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Monday Morning Update 9/8/08

September 6, 2008 News 8 Comments

From Wendy O. Williams: "Re: HMS. We are looking at HMS to supply our patient and clinical software. Does anyone have pro/cons with them? Who else should we look at? We are a 200-bed community hospital in Georgia." I’ll let others comment, but I’d say Meditech, McKesson Paragon, Dairyland, and possibly Medsphere are worth a look. 

From Billy T. Kidd: "Re: Misys-Allscripts. Interesting note, but the wrong vendor is listed. This rumor is not true." Several folks have chimed in saying an acquisition is afoot, but speculating that the intended company is iMedica, not MediNotes. That would make perfect sense since that company already has its reseller Misys over a barrel. If you recall from my interview with iMedica CEO Michael Nissenbaum in July (who is quite impressive, I think), he said he wasn’t interested in selling now, but that’s primarily because his former employer Millbrook left money on the table by selling out too early to GE. In other words, whip out the big checkbook, boys. And to confuse the issue, someone who should know (and who is intentionally obtuse) claims the name of the company going after MediNotes starts with an E (per CCHIT’s Ambulatory 2007 spec, that would limit it to eCast, eClinicalWorks, e-MDs, Eclipsys, EHS, and Epic).

From EMRObserver: "Re: Allscripts. Allscripts is all about marketing. How many Touchworks references are there in the entire country? They talk a great game. It would be interesting to go back and and look at press releases or HIStalk interviews to see what happened to certain commitments. Didn’t Stanley Crane mention an Allscripts User Interface to connect to any device two years ago? Has anyone seen anything from this? How about Wolters-Kluwer and the content they were provdiing for Allscripts products? The company seems to rush to get press releases to the market and never fulfills their commitments after the fact. This company has some very good talent with leadership that sells vision but can never deliver the goods."

From Nick Nemmers: "Re: the MED3000 story you mentioned. Nearly two years ago, MED3OOO discovered fraudulent activity on the part of one of its employees and several of her associates who were not employed by the company. MED3OOO immediately reported the matter to authorities and has cooperated with officials to hold the persons accountable for their actions. MED3OOO promptly notified the affected client and fully reimbursed the client for the fraudulent activity. MED3OOO is committed to corporate compliance in all of its business operations and continues to focus efforts to detect and prevent activity of this nature." Nick’s the marketing manager for MED3000. Bottom line: MED3000 tipped off the FBI early, resulting in nine indictments last week.

From Sal Lanuto: "Re: JJWild. I wanted to take this opportunity to reach out to all of you, and also respond to a comment posted yesterday by ‘Barney Miller’. As I’m sure you all know it’s been over a year since JJWild was acquired by Perot Systems. At that time, I made a commitment to JJWild/Perot Systems, MEDITECH, and our customers that I would stay with the company for at least a year to ensure a smooth transition. With the integration now essentially complete, I have decided to transition to the position of Senior Advisor to Berk Smith, who will now assume the position of CEO. Over the past year, we have focused on leveraging the synergies and scale available to us as part of Perot Systems to provide greater value and more options to the MEDITECH community in the areas of both technology integration and application related professional services. And we will continue to leverage the company’s strengths to enhance our ability to help you implement, operate, and optimize your MEDITECH system. With a lengthy track record of success within Perot Systems and extensive experience in healthcare, Berk Smith is in the best position to fully leverage the combined capabilities. I am confident that Berk, working in collaboration with me, Dick, and the rest of the senior management team at JJWild, will do a great job leading the new combined organization moving forward. The senior management team, including Dick Fitzpatrick, remains in place. It’s been a great experience running JJWild for the last 20 years. When I joined the company, I became the fifth employee. It has been immensely gratifying to work with all of you. Thank you for all the wonderful memories. I look forward to many more to come. My best, Sal Lanuto."

The ad resizing part of the site revamp is done (whew!) and I think the page looks better. I had the layout changed to push more content to the top of the page, reduced the ad size to give them more exposure while making them less intimidating, and upgraded the adserver software for more efficient page loading (I have another step to take there, though). Thanks to all the HIStalk sponsors who, in addition to sponsoring, remade their ads to fit the new design going back several months when we first started this project. I can’t thank them enough. If you’d like to chime in, click their ads and check out their offerings since they make HIStalk possible. Thanks, too, to Inga for coordinating all the communication that was needed (frankly, I think companies sponsor just because they like talking to her, which is reason aplenty, of course).

Jack Horner, CIO and interim CEO at Major Hospital (IN), is locked in as interim CEO for a full year.

medseek 

Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum sponsor MEDSEEK, the Birmingham, AL experts on web-enabled hospital services like clinical portals, consumer-facing websites, and employee portals. Check out their blog and what looks like a freshly designed site (well, that’s the business they’re in, so that’s not shocking). Welcome and thanks to MEDSEEK.

Agfa says it will sell its healthcare business by the end of the year, possibly in a "controlled auction" involving pre-screened takeover candidates.

Point-of-care patient payment processor (man, that’s a lot of Ps) mPay Gateway raises $6.75 million in Series B funding.

Idiotic lawsuit, happy ending: a man playing touch football at an alcohol treatment program runs into a brick wall while going out for a pass, breaking his arm. He sues the hospital for $175,000, saying it was negligent in choosing the field. The jury took less than an hour to dismiss the case and bill the man for court costs, saying the hospital told players to be careful and he should have controlled himself.

Odd lawsuit: a used car dealer returns gunfire against someone shooting at him. Police arrest a 19-year-old suspect who tells police officers that his forehead is bruised from being elbowed in a basketball game. More than a week after the shooting, he visits the ED to be treated for a gunshot wound to the head. Police wanted the bullet fragment in his head as evidence, so they obtained a search warrant to have it removed surgically. The suspect is now suing the surgeon who operated, claiming he did not give surgical consent.

Forbes names seven technologies that could change healthcare. Some IT-type technologies on the list: PatientKeeper‘s mobile physician system, remote image access company Hx Technologies, the InnoCentive research challenge site for scientists,and Aethon‘s mobile robots for hospitals. The InnoCentive site sucked me in because it’s got some interesting challenges posted, like Kraft’s RFP for "technology for making bakeable cheese fillers for baked snack products."

integreat 

Hello and thanks to new HIStalk Platinum sponsor InteGreat. The Pittsburgh-based company developed the modular IC-Chart EHR (CCHIT certified) and related applications for electronic prescribing, document imaging, clinical documentation, patient portal, ancillary orders, and disaster recovery. There’s a good chance you know at least one of the executives given their long history in the industry. Thanks to InteGreat for keeping the HIStalk keyboard clicking.

An interesting memory stick survey in the UK: "In a study conducted in one London hospital … 92 of 105 doctors surveyed carried memory sticks .. Some 79 of these memory sticks held confidential patient information, but only five doctors had followed NHS rules and encrypted their data."

chromesc

Something the Google Chrome browser can do: put a web address directly onto the desktop or start menu using Google Gears. Wonder if any web-based HIT vendors use it?

Technology mostly found only in museums and hospitals: fax machines, pneumatic tube systems, and numeric pagers. Well, at least bank drive-throughs use pneumatic tubes.

tube

Kaiser Permanente will announce Monday its $5 million donation to Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital.

It’s a medical soap opera at for-profit Pinnacle Healthcare (IL). The CEO tried to get rid of the company’s former chairman and co-founder, who has enough shares of stock to fire the CEO. That former chairman, who is an orthopedic surgeon, already admitted sexual misconduct with a patient. The CEO’s attorney found her confidential client e-mails in the hands of the other side’s lawyer, who claimed it was fair game because it was received on a company computer.

Vendor Deals and Announcements

  • Randolph Medical Center (AL) selects Dairyland Health to facilitate the exchange of patient data.
  • The 60+ provider Suncoast Medical Clinic selects athenahealth as its practice management service provider.
  • Methodist Hospital (CA) announces the successfully activation of Eclipsys Sunrise Clinical Manager. Within six weeks, 1300 users were trained. Next on tap is adding clinical and nursing documentation.
  • mPay Gateway secures $6.75 million in VC funding. mPay Gateway provides web-based software to facilitate point of care electronic patient payments.
  • Park Ridge Hospital (NC) implements MEDSEEK’s physician portal, marking completion of the phase of Western NCHIE’s first ehealth initiative.
  • The 881- bed Huntsville Hospital (AL) implements GE’s Centricity Enterprise Solution.
  • Hayes Management Consulting is named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in America.
  • Surgical Information Systems is chosen as the perioperative software provider for 410-bed MetroSouth Medical Center (IL).
  • TeleTracking Technologies and VHA are partnering to offer VHA’s alliance members TeleTracking’s patient flow automation technology.
  • Information and BI-provider Wolters Kluwer Health is acquiring UpToDate, an evidence-based electronic clinical resource provider.
  • Centre Medical and Surgical Associates (PA) has selected Allscripts EHR and PM for its 69 providers.
  • CliniComp will provide its Essentris Perinatal Solution to Tenet Healthcare. Initially seven of Tenet’s facilities will deploy the solution.

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Currently there are "8 comments" on this Article:

  1. It is nice to see that you do not promote your sponsors when giving a person advice on HIS vendors. Too funny….

    [From Mr. HIStalk] Actually, I should have included QuadraMed. I didn’t because my experience with them is in a much larger facility so I wasn’t thinking 200-bed customers, but Affinity is solid and that size is right at their sweet spot. Employees of two vendors so far have posted comments pitching their wares (without disclosing their affiliation). I’ve deleted those (it’s not fair to pose as a bystander and, hey, buy a sponsorship if you want to advertise here).

  2. Two more vendors who play in the “smaller hospital HIS” field: Stockell (www.stockell.com) and CPSI (www.cpsinet.com).

  3. HMS is a Rural Hospital/Critical Access Hospital provider. HMS abandonded the 200 bed market 4 years ago deciding to let go an entire sales team established to develop these types of accounts and opportunities. Careful and Good Luck

  4. HMS, Meditech, Dairyland, CPSI, Quadramed, Siemens MS4 all good recommendations to look at…Medsphere has like 5 customers, are you kidding me?

  5. I have to disagree re:new layout. It makes HIS Talk a lot less legible. Certainly you more than deserve the success and the sponsors, but the actual content now looks uncomfortably sandwiched between two ginormous columns of (gulp!) flashing ads.

    This does not look good.

  6. To Wendy Williams. I truly believe the smartest place to start with a system selection is with KLAS, considering that their database is comprised of user scoring of products. You can learn a lot about the strengths and weaknesses of most of the vendors.







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