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Monday Morning Update 3/16/09

March 15, 2009 News 5 Comments

HERtalk by Inga

From: Sundance Kid. “Re: Anthony Rodgers joining the Office of the National Coordinator? Tony is a very HIT-savvy leader currently Director at Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System. One well placed call from Head of Homeland Security to Secretary of HHS and he is in!” Not sure if this means that Rodgers would want the DC gig.

From: Johnny B-good. “Re: Hospital CEO salaries. I hope that the same rules are applied to the Banking Execs who’s salaries I’m paying (unlike these Hosp execs.).”

USF Health and Allscripts initiate a pilot program called Paperfree Tampa Bay that aims to convert 100 percent of physicians in the Tampa Bay area to electronic prescribing. Program leaders view this as a first step toward the implementation of EHR in the region and is expected to create 100 jobs in the region. We chatted with Allscripts CEO Glen Tullman about the initiative, and have posted the interview on our HIStalkPractice site.

President Obama nominates NYC health chief Margaret Hamburg commission of the FDA.

HIMSS claims that total conference registration “parallels” last year’s record-breaking figures during the same time last year. The numbers suggest that those staying home to save money seem to be balanced by attendees making plans to learn more about how to get their share of the stimulus pie.

Here’s a study that many vendors may hope gets swept under the rug. Researchers from the University of Minnesota find that the use of HIT has little or no effect on patient safety. The AHQR-funded study also suggests it may be “too early” to judge HIT’s overall effectiveness.

Surgical Information Systems now integrates with Cardinal Health’s Pyxis Supply Technologies.

According to the local paper, Catholic Healthcare Partners (OH) is nearing a decision to invest $100 million over the next five years for an unnamed EMR. The organization includes 32 hospitals across the Midwest.

KLAS releases a report entitled “The Rise of eClinicalWorks: Separating Fact from Fiction.” KLAS examines why ECW is growing faster than any other EMR vendor and whether if it could sustain the grown and still provide effective support. While customers expressed strong satisfaction on functionality and cost, support was noted by many users as the worst aspect of their ECW relationship. Users also claim that integration with other clinical systems was a challenge.

MedAvant Healthcare Solutions changes its name to Capario to better reflect the company’s revenue cycle solutions and renewed focus on growth. OK, I give up. What does “capario” mean anyway?

Document indexing vendor InDxLogic names Susan Thomas to its board of directors. Thomas is the former Chief Medical Officer for GE Healthcare ITS.

Baton Rouge, LA implements a telemedicine program that allows ED doctors to begin testing patients as they are being transported by ambulance. Funds for the BR Med-Connect program came from the US Department of Homeland Security. Can someone explain the Homeland Security connection?

Ochsner Medical Center (LA) posts ER waiting times online, giving patients the chance to select which of Ochsner’s four hospitals can see them the soonest.

Current and former physician employees of Medical Edge Healthcare Group (TX) file a suit against the company, charging them of improper billing and practices that violate state laws prohibiting corporate control over physicians. The doctors say Medical Edge used “deceptive accounting practicing” and charged them unfairly for taxes, benefits and other expenses.

Fifty physicians are set to receive their first rewards for participating in New Jersey’s Bridges to Excellence Program, which is designed to recognize and reward providers that demonstrate safe, timely, effective, and patient-centered care.

Meridian Health (NJ) selects TeleHealth Services to provide television-based services in the patient rooms of three hospitals.

San Mateo County (CA) pays the federal government $6.8 million to settle charges that the county medical center intentionally inflated its numbers of acute care beds in order to receive bigger Medicare payouts. San Mateo claims that any overstatements were unintentional.

The American Hospital Association reports that 53% of all US hospitals reported overall losses in the fourth quarter of last year. The aggregated overall margin for the quarter was -8%, compared to a positive 5% for the same quarter in 2007.

Third-party benefits administrator First Service Administrators appoints CareMedic CEO Sheila Schweitzer to its board of directors. 

Mr. H is taking a few days off, so the posts this week may be short and sweet. Email me.



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Currently there are "5 comments" on this Article:

  1. RE: a study that many vendors may hope gets swept under the rug

    “…the use of HIT has little or no effect on patient safety.”

    Just over a year ago, the FDA proposed re-classifying HIT systems from Class 3 medical devices to Class 1. While one might wonder why they had not been enforcing the prior Class 3 designation, this action clearly puts HIT vendors on notice that patient safety needs to be a product design factor. At least it sets a floor in saying that HIT should not be a factor that decreases patient safety.

    A savvy vendor that has prior experience with FDA medical device regulation might see this as an opportunity. Other vendors, such as the big boys pushing their PHR products, might see it as a threat. It will be “stimulating” to watch the food-fight.

  2. MedAvant Healthcare Solutions changes its name to Capario to better reflect the company’s revenue cycle solutions and renewed focus on growth. OK, I give up. What does “capario” mean anyway?

    Oh come on Mr H…you get it…..means reviewing your revenue cycle and capital budgets while nursing a glass of Campari.

  3. Just watched the Allscripts PR piece for Paper free Tampa bay. I think the marketing people at USF and Allscripts could have found a better sample Dr than the OB/GYN who spoke and mentioned her portal for appts and messages but stated the patients pick up their script from the front desk… DOH!
    Maybe they should start with her office first?? Paper-free means no paper scripts right?

  4. RE: CHP choosing enterprise EHR vendor

    After reading the article, they want to spend only $100 Million to implement their 20+ hospitals on a new enterprise system in 5 years. The only vendor mentioned in that article is Epic. Uhm…is CHP blind to the Kaiser fiasco? I hope they get a LOT of stimulus money if they are going to implement a broken Epic system that will cost well over $100 Million and take much longer than 5 years to implement. Either way, I am sure at the end of it, Epic will convince them that it’s somehow CHP’s fault for the implementation taking longer and costing twice as much.

  5. Homeland Security has an interest in telemedicine for pandemic response (e.g., anthrax contracted from cattle out on the range), and in Emergency Medicine for disaster response. Don’t forget: FEMA is a part of the Department of Homeland Security.)







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