From oneHITwonder: "Re: a low-tech PHR. Pros: providers might actually look a a piece of paper vs. a flash drive or log onto the Internet. Cons: storage space limited for anyone with a chronic condition." Link. Great idea. It’s the one platform that’s compatible with what 99% of doctors use.

From Spart: "Re: private enterprise. You obviously have a very right-leaning and libertarian slant on things, with one exception. You deride HIMSS for being pro-industry and private enterprise." I’m right-leaning and libertarian on fiscal and government role issues, liberal on social issues (don’t you get my grassroots populism and anti-establishment tone?) HIMSS is a nonprofit member organization and I pay dues, so it’s a little different. Like RSNA, AMA, ASHP, etc., they need to work harder to keep the commercial side away from the supposedly scientific side if you ask me. Like they used to, in other words. I wouldn’t enjoy the conference nearly as much if vendors weren’t involved, but I might like it a little more if I didn’t feel constantly manipulated by HIMSS to consort with them. It’s like having the junior high school dance chaperone pushing you publicly toward the wall-hugging row of girls before either of you have worked up the nerve to talk. In my generation, anyway.

From OB1: "Re: HIStalk. I just don’t know how you do it. You have a full time day job and yet you are able to post regularly and troll to find relevant and interesting information. Have you managed to slow time in your universe?" Apparently not because it’s flying by on this end. I can’t wait to get home from the day job to do HIStalk stuff, although it takes many of my waking hours (counting all the e-mail and web maintenance stuff I do that I don’t mention). You know I enjoy it when a cynic like me blathers on about how much fun it is, as though I had Kim Kardashian’s hand in my back pocket or something. As I write this, I’ve been at it for 3.5 hours without even getting out of the chair and another hour to go and I’d swear it was only 15 minutes. The saddest sound of the day is when XP shuts down. What a nerd.

You may have noticed that Leah Binder, CEO of Leapfrog Group, added a comment to Monday’s posting. I’ve invited her to me one of our "An HIT Moment With …" guests and sent her five questions, so she’s got the floor if she wants it.

Listening: King’s X, hard rock/prog/semi-Christian from some mighty talented guys from Katy, TX. And speaking of Texas (maybe my favorite state), I had barbeque at the epicenter of brisket above on a recent trip. Name the place and you get … well, satisfaction.

GE Healthcare acquires Agility Healthcare Solutions of Glen Allen, VA. The privately held company uses a Real Time Locating System for enterprise visibility and patient flow management. I knew CEO Fran Dirksmeier in a previous life.

University of Washington’s Institute of Translational Health Sciences and Seattle Children’s Hospital sign for Microsoft Amalga (just the Azyxxi part, apparently, since they’re a little sloppy with that name).

Jobs: Soft (SCC) Implementation Manager, Developer, Customer Support Representative, Solutions Executive. Employers who ask Gwen nicely will get her Halloween gift - a free introductory job posting in October.

A Cisco survey says outsourcers in China, Brazil, and (to a lesser extent) India are unsure how their employees handle sensitive data or already suspect they’re sending it outside the company. Employees there are more likely to tamper with the security settings on their PCs, use P2P networks on work devices, and install unauthorized software than in the US. The Grady transcription breach is mentioned.

Exempla Healthcare (CO) signs a deal with Novo Innovations to deliver data directly to practice EMRs, moving up from Novo’s drop box data exchange.

Since I’ve never had anything to do with Virtual HIMSS, I didn’t realize that the signup page requires answering questions similar to those asked by the "never had a paid subscriber" rags before sending you the subscription you don’t really want, leading you to just randomly check blocks here and there to be done with it. The footnote suggests that if you aren’t a hot vendor prospect, you’ll pay $79 instead of getting in free like everybody else, a reader tells me.

FDA will spend $2.5 billion on new IT systems over the next ten years as part of what’s called a bioinformatics initiative, but it mostly sounds like infrastructure and data center relocation.

Victoria, Australia is going back to the drawing board on its ambitious HealthSmart project after falling two years’ behind schedule and failing to bring up even one site on Cerner Millennium. "A $79 million deal with Cerner was signed in March 2006, but costs had risen by $17 million to $96 million in 2006 - the biggest price blowout so far, the audit office found."

Speaking of Millennium, a key Connecting for Health doctor thinks iSoft’s Lorenzo will be used more than Millennium because Lorenzo is newer and better suited for web deployment.

Yet another medical helicopter crash: four die in Maryland when a helicopter goes down taking a patient to Prince George’s Hospital. One of the two teen patients being transported was the only survivor. Condolences to those affected.

Doctors in Iraq will be allowed to carry guns to encourage them not to leave the country in fear. Over 2,200 doctors and nurses have been killed since the 2003 US invasion. The article says at least 20,000 of the 34,000 are already gone and healthcare is worse than it was pre-invasion. Bet they’re really glad we John Wayned right in there.

HIMSS backtracks on its curt statement that it won’t support Pete Stark’s HIT bill because it calls for making open source systems available. HIMSS says "there has been some confusion" and claims "with some modifications to the legislation, common ground can be made to meet stakeholders’ goals." You know they’re sweating when a fact sheet (warning: PDF) is produced. It says, "This would be like the Department of Defense developing a new automobile to compete against Ford and Chrysler." First, we’re already bailing Ford and Chrysler out of their own stupidity with taxpayer billions, so that’s not much of a free market example. Second, much of healthcare is non-profit and we all pay for it without having a choice like we do with cars. Third, the bill doesn’t require developing new systems; VistA is the obvious incumbent and nobody seems too threatened by it other than HIMSS. Last, why does HIMSS even need to weigh in on whether the government builds an IT system? And while I’m at it, maybe HIMSS should have polled use dues-payers before presuming to make snide statements on our behalf. This might be the second case in a couple of days where an out-of-touch administration misrepresented its constituency and was shocked at the backlash.

Speaking of HIMSS, open source advocate Ignacio Valdes, MD, MS leads off his editorial with, "HIMSS response, while predictable, is misguided on so many levels that it is difficult to know where to begin." But he does.

A Florida newspaper article covers a local women who, faced with an estimated $4,000 to $5,000 worth of diagnostic tests in multiple locations even after her insurance paid its part, heads off to India and gets it all done in six hours in one place for $350. Unlike HIMSS and its anti-open source stance, AMA’s board chair actually sees it the patient’s way: "We are not opposed to the idea, especially when institutions are accredited properly. Some of these institutions overseas are wonderful, and many of their physicians have trained in the United States." In another example, a woman went to Mexico for two root canals, two extractions, airfare, and three nights in a hotel in a mini-vacation with her daughter for $1,600.

QuadraMed will offer real-time BI tools from InterSystems in its revenue cycle applications, providing dashboards and key performance indicator monitoring.

Moses Cone (NC) will spend $2 million to put Centricity in its 29 clinics and physician offices.

In the UK, Ascribe Group acquires the healthcare division of WCI Consulting.

A Florida ambulance service gets a local paper mention for its unnamed technology that sends a patient’s EKG results to the hospital ED, reducing the door-to-balloon time for a heart attack patient to just 12 minutes vs. the national average of 112. Now that’s cool.

A note to the entire world: please hold down the Shift key when you resize PowerPoint or Word images so they don’t get distorted. Thank you.

Greenville Memorial Hospital (SC) will require ED and night visitors to wear electronic security badges linked to their driver’s license and destination.

Ontario restructures its eHealth programs under one organization.

A Massachusetts company’s technology allows filtering text messages and BlackBerry e-mails, using the example of a hospital’s blocking all outbound messages containing the name of a VIP. From the website, the product also allows setting white/blacklists for user smartphones, archiving messages, and maintaining BlackBerry PIN addresses even when devices change. Sounds like a big brother’s delight. I just wish restaurants and other public places would install that technology that blocks all cell phone use.

Lawson’s CEO obviously has vested interests, but his quote is still fun: "Getting signed up as a SaaS customer is fast, but getting out is just as fast, whereas traditional software is like cocaine — you’re hooked. It’s too difficult and expensive to switch providers once you’ve invested in one. If it were easier to jump ship, a lot of people would’ve hit the eject button on SAP a long time ago."

I wish I hadn’t found this page because I screwed around with it for most of Sunday afternoon: a complete list of Web 2.0 applications and descriptions. Some I liked and may use, most I laughed at, especially the dumb "you can’t sue us because it’s not a real word" names.

E-mail me. I read every one and always reply to the nice ones. I thank you - seriously - for reading and contributing. Over 61,000 visits and 94,000 page views in September … I’m honored and pleased. Thanks, too, to BFF and co-conspirator Inga.

HERtalk by Inga

Misys announces its Q1 earnings. The healthcare division’s revenue was flat compared to last year, with ILF revenue falling seven percent. Not too surprising given the uncertainty associated with the Allscripts acquisition and iMedica lawsuit.

I wonder if this is a sign of the times? Virtual Radiologic’s stock fell 34% Monday after the company announced weak September sales. The company continues to sign new customers but the number of procedures performed dropped. The company speculates that higher gas prices have resulted in fewer motor vehicle accidents and thus fewer radiology tests. Or perhaps people are avoiding medical treatment all together to avoid co-pays. Is it a start of a trend?

CCHIT announces the first 10 products to receive ’08 Ambulatory EHR Certification.

Cardinal Health is spinning off its clinical and medical products business as a separate company. Current Cardinal vice chairman David L. Schlotterbeck will lead the group. When the spin-off is completed in 2009, current Cardinal Chair and CEO Kerry Clark will retire. His replacement is George Barrett, who has served as vice chair and CEO of the Healthcare Supply Chain Services group.

Baptist Healthcare Services (KY) is rolling out in-building cellular infrastructure across its five acute-care hospitals.

In case you missed it, we debuted last night our latest HIStalk feature, “An HIT Moment With…” We will run these periodically and will include just five questions. Thanks go to Matt Grob for agreeing to be our guinea pig. Check out Matt’s comments about the state of the economy and the effect on HIT budgets. Here’s something to add to your stress level if you are a techie type: “Interestingly, here in the New York market where some of our clients are hiring for technical positions (i.e. those that do not require specific healthcare knowledge or expertise), the candidate pool just got a bit more sophisticated and bigger with jobs lost at Lehman Brothers and the like.” Anyway, if you would like to participate in our HIT Moment (or nominate an interesting person) let us know.

MediConnect Global announces it will provide at no charge digital backup copies of archived medical records to any patient or organization losing medical records during one of the recent hurricanes.

Stratus Technologies and Orion Health are teaming up to offer continuous availability of patient health portal data running on Stratus servers.

Emdeon acquires GE Healthcare Technology’s patient statement business.

Several readers have mentioned they’d like to hear where our presidential candidates stand on healthcare IT policy. Here is a bit of information courtesy of Health08.org:

McCain

• Supports the rapid deployment of 21st century information systems and technology that will allow doctors to practice across state lines.
• Believes if the system demands information on outcomes, then the market will respond to provide the HIT infrastructure.

Obama

• Believes the use of HIT should be a requirement for participating in government health programs.
• Supports a government investment of $10 billion a year over the next five years to move the U.S. health care system to broad adoption of standards-based electronic health information systems, including electronic health records.
• Would phase-in requirements for full implementation of HIT and ensure that patients’ privacy is protected.

Innovative Consulting Group, a healthcare IT support services provider and HIStalk sponsor, sent over a link to their latest newsletter (warning: PDF). In addition to some tech tips and client profile, they feature an interesting by a Cerner practice director about maximizing EMR for quality initiatives.

One of my official HIStalk duties has become tracking the HIStalk Web traffic. I am pleased to report that September has been our biggest month ever in terms of number of visitors. So, thanks, readers, for allowing us to keep you current and/or entertained!

E-mail Inga.

An HIT Moment with ... is a quick interview with someone we find interesting. Matthew Grob is Director, Health Care Consulting with RSM McGladrey, Inc.

Of all the ways you could have gotten involved with HIMSS, why did you choose CPHIMS?

I had been an annual conference reviewer for a few years and then served for three years on the HIMSS Foundation Scholarship Committee. I was looking for something a little more involved and the CPHIMS program had always interested me.

I sat for the exam at its inaugural offering at HIMSS 2002 in Atlanta and truly saw the value in the credential – what it means to clients, colleagues and employers as well as the personal satisfaction in having it confirmed objectively that I actually know something about what I do for living.

In 2005, I applied and was accepted for a two-year term on the CPHIMS Technical Committee. At the end of that term I was asked to chair the committee for the next year. I must have done something right because they asked me to chair for a second year, which is where I am now.

It has been an exciting time because aside from having the opportunity to work with some really smart and dedicated people who really know their stuff, we recently revised the exam content to reflect both current practice as well as the fact that it is quickly becoming a global credential – I will be presenting on it at the World of Health IT in November in Copenhagen.

For next year, I will be on the ballot for the HIMSS Nominating Committee and urge all your ultra-hip and sophisticated readers to vote for me!

What hospital trends are you seeing in your consulting work?

My practice also deals a lot with the ambulatory and primary care side of the business. We are seeing a shift in hospital environments to tying the two sides of the house together.

There are so many good reasons to do so. The benefits on the clinical side are clear for safety and continuity of care, but we are also seeing it come together on the patient accounting/practice management side as well. Layering business intelligence tools on top of all of those systems are also on the uptick as organizations want a better way to monitor and manage the health of their patients, populations, and their organizations utilizing the wealth of data that is collected throughout the continuum of care and the organization.

How do you think the economy will impact IT budgets in hospitals?

Wow, what a timely question. I see it as a chicken-and-egg scenario. It is clear that the way to better manage the health of our population is through IT and that will, in turn, result in reduced healthcare costs. Payors already recognize that through pay-for-performance initiatives. But to get the benefits, it all takes investment and I suspect that access to capital will be that much harder as we enter this uncertain time in our country’s economic history.

Interestingly, here in the New York market where some of our clients are hiring for technical positions (i.e. those that do not require specific healthcare knowledge or expertise), the candidate pool just got a bit more sophisticated and bigger with jobs lost at Lehman Brothers and the like. I suspect that will be happening elsewhere as well.

You spent a lot of years as an analyst at NYU Medical Center. If you had to take a hospital job again, which one would you want to work for, what job would you want, and why?

I don’t see myself leaving New York in the near future. Given that, I would want to go back to NYU. They were the gold standard when I was there and continue to be leaders in the industry.

Paul Conocenti, the CIO, came from banking but managed to understand pretty quickly how to run IT in a large medical center that has a history of innovation and success. Pravene Nath, the CMIO, is also visionary and understands how to do things right the first time. I would want to use my leadership skills and abilities to improve workflow and operations using technology as an enabler, with a focus on clinical systems. I’ve worked on the revenue cycle side of the house, but my first and true passion is the clinical.

If I were to leave New York, I would love to work with John Glaser up at Partners, Edward Marx at Texas Health Resources, or Buddy Hickman at Albany Medical Center as they are all great leaders and thinkers and they just plain get it. When I started in consulting at Ernst & Young back in the mid-90s, Buddy was one of my team leaders. I often point out that we share not only that history, but a hairline (or lack thereof) as well.

What do you like about living in New York?

I think the question with the shorter answer would be what I do not like about living in New York.

My wife and I were both born and bred on the Upper West Side where we live now. We live a block and a half from Lincoln Center, steps from both Central Park and newly developed waterfront along the Hudson River, and walking distance to most museums. It’s about a 30-minute walk to my office, so I actually get to see my kids most nights when I’m in town rather than sitting in traffic or on a train or bus.

But I’m also spoiled. I am used to being able to find pretty much anything I want 24/7 and within walking distance. The city has a rhythm and vibe that is very hard to find elsewhere and diversity in all aspects is what keeps it interesting. Growing up in apartments, we never had a lot of space and the city and Central Park were our backyards so while yes, it would be nice to have some more room, we’re pretty well adjusted to the confines of a Manhattan apartment. I’m just happy we bought ours 11 years ago. We’d never be able to afford one today!

Misys PLC announced this morning that it has signed agreements to obtain the $325 million it needs to fund its proposed merger with Allscripts. A group consisting of HSBC Bank, Bank of Ireland, and Royal Bank of Scotland will provide $150 million as a revolving credit facility over 18 months, while ValueAct Capital will provide $175 million under a subordinated credit facility over 20 months.

A revolving credit facility provides funds that the borrow can draw down and pay at its discretion over the specified time period. A subordinated loan is repayable after all other debt has been satisfied and is therefore riskier to the lender.

As I write this, it appears likely that Congress will approve spending $700 billion to bail out financial companies whose risky investments came back to bite them. They don’t really have a choice, of course, since the alternative is even less savory. Even Warren Buffett says the alternative is "the biggest financial meltdown in financial history." Gee, everybody said things were great until just a few months ago.

Some of that money may be repaid in sales of assets, but that’s only slightly likely. In the worst case, the national debt jumps to $11.3 trillion, the dollar tanks even more against more stable currencies, and inflation jumps along with unemployment. Foreigners start buying everything in sight at fire sale prices. All of that reduces tax revenue.

Average citizens are hopping mad that Wall Street is dumping its garbage on Main Street, which seems to have surprised the Washington insiders. They’ve been burned before by false declarations of national urgency (chasing nonexistent WMDs in Iraq). As in that situation, the demand is that full trust is put in a very few hands inside the administration to spend the money wisely and to prop up a system that isn’t working efficiently.

It looks like the same government insiders helping out their private industry pals behind closed doors. It doesn’t help that Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s last real job was CEO of Goldman Sachs, which made a bundle on subprime mortgages and short selling and gave him compensation of up to $37 million a year and a net worth reported to be $700 million (giving Sachs a nice position as all of its competitors are now out of the picture and making Paulson something close to the CEO of the country when the bailout passes). Or that his views on exactly how much the socialist-like help Uncle Sam should give failing financial houses seemed to change day-by-day as the government reacted to the crisis only after it happened.

Those who pay their bills and taxes on time will suffer. Those who don’t, the same folks who simply walk away from financed cars whose value is "upside down," are likely to take advantage of loose bankruptcy laws and simply stop paying for houses worth less than they owe, reducing the value and future prospects of Uncle Sam’s cash flow stream on so-called "toxic" investments (homeowners were speculators, too, after all). And, there’s no guarantee that banks will start lending again just because they get to dump their failed bets onto the backs of taxpayers. Formerly affluent neighborhoods may look like Rust Belt cities, full of boarded-up houses that the collapsed real estate market can’t absorb.

Unemployment is reminding middle income citizens of just how much wider the gap has become between them and the highly compensated CEOs, and more than 1,000 billionaires whose net worth jumped a lot more than theirs, especially since the homes and 401ks of the average citizen suddenly don’t look so lucrative. The illusion that all of us were getting wealthier together has been shattered. The "have nots" will likely use the one advantage they have — at the polls — to punish those they see who prospered while they didn’t.

Some reactions seem obvious. Democrats will claim it’s yet another example of Republicans favoring the wealthy and will benefit at the polls, yet they won’t have anything left in the federal till to pay for their expensive social programs even if they win offices. The financial industry will wither, with high unemployment and a loss of luster that may never be regained. Taxes will rise, entitlements will finally have to be curtailed, and uncompensated healthcare will certainly rise with unemployment and debt.

Here’s where you come in. HIStalk has a lot of smart readers, some of them in the investment industry and in executive positions. What will the impact be on healthcare and, specifically, healthcare IT? Click Comments at the end of this posting to share your thoughts, maybe thinking about these areas:

• How will hospital IT spending change?
• Will physicians keep buying EMRs?
• What exposure do vendors (publicly traded and private) have to changes in financial conditions?
• Will market conditions cause vendor consolidation and discourage new entrants?
• What changes can we expect for HIT industry employment?
• If healthcare costs have to be dramatically and painfully cut, can IT justify its cost?

Nobody else is talking much about this. It’s not about politics, but about reality. Let’s hear what you have to say.

Goroko General Hospital in Papua, New Guinea (148th of 190 countries in world healthcare) is the first hospital in the country to set up a web site, which was created by its volunteer IT manager Robert Schilt. It looks great and is running in WordPress. Schilt has also established a 12-PC training center, rolled out 50 PCs, set up Internet and e-mail access for staff, built several departmental applications, and almost finished a hospital Intranet and a discussion forum for doctors. He build everything using open source software. He’s also looking for second hand items to help the locals, who he says "do not have two spare coins to scratch together." You’ll notice that his own family has donated a long list of items. Why can’t we get a selfless volunteer IT guy like Robert on the HIMSS podium instead of the usual Taj Mahospital people?

Microsoft chooses Philips SpeechMagic for Amalga. Wonder if the reader’s rumor will pan out that Philips will sell it? Maybe MSFT is interested.

Tom Skelton’s new company, MedcomSoft, turns in not-so-great FY2008 numbers: revenue down 46%, expense up 5%, losses up to $5.8 million. They’re running low on cash, have never made money in seven years, and need ongoing financing to stay open (good luck with that). Surely Tom’s job is to clean up the books and shop it around. Shares are at $0.06 and market cap is $6.2 million. If you want to pick up a CCHIT-certified vendor as an acquisition (and consider MEDCIN to be an advantage), you could probably get a great deal. I had heard it was expensive, but the company claims it’s $11,500 for the first doc and $6,500 for additional ones, still not the cheapest, but far less than some.

Fred Trotter seems surprised that "HIMSS is a lobby for proprietary for Health IT vendors," basing that on its refusal to support Pete Stark’s health records bill that includes pushing open source systems (not necessarily new systems - you may recall that the President’s early call for HIT specifically said VistA was to be made widely available). I’ve been pointing out the HIMSS business model for years:

• Bring in provider members cheap ($140 a year, now basically free for Organizational Affiliate organizations that pay $2,975 a year for the all-you-can-eat plan for unlimited employees, apparently designed to boost the numbers and increase booth traffic at the conference)
• Sell the usual books and all that, but push the annual conference like crazy since that’s where the profit comes from (cheap, too, for provider attendees - the Ladies Drink Free approach to bringing in the horndog men — vendors — who pay full price and expect ROI)
• Charge vendors astronomical prices for booth space and ad exposure during the conference (aka Boat Show booth)
• Provide feel-good infomercial publications that send a message that buying IT is always the right thing to do, making sure to spin or avoid stories suggesting otherwise and minimizing the organizational expertise needed to actually get ROI (you saw it in a booth, so write that check and don’t worry about the change management aspects that most hospitals do poorly)
• Give CIO decision-makers extra special treatment during the annual conference and CHIME, letting vendors pay the tab in return for even more access to them
• Provide some OK education during the conference (even letting vendors themselves take the podium for some of it), but make sure to leave huge swaths of non-education time during prime hours to force attendees into the exhibit hall, which will be even easier in Chicago in April when it’s too cold to be tempted away by golf or enjoying nice weather
• Buy up vendor-specific user groups (Cisco and Microsoft, for example) to give even more sales opportunities to vendors
• Get provider members to give HIMSS Analytics all kinds of internal information for free, then sell their information dearly to the vendor members so they can make well-informed cold sales calls to those same members who willingly participated
• Create advocacy organizations whose charter is 100% vendor-driven (buy more stuff and lobby politicians to use taxpayer dollars to do it)

HIMSS should not disappoint anyone since its methodology is obvious: get providers to join and attend its vendor-heavy conference, a neatly closed loop that makes HIMSS the paid matchmaker. There is absolutely nothing wrong with vendors and they are straightforward about participating in HIMSS to get an audience with prospects. HIMSS members sometimes are naive to that fact (although they’re rarely decision-makers anyway) and somehow expect that HIMSS will advance only inarguably noble and unbiased causes (no different than they expect of hospitals, and with which they are equally likely to be disappointed). I pay membership and conference costs out of my own pocket, so obviously I think it’s a good deal. You just have to swim against the tide sometimes to avoid being controlled. Do I feel they represent the best interests of my hospital employer or me personally? Absolutely not, nor do I expect them to. It’s a trade show, nothing more and nothing less, and free software doesn’t pay those bills. That’s my opinion and you are entitled to your own, of course.

Ivor Kovic, an ED physician in Croatia, likes the iPhone and lists some applications that are useful to doctors.

 

SCM Microsystems is rolling out this smart card reader, the eHealth 100, to support Germany’s electronic health card for 82 million people.

A city government uses cool PR technology that I’m surprised hospitals and vendor haven’t thought of (assuming they haven’t, of course.) Cheap 1 gB flash drives with logos are handed out to potential investors. Plugged in, they refresh themselves over the Web, then play a slide show, video messages, and provide links to detailed reports and electronic books. The "refresh" part allows running seasonal pictures and other fresh information, infinitely extending their useful life and also allowing the city to track how often they are used.

I noticed that the HIStalk e-mail blast list has just hit exactly 3,000 recipients, so thanks to all of you reading (blasted or not). Daily visits are at over 2,000, so this may be a record month. Thanks, too, to those who signed up for the reader-created HIStalk Fan Club on LinkedIn, now at 264 members. If you’re on LinkedIn, Inga and I would be honored to boost your connection count by approving all requests. You can help spread the HIStalk word by clicking the "E-mail this to a friend" graphic to your right and e-mailing a few of your colleagues about HIStalk.

Paul Newman dies at 83, having given away $200 million to causes such as his Hole in the Wall camps for sick children. He was also a World War II veteran. I can’t imagine today’s pack of shallow "celebrities" doing anything close.

Idiotic lawsuit: a TV reporter (an Air Force veteran) spices up her gun story with a showy stunt in which she fires a semi-automatic weapon at the police gun range wearing a noise-protecting headset. She claims she suffered permanent hearing damage and is suing the police department for medical bills, pain, suffering, and anxiety. The police department says she was negligent and didn’t see a doctor soon enough.

UCI Medical Center (CA) is put under state supervision and could lose its CMS funding over poorly kept anesthesiology records. Inspectors found some post-op forms that were signed and filed before surgeries were performed. Half of the anesthesiology professors signed a 2003 letter complaining that its mission had been altered from education to money-making. Previous scandals include selling body parts and implanting patient eggs in other patients without the permission of either.

Leapfrog Group’s "Top Hospitals" are trending down in number, although not as starkly as its drop-off in members. The numbers: 50 hospitals in 2006, 41 in 2007, and 33 in 2008. They blame a new requirement that requires hospitals show that their CPOE systems provide clinical alerts. If they add a future requirement that CPOE show a demonstrable benefit in cost or patient outcomes, that 33 number will look huge by comparison. Maybe the goal is to have no top hospitals.

Vendor Deals and Announcements

• Virginia Cardiovascular Specialists selects MedAptus’ Professional Intelligent Charge Capture and eRx applications for its 38 physicians.
• The Family Health and Help Center (IN) is implementing PracticeOne’s e-Medsys Solution for their community health center.
• QuadraMed’s Pharmacy Integrated Management solution is now implemented at Ashtabula County Medical Center (OH).
• DB Technology announces the release of its Enterprise RAS solution to automate and streamline paper-centric processes.
• El Camino Hospital (CA) selects eClinicialWorks for its affiliated physician groups.
• Picis announces several new enhancements to its core perioperative and critical care applications. Also introduced: Picis’ new eView for CriticalCare Manager solution to consolidate clinically relevant information for the ICU census and present in a concise web-based view
• With technical assistance from Medicity, the Delaware HIN has become the first fully operational statewide HIE and successfully connected with other NHIN participants.
• Jefferson Community Hospital (NE) has implemented IntelliDOT Bedside Medication Management system at its 25-bed facility.
• BayCare Health System (FL) is using Fujitsu’s PalmSecure biometric security system integrated with its Siemens’ HIS to protect medical record privacy.
• St. James Healthcare (MT) signs with AHI Software for registration QA service.
• Phytel is becoming a member of the American Medical Group Association’s Value-Added Services program to promote the proactive management of health and disease management protocols.
• Sentillion is positioned in Gartner’s “visionary” quadrant in its recently published Magic Quadrant for User Provisioning, 2008. The evaluation was based on Sentillion’s ability to execute and its completeness of vision.
• CareTech Solutions is chosen as IT outsourcer for Port Huron Hospital (MI). The company also announced that it earned the top score (94.6) in a recent KLAS study on extensive outsourcing, including a 100% "would you buy it again."
• United Hospital System (WI) is replacing its McKesson Orbit surgical scheduling system with Unibased Systems Architecture for its periOperative Resource Management System.
• Florida Cancer Specialists is contracting with Fletcher-Flora Health Care Systems for their LIS solution.
• Sacred Heart Medical Center (OR) has implemented Versus Technology’s wireless locating system.
• Harrisburg Hospital (PA) claims a 12-month payback after installing Radianse’s RTLS solution.
• The Health Alliance of Great Cincinnati is deploying Streamline Health’s documentation workflow and coding products across their five hospitals.
• Neurological Associates (LA) has selected CureMD’s EMR/PM SaaS solution.

E-mail me.