News 1/30/08

From Curious George: “Re: Thomson. I’m surprised no one has mentioned that the CEO and VP of sales at Thomson Healthcare were both fired a couple of weeks ago.”

From The Alchemist: “Re: Middle East. On an engagement for a few months in the Middle East — you know, where all the money is. Let me propose a scenario to all you HIStalkers out there. If you had the funding, approximately 100 times the average U.S. hospital construction, what would want in your hospital? All fantasies will be accepted, but try to keep them earth-bound.”

From Scott Shreeve: “Re: athenahealth. My normally calm demeanor got a little rankled after reading Cady Heron’s comment that athena is just a billing operation.” Scott’s riposte is here.

From Tex Arcana: “Re: Christine Stanfield and QuadraMed. Yes, Christine was terminated on Thursday after receiving an unsolicited contact by another company about potential opportunities. In her research, she asked her line manager what her future role was with QM. Based on a brief discussion, QM considers these inquires as acts of resignation and promptly terminated her! The sad part is there are less than a handful of people left who know the CPR product. It’s apparent QM doesn’t get it after all.”

From Dave DiVida: “I can confirm the ‘departure’ of Christine Stanfield. I was just informed by current QuadraMed employees that QuadraMed showed her to the door. These people now report that since this development, morale there in San Bernardino is now lower than it has ever been … which is a real accomplishment, considering how low Misys could keep it. I’m dumbfounded. This is one of THE most knowledgeable CPR employee on the planet in my humble opinion. Potential employers should watch for the name to come across your desk if she’s seeking, or even proactively find a way to get in touch with her. If you have the opportunity, SNATCH HER UP.”

From Slim Whitman: “Re: Sumter. I remember reading in the rules (they’re now gone from the website) something along the lines that the MRI had to be installed in a permanent location and wondered how Sumter would qualify given that it would have to be located initially in a temporary structure. That may be the ‘gotcha’ here as on December 28th, Sumter was way ahead of Lockport in votes. Regardless, I am thrilled that Siemens chose to donate one to them as well. That’s TWO patient populations that will benefit!” I bet you’re right. Sumter did say that it would work out much better for them to take delivery later, when a permanent location will be ready. I rarely say anything nice about Siemens, but they did the right thing here and deserve kudos.

From Steve Lamo: “Re: Revolution Health. Revolution Health may have a PHR, but as a company which seems to have a strategy de jour approach, it is not very compelling and is not getting any traction in the market. The B2C model for PHRs which Revolution Health is pursuing  is not working. Also, with the impending release of Google Health, my bet is CEO Schmidt will introduce during HIMSS keynote, Revolution Health’s PHR prospects will be increasingly bleak.”

From Rogue: “Re: musings on data sharing. Hypothetical case: When I was 19 and in college, I was treated for an STD at the hospital connected to the university. Three years later in grad school, at a community hospital down the road, I saw a psychiatrist for a bout of depression associated with flunking two courses and changing my major. On meds for two months. Fast forward 10 years. Married now. One kid. All those electronic records are, of course, just archived on terabytes of EMC storage media. Why bother to electronically shred old EMRs? With storage so cheap, it’s easier to just file them. The new RHIO links those two hospitals with everyone else in the area/state. My new medical record, in Employee Health at hospital #3 where I now work, contains all this juicy info, right?  It’s just a Social Security number link away. And of course, since the patient doesn’t own their records, the facilities do, I have no control over who sees what. My hospital (employer) EHR now contains links to all this old stuff, right? Is this possible? What am I missing? I’m in the business and I can’t figure out how to reassure my neighbor that a certain degree of privacy IS possible with EMRs. Is some measure of privacy and personal control only possible if RHIOs fail?”

From For the Record: “Re: Cerner. For the record, John Goodrow used to work at Cerner as a lab sales person. Not sure how forthcoming he will be.” That’s in reference to the downtime rumor. I’ve heard from several readers that Cerner puts contract language in that prohibits hospital people from saying anything bad about them, but I don’t recall seeing that in there. If you have, send it over, please. That would be fascinating to know.

Several vendors e-mailed offering to hand out HIStalk goodies at their HIMSS booths. I’ve sent out the pitiful supply I have to the vendors who asked first, but if anybody wants to create their own HIStalk trinkets or arrange some sort of in-booth entertainment that would benefit HIStalk readers, I’ll promote it (I’m thinking a buxom Miss HIStalk in evening gown and sash — along with a male equivalent — to hold court at booths at an appointed time, but I’m open to ideas).

The VA’s had quite a few data leaks, but it’s the water variety that got them in Tennessee. A broken water pipe damages the VA’s servers, so clinics all over the state were shut down yesterday and today.

Leslie White, PR VP for McKesson, e-mailed to say that it’s not the end of the line for the Dubuque crowd. The company will move operations and 340 positions to a new facility in the spring of 2009 to provide space for growth.

I hoped you enjoyed the interview with Denis Baker. Denis noted that he’s getting calls galore from people he’s known but not heard from over the years because of my wide readership, many of them trying to sell him something. Surely salesfolk aren’t so desperate that just mentioning his name here would open the floodgates? (other than GE, which he called out specifically as ignoring him).

Marshfield Clinic CIO Jeremy Miller is nominated for a case study award on the use of Fujitsu tablet PCs at Healthcare IT Summit.

American Hospital Dubai announces what it says will be the most advanced integrated healthcare information system in the UAE, using technology from Meditech, Lawson, Siemens, Cisco, and HP.

The Military Health System will enhance AHLTA’s imaging capabilities for scanned documents and photographs using a Web-based front end for its Documentum content management system.

Sweeny Community Hospital (TX) is written up by the local paper as the CCHIT certification site of Prognosis Health Information System‘s inpatient EMR.

I’m really buried, so don’t give up that I may eventually reply to your e-mails. I barely have time to sleep between work and after-work. I’m sure it will build my character if I survive.

E-mail me.

Inga’s Update

I am still trying to figure out how I was on the mailing list for a particular mailing received over the weekend. I was notified of a new physician house call service that specializes in providing at-home Botox injections. (I was embarrassed to ask my more youthful neighbors if they got the same mailing). But, it does beg the question whether or not the cutie Dr. Parkinson provides this service. Anyway, I have spent too much time in the last couple of days looking in the mirror and wondering if someone in my life is suggesting it’s time for Botox.

Federal health inspectors fault Kaiser’s Fresno hospital for not acting on complaints and keeping a closer watch on its medical staff following an investigation into one its perinatologists. It’s a sad story with no winners and includes the death of at least two babies and the resignation of hospital administrator Susan Ryan.

Eclipsys announces the availability of Sunrise Clinical Essentials, a seemingly “lite” version of their original Sunrise Clinical Manager solution. It offers more pre-configured software and pre-defined implementation methodology for quicker setup and easier support. Coming soon to a small community hospital near you!

HIMSS Analytics announces they’ve doubled the number of free benchmarking reports available to healthcare providers. The only catch is that providers first have to complete HIMSS Analytics’ Annual Survey to populate the HIMSS Analytics database.

Re: RemedyMD. A reader considering a job with them recently asked for any insights from any current or former employees. A former staffer told me the CEO was great and they have some great products, although for a sales position, it’s always good to verify how ready they are for market.

Cerner Millennium will be implemented in the three hospitals that are part of Health Quest healthcare system in NY’s Hudson Valley.

EpicTide is now FairWarning. The supplier of privacy auditing solutions for EHRs also announces a 200% growth in software bookings for 2007 and expectations for a positive cash flow by the end of this quarter.

Newton Memorial Hospital is appropriated $146K from the federal budget, courtesy of the efforts of their Congressmen. The money will be applied towards their $7 million Cerner computer infrastructure. This announcement comes a couple of weeks after the hospital laid off eight people, blaming the cuts on $3 million in state Medicare spending cuts and squeezes from physician-owned ambulatory surgery centers. (The same article also indicated their marketing department had to be streamlined as well, but I would say they still did a pretty good job blaming others with nary a mention of the $7 million elephant in the room).

More CCHIT 2007 certifications: Allscripts Healthmatics EHR Version 2007.1 and MediNotes e Version 5.2. Both have pre-market approvals.

Here’s a new networking site for all the HIT geeks out there. The description: the Healthcare Technology Alliance is a group of technology specialists working in the health care industry. Clearly they are in need of a marketing specialist to help spice up that language.

If you haven’t already, check out the cool interviews at www.histechreport.com. Don’t miss Mr. H’s “Bottom Lines” which include a bunch of those well-loved “Mr. H-isms.” (Ok, that isn’t a word, but it should be.) The latest ones are on The White Stone Group and Stratus (both who are going to be exhibiting at HIMSS.)

E-mail Inga.