We're Not the Only Ones

Does this sound like an all too familiar news story?

A series of botched IT projects has left taxpayers with a bill of more than $37 billion for computer systems that have suffered severe delays, run millions of dollars over budget or have been canceled altogether.

Substitute pounds for dollars, and you've got the top story on Monday in The Independent of London, which catalogues a list of U.K. IT horror shows.

Leading the list is the $18.2 billion project to develop an electronic health record system in Britain. This project started in 2002 and to date, The Independent reported, has signed up a mere 150 health organizations out of the 9,000 in operation in the United Kingdom.

Maybe we ought to pay attention, as we have a $20 billion health IT project designed to sign up every doc and hospital in this country.