Monday Morning Update 10/29/07

From Jennifer DeNuccio: “Re: athenahealth. On fire.” Link. Shares added 4.1% Friday, closing at $40.60.

From LaDonna Fredericks: “Re: running implementation projects outside of the IS department. We did this, but IS is responsible for all support, including the new system, leaving them unprepared to support the new application. The implementation group doesn’t care because they’re running the project, not supporting production, so they have no interest in making decisions based on what’s supportable. That’s why our database installation is inappropriate for an organization our side. Plus, a rift has been created between the implementation’s group fantasy and the IS reality. Consultants are coming to bail out the ‘new and improved’ project scope.”

From Muffy Tepperman: “Re: Misys. Upcoming departures: Mike Pritts (development VP) and Neal DeRozario (CIO).”

From Dr. Mark Craig: “Re: Kaiser. Croc is partially correct. The merger is responsible for some efficency cuts, but each IT VP and their units were mandated to make cuts and most units have nothing to do with HealthConnect. The prevalent rumor is that the new CIO and his new hires are on an outsourcing train and the train is powered by IBM.”

From John Ulasewicz: “Re: PHR. Here’s what I’d buy for my aging parents: a PHR with links to local services so that the individual’s family could keep in touch with social services, the grocery delivery people, etc. A software blackboard on the site would allow those participating in the care to post any issues, reassuring comments, notes that the lawn is getting mowed and the newspapers picked up, etc. Anything that saves an emergency trip would be worth it.”

From Lacey Underall: “Re: HIMSS. What about the worker-bees that never go to HIMSS? I’m just sitting in my cube coding my tail off all day. I’d love an “I Am Mr. HIStalk” button. Are you going to make me scrounge around on Ebay or will you start selling them from your blog?” I think I tossed all the buttons because they were a depressing reminder of the lack of interest in them at HIMSS, where for two years I tried to get the 1,000 or so of them onto lapels with minimal success. Maybe a new giveaway is needed that doesn’t involve shipping heavy buttons to convention centers (and back).

From Abe Froman: “Re: MRI contest. I hadn’t gone through all the videos to realize that Sumter Regional was in the running. Thanks for pointing it out. I will be sure to – as they say in Chicago – vote early and vote often.” Link. Choose Sumter Regional Hospital from the drop-down, watch the two-minute video (which is good), and click Vote. You can vote once a day from a given PC through December 31. I’m sure the other contestants deserve a free MRI machine too, but I have to root for the hospital that doesn’t even have a permanent building to work from.

From Marshall Blechtman: “Re: PHR. CVS/Caremark will be launching a PHR in 2008. With access to health plan claims data and PBM data, they plan to incorporate healthcare financial planning (HSA) and disease management guidance. I think the guidance will include taking more pills.  ;)” I’m already sick of the proliferation of PHRs. Even if folks wanted to use them, surely they’d be confused by competing services. Maybe CCHIT should certify them since they’re not interoperable and many are likely to fail.

From Rob Donovan: “Re: CIO. Larry Stofko has been named CIO at St. Joseph Health System in Orange County. Removes the interim title.”

New Medsphere CEO Mike Doyle predicts that the company, which he claims is the only open source provider in HIT, will be the largest healthcare IT vendor.

Reminder: most HIStalk postings (especially if you’re reading on HIStalk2) have several reader comments at the bottom. Worth your time to peruse, even though I sometimes put one right here in the main body of HIStalk because it tickles my fancy.

WSJ says McKesson’s low debt, reasonable share price, and hefty HIT profits could make the company a private equity takeover target.

Premise is #71 in Deloitte’s 2007 Fast Technology 500.

Kaiser-Santa Clara is fined $25,000 by the state health department for killing a seven-week old baby with nutritional and medication overdoses, one 25x the prescribed amount, the other 9x. Kaiser admitted the mistake, but is appealing the fine. Shands UF kills a three-year-old with 10x overdose of arginine on October 10, for which it has already apologized, admitted responsibility, placed a pharmacist and nurse on leave, and settled with the family. The newspaper also reports that “Medications for intravenous infusions must now be reviewed by the pharmacy manager”, which seems unlikely given the huge volumes involved at Shands and the questionable value added in making one person the bottleneck.

An assistant to the MIS director of New York City’s chief medical examiner pleads guilty to embezzlement, money laundering, and conspiracy for her involvement in a scheme to steal part of FEMA’s $46 million in 9/11 relief funds intended for forensic information systems. Her boss goes on trial next month.

Texas Department of State Health Services will implement Mediware’s mediMAR in 11 hospitals.

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Inga’s Update

From Wompa1, in response to Mr. H’s comment that I am ambulatory-centric: “I remember thinking the same thing, but I love it. Having been in a number of large, inpatient, IT projects over the years, it is easy to breeze by the clinics. However, I can’t tell you how many projects I have seen lately involving NextGen, Epic, Allscripts, Logician/Centricity, and Healthmatics. In the monkey-see-monkey-do world of health IT, clearly the ambulatory side is picking up speed. The readers are happy to have you, and the perspective. Keep it up! We’re reading. I also agree with you on the notion that the inpatient people think they are more important.”

Here‘s an interesting article on software-as-a-service vs. packaged applications. Jonathan Bush is quoted with this summary. “In Bush’s view, the Web equivalent of old-school software would be Yahoo charging $2,000 a seat for the ability to look up directions, rather than offering a free online mapping tool as it does today.” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer disagrees, of course.

E-mail Inga.