How to Fix a Healthcare Software After Your Vendor Ruins It

Isn’t it exciting when your healthcare software is finally in development and you’re counting down to the big launch?

But then you keep hearing, “We just need two more weeks to finish it.” And the worst part is that they’ve been saying that for six months.

If that sounds familiar, we hear you. A huge number of healthcare software projects fall apart simply because the wrong vendor was at the wheel. In fact, studies show that up to 70% of healthcare technology projects fail due to cost overruns, poor usability, or low adoption.

We’ve been called in countless times to rescue applications that veered completely off track. Failed EHR integrations, clunky patient portals, systems no one can actually use, we've fixed them all.

But we're not here for a vendor-blaming rant.

In this blog, we’re going to break down how to fix healthcare software that was derailed by a previous vendor and how you can relaunch it successfully.

Let’s get started.

How Bad Vendors Kill Healthcare Software Projects

Healthcare software projects must be developed with precision and care.

Organizations need to take a strategic lens to diagnose the root causes of failure, helping them better understand their vendors and make more intelligent choices.

Here’s a glimpse into the chaos many healthcare teams face.

1. No Discovery, Just Delivery

Many vendors get straight into development without investing enough time in discovery.

They skip critical steps, such as stakeholder interviews and workflow and regulatory scoping. The result, as expected, is software that looks good on paper but collapses in practice. 

2. Zero Healthcare Context

Healthcare isn’t like fintech or retail. It has its own ecosystem of standards, such as FHIR, HL7, and HIPAA, that govern how data flows and privacy is protected.

Vendors without this context create ticking compliance time bombs.

In this context, Pete Peranzo, Co-founder of Imaginovation, shares, "The biggest hurdle that companies face with these healthcare-type applications is compliance. There's just so much compliance that it slows everything down."

3. Poor Communication and Transparency

What happens when communication breaks down?

Trust erodes, and quite often, by the time clients realize something is wrong, it’s usually too late.

4. Shortcut Code and Technical Debt

Rushing to meet unrealistic deadlines, vendors often “make it work” with quick fixes.

But in healthcare, those shortcuts don’t just break software, but also risk patient safety.

5. The MVP Mirage

The “fast MVP” promise can be deceptive. Vendors deliver something that looks usable, but lacks the robustness for real-world healthcare environments. 

👉 Bottom line

Most failed healthcare software projects don’t just fail overnight; they collapse quietly under poor processes.

Other factors, such as poor communication and misplaced priorities, also contribute to the failure. Each delay, shortcut, and misstep compounds until the system, and the trust collapses.

What Great Healthcare Software Developers Do Differently?

For healthcare leaders ready to seize the moment, developing future-proof healthcare software is essential. Finding a reliable and expert partner can make all the difference.

Here’s a glimpse of the opportunities you can unlock with the right partner guiding your healthcare software project.

1. Discovery-First, Always

Top partners have a systematic process for asking the tough questions. The discovery process is detailed, helping to understand the project thoroughly before writing a single line of code.

They invest time in understanding workflows, user needs, and regulatory constraints. This background work helps to ensure that development starts on solid ground.

2. Compliance-Led Thinking

They design with HIPAA, PHI, and clinical validation built in from the beginning, not added as an afterthought.

3. Clear Documentation and Ownership

All stakeholders have visibility, which is ensured through transparent code repositories.

Moreover, the partners work on structured handoffs and open collaboration. These steps are taken to ensure accountability throughout the project lifecycle.

4. Empathy for the End User

Every feature is tied to clinical or patient workflows, not just developer convenience, making the software truly usable in real-world settings.

5. Long-Term Thinking

Architecture is designed with the heart to ensure scalability and maintainability. The development team will never build healthcare software projects for short-term sprints or quick fixes.

 How to Fix Broken Healthcare Projects for Good

Here's a surefire way to rescue and future-proof a failing healthcare software project.

Step 1: Audit Existing Project

You cannot fix without knowing what needs fixing.

Therefore, it is a great idea to do a full-fledged audit on both technical and compliance aspects.

Among the factors that need audit are code quality, infrastructure, and data governance. You can give a thought to identify what’s salvageable and what constitutes technical debt.

Remember to check review contracts, documentation, and access controls.

👉 Key takeaway: It will help to get a clear picture of the extent of the rescue, so that you can work around it.

Step 2: Reconsider Your Development Partners

When selecting the right delivery partner, one must remember that it is a strategic decision. It is best not to consider it as a procurement exercise.

Ask the questions that reveal real capability:

• How is healthcare compliance embedded in your architecture?
• Who owns the code and IP?
• What’s your discovery and handoff process?

👉 Watch for red flags:

There are clear red flags to watch out for, such as unclear accountability or weak processes. Yet another red flag is evasive communication.

👉 Mindset:

When choosing partners, remember the focus should be on working towards long-term transformation partners.

Step 3: Redefine Discovery

In this stage, you must take in stride the broken projects that are most often based on poor discovery and work to redo them. It is also great to reconfirm business goals, workflows, and clinical outcomes.

All leaders, from clinical to operational to IT, must be in alignment. Further, the focus can be on defining compliance checkpoints and critical paths before design begins.

👉 Insight: It is worth noting that robust discovery prevents 80% of rebuild costs later.

Step 4: Plan, Don’t Patch

In the next stage, it will help to adopt a structured recovery roadmap that focuses on stabilizing the software project. The development team can then work together to redesign the project.

As the stage shapes up, one needs to work on redeployment. During this stage, it is vital to prioritize high-risk areas, including data integrity and user experience.

Yet another facet to work on is allocating the budget for validation and testing, in addition to coding.

👉 Imaginovation Insight:

Imaginovation’s experience has been that teams often spend less time rebuilding correctly than endlessly patching flawed systems.

Step 5: Redesign and Develop the Right Way

When redesigning, remember to modernize the software project, keep scalability in mind. It is vital to have a tight check on building security features and to keep sustainability in mind.

A great way will be to use agile sprints with transparent milestones. The development team can embed compliance monitoring from day one.

At every stage, document all technical and design decisions.

👉 Imaginovation edge:

At Imaginovation, we enforce developer accountability, ensure transparency of ownership, and maintain governance throughout the build.

Step 6: Validate, Test, and Govern

The QA and Testing phase is crucial, and the software project must go through rigorous validation with long-term oversight.

The vendor must ensure the project goes through continuous QA and HIPAA/FDA compliance checks. It will be great to have independent audits before production.

When it comes to ongoing governance, make sure to include:

• Regular compliance audits
• Change-management protocols
• Vendor performance tracking 

Wrapping Up: Your Vendor Failed, Not Your Vision

When a project fails, you can either mull over your strategy going wrong or reconsider whether you’ve looped in the wrong vendor.

The good news: many healthcare organizations have rebuilt stronger systems after setbacks by taking things in stride, reassessing what went wrong, and aligning business goals with technology delivery.

If you, too, are dealing with a failed or stalled healthcare software project, you may start with a quick audit. Our team at Imaginovation can help you uncover what’s fixable and reignite the vision you started with.

We have extensive experience in building, integrating, and scaling the right solutions with confidence.

Let’s talk.