospital contracts out the work, it would still be done inthe Charleston area, he said. The main advantage to contracting thework out is that the vendors can do it more cheaply than the hospitalcan, he said.

"An outside firm like that can bring expertise and additionalresources and technology that we can't," Wessels said.

The University of Pennsylvania's Health System and the DetroitMedical Center have both saved at least 15 percent on their computercosts by contracting them out, he said.

Lynn Brookshire, CAMC's vice president for information services,said the medical center is spending about $22 million on informationtechnology this year.

Writer Brian Bowling can be reached at 348-4842 or by e-mail atbrianbowling@dailymail.com.