Comments on: News 11/18/09

By: deinstaller

deinstaller — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:33:36 +0000

” I personally side with Masspro’s Dr. Karen Bell, who believes the findings highlight the need to focus on helping physicians, hospitals, and the public health system use technology more effectively.”

Why would you side with her? Why are you and she denying reality that these devices do not convey any efficay, while simultaneously, they are not safe. Would you want a pacemaker implanted that was not proven to be safe and efficacious?

By: S Silverstein

S Silverstein — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:58:06 +0000

p.s. the Soviet stuff was parody.

By: S Silverstein

S Silverstein — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:56:32 +0000

Just Saying,

The problems with the Army Base physician shooter had little to do with nobody checking the web about him.

Employers in fact do check the web regarding recruits, recent stats I heard where that over 40% do; I don’t know about onlging surveillance though.

My concern is the the web is inherently unreliable doue to the actors who use it, and protection of employee (and clinician) rights must take high precedence when something untoward or bizarre comes up. If done properly, no problem. If done improperly, then big problem.

Hospital management already are known to engage in the practice of “sham peer review” (see wikipedia and my prior links on the topic) on doctors they just don’t like. So I hope you can understand the concerns of clinicians about Web interrogations.

The worst thing about me on the web, I believe, is when one of my former postdoc students who I helped select for the program an treated most kindly called me a “horse’s ass, and a pariah beyond rehabilitation” after I criticized his former boss.

So, you see, one must consider the source when it’s on the web.

– SS

By: IRS Man

IRS Man — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:48:57 +0000

Mark Leavitt, CCHIT Chair, should disclose what he has received all these years from HIMSS as part of his “total compensation package” from 2005 to 2010. This should include his “retirement” package that the tax payers will be paying for in 2010, which will probably include HIMSS employer-paid health insurance coverage, since Leavitt is too young to apply for Medicare.

If Leavitt fails to disclose this, we should be able to pull the new IRS 990 form in a few months and disclose it for him! Leavitt had the chance to “set the record straight” on HIStalk, but Leavitt has declined to be interviewed.

This should be done before Leavitt goes back to HIMSS as CMO …the position HIMSS has been holding for Leavitt since Leavitt “left” in 2005 to Chair the CCHIT.

Perhaps Leavitt will go back to CCHIT as a consultant, receiving a lucrative, independent contract. Notice Leavitt said he was retiring as “Chair” of CCHIT.

By: JustSaying

JustSaying — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:47:40 +0000

S. Silverstein: Employers and police and regular citizens commonly use the internet to see if undesireable things appear for people they hire or live with, etc. Have you never searched on a name looking for what might be there? If you did, and you found a blog that accused one of your healthcare employees of gross misconduct (say child or elderly abuse) would you just ignore it because you felt it was “spying”? Or if the newly hired nurse at your local children’s clinic wrote in her blog about the merits of some pedophilic society she belongs to, wouldn’t you want that looked into? Besides, social networks, blogs, and articles are open to the public, so it’s all a part of our life now – pretty much like newspapers.

This is nothing like the Soviets who had no guaranteed rights, and were guilty until proven innocent – or just guilty because the police said so. No valid comparison to Soviets.