Digging deeper, Black Book asked if in-patient revenue would eventually offset the investment in new technology. Fourteen percent said their in-patient dollars were fading so fast they would never recoup their investment.

"It was a risky decision as hospitals were facing the fact that they would not be back to their pre-EHR implementation patient volumes, inpatient or ambulatory, for at least another five years," said Doug Brown, managing partner of Black Book, in a statement. "No other industry spends so much per unit of IT on the part of the business that is shrinking the fastest and holds little growth as did inpatient revenues.”

The survey also showed that two-thirds of IT staff (excluding managers) believe the switch negatively affected medical care, and nine in 10 nurses said essentially the same. However, hospital executives didn’t agree; only 5 percent said the IT changeover negatively affected health delivery. No big surprise there, said Brown.

"In our experience polling, most executives will not admit they were oversold or that their IT decisions had adverse bearing on patient care," he said.