From Dr. Know: "Re: Stanford. Spoke with a physician at Stanford today. They recently went live with Epic. The physicians are in revolt: ‘takes too much time and is very difficult to use.’  Also, if you admit a pediatric patient through the ER and they need to be admitted into the children’s hospital, all of the information needs to be re-entered manually from paper, as Lucille Packard runs Cerner and it is not interfaced with Epic, which is running at Stanford Hospital."

From kcstar: "Re: Jay Parkinson. For all of your fawning, it seems he was more of a self-promoter than a physician. The outcome was predictable, and as he even stated, ‘unsustainable’." Link. I interviewed him, but I wouldn’t say I fawned. He has some good ideas and I like the idea of going off the grid (as Scott Shreeve says), but he’s not fault-free. He thinks he’s got the entire system figured out despite being a new med school grad, he seems to be a bit smug, his kind of medical practice has zero relevance to the 99.99% of the country that’s not in New York City treating young and healthy hipsters for the occasional sniffle, and he seems to hate just about everything and everybody involved in medicine outside his little world. For a brand new doctor, he’s shrewdly wangled his 15 minutes of fame, but can his "tear it down and start over" ideas scale and is he really the best spokesperson for changing medicine just because he does magazine interviews and blogs and sometimes finds time to see a patient for cash? Time will tell. Give him credit for some pretty fresh ideas, at least, even though his experience with the non-fresh ones is minimal. I’m happy he took the time to be interviewed here since few in the industry had heard of him back in November and the ensuing debate was interesting.

Speaking of 15 minutes of fame, Dann, who started the HIStalk Fan Club on LinkedIn, let me know that it’s up to 58 members, which I find astounding and immensely gratifying (especially when I see the roster of highly accomplished folks who signed up – thanks!) I keep thinking I should offer something in return, like dibs on signing up for the HIMSS shindig or something (which, FYI, looks to be on track). Having a fan club is pretty darned cool, especially since being anonymous eliminates the possibility of egomania.

I do my share of Neal Patterson ribbing, but I’m also on record as being a fan in many ways (started Cerner and stuck around, didn’t sell out to some conglomerate, says whatever he damn well pleases). Case in point: Google is sweet-talking Cerner about jumping on the shaky Google Health bandwagon, but Neal is keeping them at arm’s length since he doesn’t buy the PHR concept, which he calls "electronic shoeboxes" that put the onus on consumers for record-keeping. I’m with Neal on that one. Consumers might use healthcare search engines and social networks, but they aren’t going to keep reliable medical records.

If you get Healthcare IT News, your information is available to anyone willing to pay $150 per thousand addresses for list rental. HIMSS calls the publication a "member benefit," i.e. you get a subscription by default to boost its ad rates, but apparently the benefit isn’t entirely yours. I must be the only person who has thousands of industry e-mail addresses that I won’t share with anyone.

Ah, to have minimally inquisitive publications willing to print whatever companies send over. Health Imaging News crows about McKesson’s "unveiling" of MyPacs.net. A 10-second Google fact-check would have shown that to be false: the original journal article describing its development was accepted in 2001 and the site was announced at RSNA 2002. Unless "unveil" means "bought the original company and put out a press release," it most certainly was not just unveiled.

Fundraising software vendor Blackbaud, whose products are used by many hospital foundations, will buy struggling competitor Kintera for $46 million in cash.

The 12-hospital group in Canada whose MEDITECH systems were down is back online. The company blames a corrupted file, but the media report says two US hospitals had the same problem at the same time. Seems suspicious that three customers all had corrupted files simultaneously.

Wyoming is considering allowing CNAs to administer medications, but only for specific drugs, most of them non-prescription. A waste of time, it would appear, since patients seldom need only those meds, so the nurse would have to go behind them to finish the med pass anyway.

Ontario will invest $109 million to improve ED efficiency, with part of the money set aside for IT.

Thanks for reading. If you aren’t getting the e-mail update or Brev+IT, you can sign up to your right (and I won’t sell your information). I’m always interested in rumors or thoughts, easily submitted by clicking that big green Rumor Report box to your right.

E-mail me.

Art Vandelay’s 10 Tips for Finding IT Budget Cuts

1. Create a list of all contracts. Detail the benefits of the components to the business. Document the key terms. Be sure to include the impact of canceling and restarting maintenance. Look for consolidation opportunities. Also look for areas of low impact if a cut occurred. Possibly negotiate longer-term maintenance deals (ex: go from one-year maintenance to three-year). Review contracts for network carrier services, cellular and wireless data, pagers, real estate leases, and power.

2. Review your application inventory and document functions. Look for overlaps and apps with few benefits. Consider the cost of consolidation and migration.

3. Review the project inventory budget impact. Consider initial and recurring costs. Look for overlaps, low tangible benefits, and those with long paybacks. Consider leasing hardware or software. Also consider risk-based contracts for services.

4. Create chargeback reports if you aren’t doing so. This requires developing a list of all costs and an allocation method. Look for business units with an inordinate amount of costs with little tangible return. In more progressive organizations, the reports allow leaders to monitor and adjust their variable costs with some explanation of the impact.

5. Create a database of staff ratings including true performance reviews. Next, align the output with the project inventory and application importance or benefits. Identify staff that can be cross-trained to pick-up other projects in the pipeline if a staff reduction occurs.

6. Run a zero-based budget with a fair-minded financial analyst involved. Note the areas where cuts occur so you are ready if asked.

7. Analyze the use of your reporting applications. Provide real examples of where the tools can benefit this type of analysis, such as staffing, lost revenue, cost reporting, and supplies.

8. Consider virtualization and consolidation. Potentially related benefits include reduced power consumption, heat generation, and maintenance costs Align hardware with key benefits. Focus investments in hardware on those platforms benefiting the business the most as well as where you have the most skills.

9. Bid all hardware purchases even if it moves them away from your standard suppliers. Minimally, this gives you leverage to keep your suppliers honest.

10. Consider use of open source software where you have or can buy or build skills.

 View/Print Text Only

From Moses: "Re: CCHIT. Big changes for 2008 CCHIT ambulatory certification criteria that goes into effect with the first application window 07/01/08. Two new extensions to the base certification, Child Health and Cardiovascular. Certified status good for two years as opposed to current three. Lots of new interoperable functional requirements." Link. The two new extensions are optional, but enhanced interoperability is not (sending and receiving patient summaries per HITSP standards). And, did you notice that those exciting new NAHIT acronym definitions differentiate the term EHR from EMR by basically saying that CCHIT-certified EMRs are by definition EHRs, but everything else is an EMR? Seems a bit self-referential. I personally think EHR is a standard no vendor has yet reached (longitudinal, containing health and not just medical records, accessible for reading and updating by all providers from pharmacies to acupuncturists, and contributing to aggregate data sources). But, who am I to argue with BearingPoint, especially when I’m not the one getting $500K?

From Craig Garrison: "Re: Misys. The end of their fiscal year is May 31 and apparently only about 10% of the sales force is expected to achieve quota. Bet that a number of salespeople become available for hire over the next few weeks (some by their own choosing and some to Misys choosing)."

From The PACS Designer: "Re: miniPACS. A new miniPACS has been developed by researchers in South Korea. The team at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital reports that the miniPACS they developed is wireless and saves time when compared to manual archiving of digital records. The researchers utilized a laptop computer with 802.11b wireless LAN functionality and incorporated internally developed DICOM modality and storage server modules. The mean time interval from image acquisition to main PACS server storage was five minutes and 42.4 seconds when the wireless miniPACS was used, compared with 38 minutes and 25.5 seconds without." Link.

From Curious: "Re: downtime. Last week, while visiting a patient at Hillcrest Medical Center in Tulsa Oklahoma (an Ardent facility), I heard the nursing staff complaining of their system being down. Being the curious HIS professional, I could not resist inquiring as to the nature of the problem. They were told the downtime was the result of a fire at the Nashville data center.  Also, they were told it could last several days. Not sure what happened, my friend was discharged the next day. Sounded like big news! Does anyone know if Ardent or McKesson made an announcement or possibly declared a sentinel event?" Perhaps Inga can make an inquiry.

Hartford Hospital will repay $800,000 to Medicare for chemotherapy overcharging. I don’t know why hospitals don’t complain more about the ridiculously complex software and process requirements just to get bills out to the feds, which I’m guessing gave Hartford heartburn. Example: now they want NDC numbers and complex package size calculations every time outpatients get drugs. Nobody barcode scans outpatients (surgery, cath, etc.) Nobody except the caregiver knows exactly what they used to prepare an individual patient’s dose. It’s nearly impossible to follow the guidelines about package size choice and wastage. Imagine the clinical good that could be built into systems if they weren’t constantly being overhauled just to keep Uncle Sam happy. Anybody complaining about how far behind healthcare IT is compared to other industries should have to sit through an overview of how grouper and case mix programs work. No industry I know of has to spend so much automation energy just to create an invoice.

This article on practice EMR adoption is more interesting when it talks about the inpatient EMR cost of a couple of hospitals: Texas Health Resources ($200 million) and Baylor ($240 million.)

Scott Shreeve noticed that Ingenix apparently plans to go open source with its analytics tools. Check this quote: "I think it is because we don’t define ourselves by our products alone, but the problems we solve and the imagination of our people and clients. Believe it or not, our employees would rather be known to our clients for solving bigger problems and being known as industry leaders than for competing based on proprietary data and methodologies. This represents a whole new way of thinking for us if we are willing to improve." That’s pretty cool. I’ve asked for an interview, so we’ll see.

Inga mentions below that Fujitsu is pulling out of its NHS contract (following Accenture, of course, which already retreated tail between legs). BT is the heir apparent, but here’s the rub: like Fujitsu, BT uses Cerner as its subcontractor for the London region. Some NHS folks have been bitterly and vocally opposed to Cerner Millennium, possibly the point that NHS could decide not to choose another contractor at all, letting the trusts go their own way. I’ve said all along that localization issues would be a struggle for Cerner and that iSoft had plenty of problems before it ever hooked up with NHS. Are there any vendors left ready to step up to the plate immediately with a greater chance of success? Just one: Epic. Here’s why that makes sense: they’ve proven through Kaiser that they can handle massive deployments, they’ve been rumored to have an interest in going international, it’s by far the highest KLAS-rated system, and just about every large US health system making a clinical systems decision seems to pick Epic these days and they’re all doing just fine (other than the monstrous cost). If they want to expand outside the US, the UK is the obvious choice, especially since it’s big business in one swoop. I don’t have any information (insider or otherwise), but if Millennium comes under serious UK fire, I bet Judy will be on a plane (if she hasn’t already been). CERN shares were down 2.7% today.

Proof that spell check still requires human oversight: this press release. Sunshine Medical Clinic became SunShine Medial Clinic, which implemented Electronic Medial Records software. And course, you just know that mistakes of that magnitude will conclude with a HIPPA gaffe and you won’t be disappointed. I could point out a few more errors, but that’s plenty.

A new problem: researchers are getting caught Photoshopping the images they submit to journals.

Jobs: Clinical Applications Specialist (MA), Database Administrator/Architect (MA), HL7 Interface Analyst (TX), Medical Billing Professionals (CO), Service Specialist (TX). Gwen writes a fun, chatty weekly newsletter with all the jobs that even I read, for which you can sign up here.

Orion Health is offering a white paper about the use of its integration products with MEDITECH.

Cardinal Health may have one of its drug warehouses shut down by the Ohio board of pharmacy for selling large quantities of controlled substances to a company that was peddling them on the Internet.

E-mail me.

Inga’s Update

The EEOC files a federal class action lawsuit against John Muir Health (CA), claiming that it didn’t hire at least seven nurses based on a doctor’s incorrect diagnosis of latex allergies. The lawsuit contends the organization acted "with malice and/or reckless indifference to (the nurses’) federally protected rights."

NHS terminates its $1.8 billion contract with Fujitsu for EHR implementation at a southern England hospital following a dispute over the government’s demands for more flexibility over the system being installed. NHS and Fujitsu could not agree on payment terms for the changes.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Worthing and Southlands Hospital says its Cerner Millennium system is still suffering from “inferior functionality,” leading to “significant level of discontent among clinicians.” He also goes on to say the hospital is unable to satisfactorily capture, record, and bill all activity. Sounds like they’ve got themselves one big ole mess over there.

Moses Taylor Hospital replaces Microsoft Exchange with Linux-based Exchange clone PostPath. The IT staff claims PostPath was half the price and is working well for its 700 users.

A few days ago, we mentioned the city of San Francisco is suing McKesson for allegedly conspiring to artificially inflate wholesale drug prices. Now Connecticut has followed its lead with a similar suit.

Microsoft announces it has bumped its funding an additional $1.5 million for its HealthVault Be Well awards, designed to “encourage innovative online solutions to address significant health issues.” If I were Mr. H, I would probably say something cynical, like Microsoft is simply trying to pay more companies to interface with HealthVault. Since I am Inga, I will instead say kudos for any effort to improve health and outcomes for patients.

Berger Health Systems announces its successful deployment of the PatientKeeper Platform and Physician Portal.

Aetna is named the top payer for its business dealings with physicians in athenahealth’s latest PayerView rankings, which are based on actual claims performance for athenahealth providers. The State of New York’s Medicaid program ranked last in the nation due to its complex patient referral authorization requirements, slow or non-existent reimbursement policies, insistence on the use of proprietary medical claims forms, and confusing and paper-based billing requirements.

A computer crash Monday affects 12 northwest Ontario hospitals. The hospital issued this statement Tuesday: “We currently know that this is not a hardware issue, but is rather an issue related to software code. Our vendor, Meditech, is working diligently to remedy the situation. The delivery of patient care will be slowed as a result of this interruption of service. Expect longer waits, especially in the Emergency Department.” Officials also say the outage poses no risk to patients or their data (assuming you are not bleeding to death in the ER, I suppose). They also claim it’s difficult to project when the problem will be fixed.

E-mail Inga.

 View/Print Text Only

From drNurse: "Re: new site. Thanks for the best blog in the world! Fabulous news! HIStalk makes my day. Have you seen this? (It showed up on the AMIA OpenSource working group list…)  Pretty funny, and, sadly true. One of our faculty just wrote to ask if they have an academic advisory board. They need one, don’t you think?!" Link, and also its sister site. Somebody mocked up a pretty fun parody of CCHIT and EMR vendors. Given the carefully hidden registration information, the elaborate site design, and the flurry of blog mentions that surely aren’t coincidental, I’m betting it’s a viral marketing project of a vendor. I got quite a few e-mails about both sites. I think they do need an advisory board and you and I should be on it (for an appropriate stipend and travel to exotic meeting locales, of course). Thanks for your ultra-nice comments, by the way.

From Charles Bronson: "Re: RHG. They laid off their entire Employer Group business unit on Thursday, 21 people representing most of the seasoned health care people." Unverified, but I’ll ask Inga to check it out.

From HIS_Grue: "Re: Philips selling MedQuist. MedQuist is the world’s largest medical transcription company and would be larger if the Cbay/MedQuist merger goes through. The new MedQuist transcription platform has speech recognition technology from Philips firmly embedded in it and MedQuist resells products from Philips. The plan mostly worked, other than the litigation issues that caused selling for a loss and taking away near-term revenue gains."

From Rogue: "Re: retail clinics. In the 80s and 90s, it was all about walk-in clinics or, as they were so horribly monikered, ‘Doc in the Boxes’. Having consulted to 20 or so of them, they were very different from today’s retail clinics. They were staffed by physicians and the well-done ones partnered with the local medical staff for PCP and specialist referrals. However, the best revenue models relied on 1/3 of patients being repeat customers, so there was inherent conflict in trying to hook everyone up with local medical staff for an ongoing relationship. Hospital-sponsored clinics had to wrestle with economic viability vs. peace with the medical staff. Today’s clinics can learn from the walk-ins. Those I saw never had an electronic record and it was a cash/credit card business – here’s your superbill, you go hassle the insurance company."

I got a response from Dossia’s PR firm about the reader’s speculation that they would part ways with Indivo, which the CHIP people denied last week. "Dossia has no plans to change from using Indivo as its core technology and is working closely with the Children’s Hospital team to deliver the next release of Dossia; to that end we are even moving into the same office space in Cambridge." Sounds like that rumor has been put to rest.

That RAND study that Cerner paid for and quotes widely (claiming HIT will save $77 billion a year) is hogwash (warning: PDF), according to the Congressional Budget Office. Criticisms: (a) it estimated potential impact, not likely impact; (b) it excluded studies that didn’t show positive HIT effects; and (c) it used 2004 adoption trends. The benefits, it says, will mostly accrue to integrated delivery systems, which are, not coincidentally, the only constituency installing them in significant numbers. CBO was equally critical of a similar study by the Center for Information Technology Leadership, declaring its assumptions to be "overly optimistic." The conclusion is exactly what you’d expect: it’s not the systems, it’s what providers do with them that might provide benefits, and they are more likely to improve quality than save money. And you know what? Improved quality is reason enough.

Listening: new from The BellRays, fierce soul from California, like Tina Turner backed by the best indie band you’ve ever heard. Check the second video if you’re sick of lip-synching posers. My highest rating.

Consumer Health World gives (warning: PDF) the Order Facilitator product of SCI Solutions an award for "Best Web Tool for Promoting Community."

Inga and I are getting more user-submitted material (which we like), so we’ve decided to give those writings their own issue of HIStalk once a week or so (on a day we don’t usually write). Send in your editorial or other commentary (under 500 words and subject to editing) and maybe we’ll feature them on Reader Day. Informative, amusing, sarcastic … it’s up to you.

Final results of the CIO education poll: 57% say no Master’s degree is needed, 43% think it is (if you don’t have one, hope your future boss is in the slight majority). New poll to your right: will NAHIT’s freshly minted abbreviations increase HIT adoption? Not to show my cards, but my guest editorial in the newsletter tomorrow is entitled Hello, NAHIT? Wanna Buy My Dictionary for $29 Billion? Here’s a snip: "Note: it is law that every healthcare IT article written by dull reporters or unimaginative academics must start with one of two opening lines, either, (a) ‘In 2004, President George Bush called for every American to have electronic health records by 2014′ or, (b) ‘In its landmark 1999 report To Err is Human, the Institute of Medicine said that medical errors kill 98,000 Americans each year.’ Spoiler: this one goes with (a)."

A CIO told me a curious story about a new computer virus he’s seen that isn’t in McAfee’s definition files. Microsoft says they’ve seen it only in healthcare. If you’ve had a similar experience, let me know and maybe we can figure out if there’s a common software exploit or geographic area.

Robertson Research Institute (MI) releases a new version of its medical diagnosis software NxOpinion, which is marketed primarily outside the US.

Best wishes and thanks to James Liska, 42, a biomedical equipment manager at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital of New London, CT and sergeant in the Connecticut National Guard, shipping out for the Middle East next month with his unit. Hospital CIO Kim Kalajainen took time to attend an employer appreciation event Friday at Fort Dix, leading to the article I ran across.

Cerner announces a Millennium go-live at a 468-bed Johns Hopkins-affiliated hospital in United Arab Emirates.

Medsphere is offering a June 4 webinar on Midland Memorial Hospital’s reaching Stage 6 of the HIMSS Analytics EMR Adoption Model.

McKesson’s CERME makes this hospital software coordinator’s Bad, Bad Software list. "During this debacle, the tech guy informed me that the database name ‘Care_Enhance_Review_Manager’ was unacceptable. (It’s a frickin database name. It’s frickin acceptable) How do I know it’s frickin acceptable? Because it was THEIR previous tech person who frickin named it that and it worked for years that way. So anyway, this guy insists on creating a new database with the proper name ‘cerme’. Hmm… why not just rename the old one? BECAUSE HE DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO FIX IT." It’s amusing and honest, which means someone will probably demand it be taken down.

And speaking of McKesson, this is odd: the company reimburses CEO John Hammergren for his lawyer’s time in convincing them to boost Hammergren’s pay.

MedAvant will sell its lab results reporting business to focus on EDI.

Thailand-based medical tourism hospital Bumrungrad International will rent laptops to patients, hinting that it may eventually use conferencing applications to connect patients to caregivers.

Two employees of Maimonides Medical Center (NY) are arrested for patient identity theft and using a doctor’s PC to set up an account at Neiman Marcus.

Former GEMS IT CFO Brian Gladden is named CFO of Dell.

Odd: a British hospital RN loses her license for offering sexual services via a web site, then meeting with an undercover reporter posing as a john while wearing her hospital uniform (complete with badge) and using her real name.

New appointees to the HHS’s National Committee on Vital Health Statistics: Harry Reynolds, BCBS of NC; Mark Hornbrook, Kaiser Permanente; Blackford Middleton, Center for Information Technology Leadership; Walter Suarez, Institute for HIPAA/HIT Education and Research; and Sallie Hunt Milam, chief privacy officer for WV and executive director of the WV Health Information Network. NCVHS advises HHS on health data, statistics, and national health information policy.

I hope you had a nice holiday (and flew your flag). I did nothing work-related for two whole days, a personal best that left me bored but rested.

E-mail me.

Inga’s Update

We can land an aircraft on Mars, but we can’t get rid of the ants in NASA’s computers. Ants are infiltrating computer systems in NASA’s Texas area and knocking systems offline. Sounds like a movie waiting to be made.

Neal Patterson is bullish about Cerner and healthcare IT companies in generally, predicting continued growth in the industry. The comments were made at Cerner’s annual shareholder’s meeting last week.

A British newspaper publishes a few of the top medical errors at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. Most were the result of human error and were medication incidents (sound familiar?) However, the accidental gluing of a patient’s eyelid sounds pretty unusual.

Meanwhile in the UK, the NHS has announced full deployment of their new EHR system has been delayed an additional four years, until 2014-15.

CCHIT announces the 2008 Ambulatory EHR certification requirements. The new criteria include additional interoperability requirements. Also new are optional certifications in pediatrics and cardiovascular medicine. Look for announcements on the inpatient requirements sometime in June.

The Advisory Board Company purchases Crimson, a provider of data, analytics and business intelligence software to hospitals, health systems, and physician clinics.

Imprivata releases results from its Identity Management Trends in Healthcare 2008 survey of 171 healthcare IT decision makers. On the rise: tools for accessing applications and networks regardless of location in and out of an organization’s facility. Password management and application security are productivity obstacles.

NextGen announces (warning: PDF) that Health Management Associates will utilize its revenue cycle management services. Healthcare Management already uses NetGen’s PM and EPM solutions.

Dutch scientists claim they have completed the first sequencing of an individual woman’s DNA. Since 2001, the DNA of four men has been sequenced, lending proof to the theory that women are harder to figure out.

E-mail Inga.

 View/Print Text Only

From Garrnut: "Re: TEPR. TEPR was a bust. Not very well managed. Badges were hard to read (titles were bigger than company  names – who cares about them when you can’t tell where someone is from?) Exhibits were few and small and staffed by 10-year-olds. Sessions were repetitive and some were downright boring. I read somewhere that they’re trying to shake the boring stuff and broaden it like a poor man’s HIMSS for 2009. The one and only time I went years ago, it was horrible, fraught with logistical problems and bad speakers who would have emptied a HIMSS local chapter meeting room in about 60 seconds (no lie: one poorly credentialed speaker was so badly prepared that within 10 minutes, an irritated audience member had hijacked his session and turned it into a freeform discussion group while the presenter watched helplessly from the podium). I’m not entirely convinced that the vendor awards (you must be present to win) and gimmicky product shootouts really require a whole separate conference. They had a few good speakers this year, but the vast majority of presenters were vendor people. I’ve never known anyone who has attended, but someone must go (HIM people trying to get into IT, maybe?)

From Intel_Inside: "Re: Dossia. Dossia has fired Indivo/Children’s Hospital and is now working with a third partner." Not true, according to the two CHIP sources we contacted. I tried Dossia and haven’t heard back, but unless the scoop is so hot that the CHIP folks haven’t been told, this looks to be wrong. Confirmation welcome, however.

From DRPend: "Re: soup story. I could be mistaken, but I think that pretty much any meat-based soup contains body fluids, albeit not human. Seems strange though, I have done coliform counts on restaurant food, but never a fluid analysis." Reminds me of an old story about Adolf Hitler. Right as people started sipping bouillon at dinner, he’d squick them out by referring to it as "corpse tea." What a funster.

From The PACS Designer: "Re: PACS/RIS integration. TPD has done numerous posts on the various aspects of integrating PACS and RIS. As we are seeing more installations of PACS, it would be a good time to mention how important an integrated system PACS/RIS is for improving radiology efficiency and workflow processes. Since more modalities are now tied to the PACS/RIS, it would be best for a fully integrated system from the same manufacturer, which in turn will eliminate the need for custom application interfaces to the older systems."

From Alex Handris: "Re: retail clinics. Back in the 90s, consultants suggested that hospitals sponsor retail clinics to serve the community and bring in new patients. There was a HUGE pushback from their attendings, who saw it as a threat to their office practices. No one seems to be mentioning this, but I bet it’s still an issue."

If you’re thinking about presenting as HIMSS09, your proposal is due May 30. They could use better presentations, so jump right in. Maybe I’ll submit a scientific topic and then get up there and instead pitch HIStalk shamelessly for the entire session, flanked by Fake Ingas.

WebMD plans to outdo real science with ad-support crapware, as evidenced by the 10 most popular articles being sought by its dimwitted audience (note the preponderance of headlines that promise pictures or lists for those who need to rest their lips before forging ahead): 10 Surprising Health Benefits of Sex, The Flat Belly Diet, Pictures of Adult Skin Problems, 6 Serious Medical Symptoms, Sex Myths vs. the Facts, Learn How to Spot Bedbugs, 12 Embarrassing Body Problems, 7 Causes of Fatigue, Personal Questions from Women, View Common Childhood Skin Problems. And these are the people who are supposed to maintain their own medical records online?

Have fun this weekend and don’t forget those who lost a lifetime of weekends on your behalf. You may not agree with the jobs they’re ordered to perform, but respect the soldiers and sailors who do it for their country, allowing the rest of us to remain blissfully unaware of the horrors of war and of being maimed or killed on hostile, distant soil. Fly the flag, thank a veteran and their family, and remember the fallen this Memorial Day, even if for only a minute, OK?

 
Photo: Charles Dharapak/AP

E-mail me.

Inga’s Update

CDW selects EnovateIT for its Sapphire Partner Program. Sapphire partners typically provide in industries that represent emerging trends in the technology marketplace.

From Wompa1: “I appreciate your defense of Dr. Peel. Why is it that privacy advocates and civil libertarians are always lumped in with the tin-foil hat crowd? Thanks for your rebuttal to the bleating of the sheep that don’t ever concern themselves with corporate or government entities accessing their private information. I understand that practitioners have a ‘work product’ that becomes the health record. However, the individual is paying for that work, either directly or through an insurance company. Should that individual have no say in how it is used? No one wants an employer having access to their health records, but this is a direct result of allowing the employer to provide your medical coverage. Would we rather have the government (at any level) providing that coverage and accessing the information? Dr. Peel is contributing to the discussion in positive ways, her detractors’ whining notwithstanding.” Wompa1 shares some additional thoughts on Dr. Peel, Matthew Holt, insurance, and discrimination on the Forum.

From Computer Nurse: “As a female and a nurse informaticist, I am concerned that this survey is billed as an ‘HIT’ survey, when in fact the survey population consisted of 633 readers of Health Imaging & IT and subscribers of Health Imaging News. The results are in no way representative of the vast variety of specialties involved in HIT, especially those in other clinical areas outside of radiology/imaging. The survey should be renamed ‘The Imaging in HIT Salary Survey’.”

EMR vendor Pulse Systems is a new reseller for Stratus Technologies and their 99.999 % uptime ftServer fault-tolerant servers.

Constellation Software increases its stake in Mediware to almost 14%, making it one of the company’s largest shareholders.

Troubled Merge Healthcare enters into a private financing deal with with Merrick RIS, netting Merge $16 million to be used to settle a class action securities lawsuit. Merrick RIS gets to replace five Merge board members with its own people.

The official definition of electronic medical record: "an electronic record of health-related information on an individual that can be created, gathered, managed, and consulted by authorized clinicians and staff within one health care organization." For more official definitions, check out the National Alliance for HIT’s report, “Defining Key Health Information Technology Terms.” Thanks to the OHC, who funded this multi-month project, no one should ever again be confused by the terms EMR, EHR, PHR, HIE, and RHIO.

Private equity firm Lindsay Goldberg is investing $75 million in Ambulatory Services of America for future expansion. Nashville-based ASA provides alternate-site health care services.

The federal government is spending about $2 million of our money on full-page newspaper ads to inform consumers of hospital satisfaction rates for more than 2,500 hospitals. The ads note patient ratings on two measures of quality of care, including the percentage of patients who always got help when they needed it and the percentage of patients who got antibiotics one hour before surgery. The rankings don’t include hundreds of hospitals who didn’t release patient satisfaction scores.

In case I get carried away sipping adult beverages on the beach this weekend and forget to send Mr. H an update, hope everyone has a happy and safe Memorial Day. And take a moment to memorialize those who have sacrificed to give the rest of us the freedom to play in the surf and enjoy our good lives.

E-mail Inga.

 View/Print Text Only