Comments on: Monday Morning Update 8/2/10

By: Mars

Mars — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:58:17 +0000

Hi Histalk – any insight on the reason why CEO of MEDecision, Scott, was removed. the official release says, obviouly, other pursuits. any insider inputs or market news you heard of? (I last heard the Med was doing real good, so this comes as a surprise, given that their parent HCSC brought Scott in with a lot of fanfare).

By: Blah

Blah — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:44:37 +0000

So now a nurse not reponding to an audible alarm is the EMR’s fault?

By: inotroped

inotroped — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:22:38 +0000

Dr. Verghese is spot on. Faith is vital to medical care and is the fundamental tenet of the doctor patient relationship.

Faith in the computerization of medical care is heretical, especially considering th reports of adversity you have posted on your great site. These adverse events and situations that sap the faith include privacy breaches, defects in the software, conflicts of interest which promote wealth of the vendors and their lobbyists, but not the health of the patients, unusability of the devices that ultimately cause serious interference with the relationship between doctor and patient.

Thank you Mr. HIStalk for educating us.

By: Michelle W

Michelle W — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 13:37:38 +0000

I understand what the good doctor means when speaking of the ritual of a patient/physician interaction. But the other rituals he references are all once in a life time experiences that we set a date aside for and elaborately plan. Compare the preparations made for a wedding to that made for an emergency trip to the doctor; now compare how long a full wedding ceremony lasts compared to a typical visit’s duration, with a physician you may not even know. Besides the physical nature of disrobing, there’s little intimacy involved.

Some physicians can be just as buried in their paper records and own theorizing as others who might be distracted by a computer terminal. The best doctors will overcome these barriers and still focus on the patient. Certainly, I’ve had my share of negative physician encounters that had nothing to do with the technology involved.

By the way, thanks for the Up! reference, it made a nice diversion–squirrel!

By: Skeptical

Skeptical — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 11:56:46 +0000

McKesson continues to struggle with Horizon Clinicals and HERM. The massive upgrade, which only begins to move those clinical applications onto one database has been ongoing for five years now and remember, it is just the beginning of moving all those apps onto one database. HERM is clearly not making the impact MCK had intended when they spent over $150M in its development.

Relay Health financial transactions are the products posting gains. The Relay physician connectivity products aren’t doing well as they were not initially intended to be HIE’s.

Overall, it appears MCK is struggling. In addition, to this, they continue to RIF employees and have employees leave, as well as significant senior leadership changes.

None of these things are signs of a healthy company.