Monday Morning Update 2/14/11

From Neal’s Deal: “Re: Cerner deal. The academic medical center referred to in the Q4 earnings call is USC University Hospital. It is somehow fitting that UCLA picked Epic and USC picked Cerner.” Unverified. It was amusing that Cerner bragged to investment analysts that it beat Epic in one deal. It’s a good win for Cerner, but then again Epic has had many good wins over Cerner lately. Competition is good for everybody.

From Held Hostage: “Re: Meditech. I have heard from multiple sources that they’re telling customers they must buy all modules to meet Meaningful Use under their certification as a Complete EHR. If you use third-party CPOE, for instance, you would have to replace it with Meditech’s because you don’t have the Complete EHR. Any comments or evidence supporting or refuting this theory would be helpful.” I posed your question to a Meditech spokesperson, who provided this official response: “The specific wording of this specific Comment below is not accurate.” Also, this is not likely a question limited to Meditech – the whole “Complete EHR” thing is getting people confused about what it means and whether it makes sense.

From Frank Poggio: “Re: certification. The certification/MU system is extremely biased towards full EHR vendors. Best-of-breed vendors and suite vendors can be left out. If your certified ‘full EHR’ (read: single vendor) generates the MU quality data, you are OK. But if you use other systems, such as a best-of-breed lab, pharmacy, registration, etc, then if that component is going to dump data to your data warehouse and it is used for MU reporting, that best-of-breed system must be certified. If it is not, and you pass the data to your EHR (which is certified), you are OK. Anyone that has been in the business as a best-of-breed vendor knows those big EMR guys just love to cooperate with the little folks! The moral: if you’re a best-of-breed provider, you’d better get certified as an EHR Module.”

From Voidal: “Re: El Camino Hospital CEO. Dispenses with the lame ‘spending time with family’ excuse and flat out says he’s leaving because the board said so. He had quite a run: the Eclipsys pharmacy system fiasco, Microsoft snow job, Taj Mahal building project, and fierce local competition.” Ken Graham’s three-sentence announcement says his contract will end without cause at the request of the board.

From Doolittle: “Re: [vendor name omitted]. Obliterating their US sales operations. Their executive leader has been ‘reassigned,’ 20% of the management has elected to leave or been asked to, and a full 50% of the Client Executives (fully responsible for hospital/IDN relationships) are no longer there. Many of the 20-plus year veterans are gone as well. Bigger changes are expected in April. Loss of revenue, non-existent new business sales, the huge [product name omitted] failure … the house of cards is finally tumbling down. As a former employee, I took a new position within the past year when the writing was on the wall …it’s now on billboards in neon!” Unverified. I invited the company to comment; they have not responded so far. I’ll leave their name off for now just in case their response is forthcoming, but surely you can guess who it is. They could be gearing up to unload the operation by cutting costs short-term, but that’s just speculation. Otherwise, whacking the sales operation is eating the seed corn.

From The PACS Designer: “Re: cloud predictions. InformationWeek’s Charles Babcock has cloud predictions for 2011 and what the major players are doing to get a piece of the cloud business. Pioneers Amazon and Google are now facing challenges from the telecoms, mainly AT&T and Verizon, for a share of the cloud offerings to institutions who want to expand communications beyond their data centers.”

Listening: new from Motorhead, punk metal with a croaking 65-year-old singer who’s even less musically gifted than AC/DC’s Brian Johnson. It still kicks, though. Newly added to the gym iPod: jangle from REM and Gin Blossoms.

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone. Guys, if you haven’t yet invested in picked-over and overpriced flowers, a sappy card with prose penned by a hack novelist wannabe, and maybe a dinner reservation knowing that even great restaurants will throw quality to the wind in favor of high-margin V-Day turnover, then this is your early warning system to man up. Sure, it’s a Hallmark holiday, but if you could spend that same couple of hundred dollars and get an EMR with an equally impressive ROI, you’d own several. Monday is the lightest HIStalk night where I work only 4-5 hours after coming home from the hospital, so I am prepared with a piece of jewelry, some of Mrs. HIStalk’s favorite dark chocolate covered cherries (the cheap Walgreens kind she likes), and a little heart-wearing stuffed bear (also from Walgreens) that plays I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) by the Temptations when you poke his stomach. Yes, I am quite the catch.

One possible hitch in Monday’s VD plans: a vendor asked me to interview their CEO and that of another vendor as an exclusive prior to a Tuesday morning announcement, which I obviously have to do after I get home from work since the hospital doesn’t pay me to interview CEOs. If you aren’t signed up for e-mail updates, now’s a good time.

There’s no clear conclusion about the PCAST report, it seems. New poll to your right: I asked you last week to suggest a replacement for David Blumenthal at ONC, so this week’s poll lets you choose from the most-nominated individuals. Click Comments on the poll to bolster your argument. Chances are small that your vote will influence the outcome, but still higher than the zero percent chance inherent with not voting at all. Thanks to those who nominated me. I’ll respectfully decline since I’m anti-HITECH, I don’t trust politicians or the federal government, and Washington traffic is horrendous.

Thanks to everyone who filled out my annual reader survey. Thanks to everyone else for considering clicking the link and doing it now.

It’s always busy around here right before HIMSS, which means I don’t get much sleep for a couple of months. It calms down right after. Until then, please indulge me as I introduce some new sponsors. I don’t solicit sponsors and I don’t want to inundate you with announcements about new ones, but their unsolicited yet appreciated participation is a reflection of you as a reader, a desirable audience they want to reach.

New Platinum Sponsor Besler Consulting is a consulting firm focusing on healthcare finance and operations. It offers services related to observation management; Medicare / Medicaid appeals and regulatory analysis; cost report preparation; IME/GME analysis; revenue cycle; managed care contract review; physician billing and practice analysis; coding, documentation, and compliance; accreditation and certification readiness; and strategic and operational planning. More specifically on the software side, the company will be rolling out two new solutions this year: BVerified Screening and Verification (automated screening of employees, caregivers, contractors, and vendors against federal and state databases of fraud and abuse convictions) and BVerified Revenue Integrity Auditor (reporting of uncovered revenue opportunities). Thanks to Besler Consulting for supporting HIStalk.

Intelligent Medical Objects of Northbrook, IL is supporting HIStalk as a Platinum Sponsor. The company’s tagline is “Providing common ground for health vocabularies,” which it does by offering terminology mapping to EMR vendors for their applications (ICD, SNOMED, HCPCS, RxNorm) and vocabulary products for helping healthcare organizations support interoperability. The IMO iHealth Search is a search portal for EHR systems, a sophisticated knowledge search engine that translates clinician terminology to generate superior search results. IMO offers a free, voice-powered iPhone app that allows physicians to find problem and diagnosis codes by speaking clinician-friendly terms into their phones. A customer quote about their similarly clinician-friendly EMR-based lookups: “When we added the IMO diagnosis look-up feature to our templates, the positive response was overwhelming. Many physicians said it was the best thing we ever did for them!” They have some cool demos on their site, but probably some even cooler ones at HIMSS in Booth 3517. I appreciate the support of HIStalk and its readers by Intelligent Medical Objects.

Stimulus Search (love the name) is a brand new HIStalk Gold Sponsor. If you’re a healthcare software and services company in the hospital, payer, or physician practice markets and are looking for top sales and support people, get in touch with recruiting guru Dan Moriarty down in the New Orleans area. His firm can help vendors find niche talent, such as HIE, EHR, revenue cycle, RFID, PACS, CPOE, and HIM. There’s a long list of testimonials on the site. Dan will even lend his expertise to candidates interested in furthering their career objectives. Take Dan’s six-question survey about recruiting methods that do and don’t work and he will share the results. Thanks to Stimulus Search for its support of HIStalk.

Joining our august assemblage as a Platinum Sponsor is HT Systems of Tampa, FL, which you may know better as the PatientSecure folks. A couple of months ago, I gave a brief mention of a hospital (I think it was Carolinas HealthCare, but I’m not sure) implementing its palm vein recognition system and I stuck in a small photo. That generated quite a bit of interest among readers, and apparently the company’s interest in HIStalk. PatientSecure identifies people by scanning their palms, with their unique vein patterns being 100 times more accurate than a fingerprint (and free of the “you’re not taking MY fingerprints” stigma that I can say from personal experience is vexing to IT people trying to roll out finger-based biometrics). Registration people don’t need to manually look up patients or hope they’re who they say and not some nice but uninsured neighbor borrowing their insurance card – the patient puts their hand on the scanner and their files are instantly brought up in the registration application. The result is positive patient identification, no more duplicated medical records to be merged later, faster customer service, and integration with existing systems (and across systems – a patient set up at the hospital can be scanned in a physician’s office). Thanks to HT Systems / PatientSecure for supporting HIStalk.

CPSI announces that three of its hospital customers have received HITECH checks. CEO Boyd Douglas says, “There are still hospitals on the fence about doing this, wondering whether they’ll really get the money. This serves as proof that the money is flowing.”

ONC lame duck David Blumenthal is still defending EMRs and bashing critical studies, but he’s maybe getting a little crankier or less PC about it on his way out the door, which I rather like, actually. He reminds an audience that recession-hammered Americans involuntarily chipped in $27 billion to buy technology that providers “could have adopted by themselves but they didn’t. We are handing over tens of thousands of dollars to doctors and millions of dollars to hospitals to do something that you may hear them say is a burden and an obligation and a mandate … If you look at this from the standpoint of the average voter and the taxpayer, this is a big, big subsidy to a profession that on average earns considerably more than the average American.” All good reasons not to have done it, but unless the Republicans get an unlikely long lasso, that horse left the barn long ago with DB whipping its hindquarters.

TELUS signs agreements with three Canadian EMR vendors to use TELUS Health Space, powered by Microsoft HealthVault, in consumer health pilots that will target six million Canadians. The Canadian telecommunications company also reports Q4 numbers: revenue up 4.4% to $2.55 billion, EPS $0.70 vs. $0.49.

I’m still getting HIMSS spam at work, but here’s another gripe: I keep getting friendly-sounding “invitations” to events that aren’t free. Is it really an “invitation” to have breakfast with some magazine if I have to pay? Why would I want to do that?

Confirmed: the IngaTinis will indeed be flowing at the SIS booth (#5963) at HIMSS, Monday from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. (“a fun pre-game for the HIStalk reception,” Inga was reminded by a fun SIS’er). I was talking to SIS CEO Ed Daihl today and he joked that he’s sorry they didn’t copyright the name last year, so at least I can give them credit for the idea.

Authors of a new book on ACOs: Bruce Flareau MD (CMIO, BayCare, FL), Joanne Bohn (founder, Clinical Horizons, Inc.), and Colin Konschak (managing partner, DIVURGENT). Speaking of DIVURGENT, they announce their Activate! activation management services.

Inga has spend a huge amount of time putting together a couple of pre-HIMSS pieces. She asked our sponsors what they will be doing at HIMSS (the page is here, or a downloadable PDF here). As a bonus, several of them have set aside extra-special giveaways that are only for HIStalk readers (she includes the secret code words). And on HIStalk Practice, she got some fascinating answers in latest installment of her executive question series, where dozens of vendor executives predict the hot topics at the HIMSS conference. That one’s definitely a fun read. Nobody can do this as well as Inga – the quantity and quality of the responses is amazing.

The Columbus paper covers the use of scribes by a company that contracts out ED physician staffing. It also quotes a dermatologist who says his EMR use was interfering with his patient relationships before he hired a scribe. “I’m able to go in and have good eye contact, be empathetic and not have to type. It’s difficult to type and look at moles at the same time.” An interesting and easy study would be to take the same doctors and patients, with and without the doctor interacting with the EMR in the exam room, and measure the patients’ perceptions about the encounter and the doctor. I still say it’s more about technique and physical placement of the computer than anything else.

IT outsourcer PHNS changes its name to Anthelio. There’s a long and unconvincing explanation about the origins and inspiration behind the lawsuit-unlikely name and the whole “new commitment, new focus” blah blah. Apparently the entire business and vision was being held back by having a pronounceable and simple name like PHNS, forcing a deep dive into the dictionary to turn things around.

An eight-physician primary care practice in Cincinnati says it’s considering joining a hospital system specifically because it needs an EMR that it estimates will cost $250K. “I’m a business owner who needs an electronic medical record. If it were not for EMR, I would not consider it.” That’s an unintended consequence of HITECH – killing off independent practices and letting high-profit hospitals integrate vertically, which doesn’t exactly foster price-lowering competition or provide benefit to the patient-widget (not to mention that it spreads rampant hospital inefficiency and bureaucracy).

Grady Hospital (GA), trying to offset a $25 million reduction in indigent care payments from the state, will cut contractors brought in to implement its $40 million Epic EMR. That might be a portent of healthcare reform: a tanking hospital somehow scrapes up $40 million to buy an EMR, but now can’t even afford the people needed to get it running.

Ness County Hospital (KS) chooses the ChartAccess EHR from Prognosis Health Information Systems.

Sutter and UC Davis will share their electronic health records.

Microsoft will announce new HealthVault features at HIMSS: a Getting Started wizard, the ability for users to authenticate their account by telephone, a single landing page, integrated Blue Button support to allow users to download their health information from various government sources and then upload it into HealthVault, and the ability for developers to set event notification for changes to an individual’s information.

I got a couple of invitations to some interesting conferences this week, include one to speak to a big group of venture capitalists, private equity people, and corporate types. Folks are so nice to offer and I really appreciate it, although the challenges of finagling time off at work means I always decline. As for speaking, anything interesting or insightful that pops into my head is right here on HIStalk, so I’d just be recycling anyway.

HHS is supposed to be unveiling a new site soon that will put into motion CTO Todd Park’s plan to open up HHS’s extensive healthcare databases to third-party developers to create value-added applications. Todd’s example is usually the government’s trove of real-time weather data, used by a plethora of companies to create new uses for it and make the information more publicly useful. Todd’s in the above video and talks about HealthData.gov at the 1:30 mark, saying it was supposed to launch in December, which apparently didn’t happen.

New York’s Health and Hospitals Corp. admits that the health records of 1.7 million of its patients were stolen in December when unknown thieves took backup tapes from an unlocked van belonging to its medical records vendor, GRM Information Management Services.

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Filed under News on February 12, 2011 - 32 Comments -

Mr. HIStalk’s Must See Vendors for HIMSS11

Download a PDF copy.

Access

Booth: 2317

Contact:
Kiffer Davis
kiffer.davis@accessefm.com
214.272.0375

Access is the world’s leading electronic forms (e-forms) management, automation and workflow software provider. Our solutions transform any paper-intensive forms process into a paperless, collaborative workflow. Hundreds of hospitals worldwide are using Access solutions to improve patient care and safety, cut costs and enhance electronic health records (EHR), patient safety and downtime registration initiatives. Learn more at www.accessefm.com

Access Says: With Access solutions, you can print e-forms on demand with patient demographics and barcodes that auto index in ECM/EDM systems, paperlessly port clinical device and system output into EHRs, use online forms & electronic workflow to complete physician referrals and back office processes and complete eforms on the fly via mobile devices.

AdvancedMD Software

Booth: 1079

Contact:
BStone@advancedmd.com
801.984.9500
www.advancedmd.com

Practices, Hospitals, RECs, ACOS and Billing Services: If you need a technology platform that can interconnect the smaller private practice into the larger, health community – you need to talk with AdvancedMD, booth 1079. Easy-to-implement, integrated EHR+PM technology, with customizable visit templates for the most “particular” physician and strong revenue management tools for the experienced billing professional. No large upfront capital expenditure. No complex IT infrastructure. Pay-as-you-grow model, scales up and down with business fluctuations. Month-to-month contracts. Put your brand on our application. We invest in our business partners with sales and marketing support.

AdvancedMD Software Says: It takes more than technology to successfully migrate the independent physician into the age of interconnected healthcare. It takes a partner like AdvancedMD. Low cost of acquisition. Flexible technology platform. Marketing and sales support programs.

Allscripts

Booth: 2241

Contact:
Claire Weingarden, Public Relations Specialist
312.447.2442
claire.weingarden@allscripts.com

Allscripts provides innovative solutions that empower all stakeholders across the healthcare continuum to deliver world-class outcomes. The company’s clinical, financial, connectivity and information solutions for hospitals, physicians and post-acute organizations are the essential technologies that enable a connected community of health. To learn more about Allscripts, please visit www.allscripts.com, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Allscripts Says: True care coordination, both inside your organization and throughout your community, requires a single patient record. The new Allscripts, formed by the merger of Allscripts and Eclipsys, has the largest connected provider network in healthcare and provides connectivity for one patient record, on the industry’s first open platform.

API Healthcare

Booth: 3463

Contact:
Scott Smith, Vice President of Global Sales
262.685.8309
scott.smith@apiheatlhcare.com
www.apihealthcare.com

API Healthcare is a leading provider of fully integrated healthcare-specific workforce management solutions. Full integration equates to a more satisfied, cost-effective workforce that is empowered to provide high quality patient care. Learn how your organization can improve workforce management processes – both in terms of the cost and quality of care delivered.

API Healthcare Says: Delivering the advanced integration capabilities that connect your workforce with your clinical and financial data, API Healthcare Synergy is the future of workforce management. Stop by and see how technology that fosters an alliance of goals between finance and nursing can achieve more positive clinical outcomes and a healthier bottom line.

Special Give-away Just for HIStalk Readers: API Healthcare will have a special drawing just for HIStalk readers for a Dell Inspiron Mini Netbook with an Intel® Atom™ Processor. Stop by booth #3463, mention HIStalk, and we’ll swipe the badge for chance to win.

AsquaredM

Meetings By Request

Contact:
Victor Arnold
www.asquaredm.com
info@asquaredm.com
573.256.1135

We specialize in working with hospitals and their physician partners to better align interest, rewards and operations. We provide game changing services in three areas:

- Finance Operations Advisory Services
- Revenue Cycle Improvement
- Integration with EHR Products

In each of these service areas we have a well defined methodology consisting of assessment, advice and transformation. Our mix of management and healthcare consulting experience helps you to choose a solution that works best for your unique organization to drive up revenue and increase operations efficiency.

AsquaredM Says: We "sat in the seat" of management before we ever became consultants. Therefore we understand what it takes to implement sustainable improvements in complex healthcare environments. Few others can actually make that claim.

Awarepoint

Booth: 1901

Contact:
Valerie Fritz, Senior VP of Marketing
858.345.5009 | 1.888.860.FIND
www.awarepoint.com
www.awarepointblog.com
vfritz@awarepoint.com

Analogous to indoor GPS, RTLS solutions are used in hospitals to locate key equipment and maintain optimal inventory; track patients and personnel (to impact throughput, improve workflows and track exposure to infection); and for condition monitoring to meet regulatory compliance requirements such as in temperature controlling equipment (refrigerators, freezers, warmers). Today, Awarepoint leads the enterprise-wide RTLS in healthcare industry, with more hospital sites, more assets under management and more square footage of RTLS network coverage.

Awarepoint Says: Effective Hospitals are Aware. Is Yours? We encourage you to visit Awarepoint at HIMSS Booth #1901 to experience our complete line of RTLS solutions, latest innovations and see a live demonstration to learn more about how hospitals can account for equipment, patient, personnel and processes throughout the enterprise, as well as understand resource status, usage and availability in more depth. And, Awarepoint’s dedicated ZigBee®-based RTLS eliminates threats of data loss and other IT complications to your Wi-Fi network – because interference, interruption and downtime are not an option. If we miss you at HIMSS, contact us at info@awarepoint.com for your unique RTLS Impact Analysis summarizing projected quality, efficiency and cost savings using your hospital’s specific data and Discover the Awarepoint Difference.

Billian’s HealthDATA/Porter Research

Booth: 4579

Contact:
Jennifer Dennard, Social Marketing Director
678.569.4872
www.BilliansHealthDATA.com/
www.PorterResearch.com
jdennard@billian.com

Billian’s HealthDATA is a provider of comprehensive information on healthcare contacts and facilities across the continuum of care, including healthcare IT, via its Portal online sales prospecting and lead generation tool. Partner Porter Research offers in-depth market research services for the healthcare industry.

Billian’s HealthDATA/Porter Research Says: Looking for accurate, real-time healthcare information on facilities across the United States that is updated daily and accessible anywhere – including via phone? Stop by booth #4579 to view a live demo of how the Billian’s HealthDATA Portal can help your sales team stop wasting time on finding qualified leads and start generating sales. Be sure to ask how partner Porter Research’s market research services can help take BHD data to the next level – whether that be via Bulletin Board Focus Groups for new product development, Win/Loss or Competitive Analysis, or White Paper Development, among many other services.

Special Give-away Just for HIStalk Readers: We’ll be offering Snack Packs to the first 100 people to stop by and mention they are a HIStalk reader.

CapSite

Meetings By Request

Contact:
Leela Hauser
802.922.9961
leela.hauser@capsite.com
www.CapSite.com

CapSite™ is a healthcare technology research and advisory firm. Our mission is to help our healthcare vendor and provider clients make more informed strategic decisions that will enable them to accelerate the growth of their business. The CapSite™ database is the trusted, easy-to-use online resource providing critical knowledge and evidence-based information on healthcare technology purchases. CapSite™ provides detailed transparency on healthcare technology pricing, packaging and positioning.

CapSite Says: Schedule time with us to check out our latest industry research reports (including our Ambulatory EHR & Practice Management Study and Revenue Cycle Management Study) or for a quick demo of the CapSite Database.

CAP STS

Meetings By Request

Contact:
Joe Schramm, Director, Business Development Services and Operations
224.223.5464
jschramm@cap.org

CAP STS (SNOMED Terminology Solutions™), a division of the College of American Pathologists (CAP), is a professional services provider with a diversified service offering related to health IT strategy and planning; clinical health information management; and health care standards. CAP STS is committed to improving patient care through the advancement of interoperable EHRs and works with provider organizations, hospitals, health IT vendors, health information exchange initiatives, universities, research centers, and government agencies throughout the world. CAP STS’ DIHIT (Diagnostic Intelligence and Health Information Technology) team advances health IT standards, practices, and tools, such as the CAP Diagnostic Work Station initiative; and standardized electronic reporting, including the CAP electronic Cancer Checklists (CAP eCC).

CAP STS Says: CAP STS is committed to improving patient care through the advancement of interoperable EHRs—and helping clients navigate complex issues and meet Meaningful Use and HITECH Act.

Capsule

Booth: 1931

Contact:
Karen Jimenez
978.482.2340
www.capsuletech.com
karenj@capsuletech.com

For more than 14 years, Capsule has been the world’s leading, award-winning provider of solutions for medical device connectivity. Our leadership is made possible through our 510(k) cleared software and medical grade hardware products, our unique expertise in device protocols and firmware, and our strong partnerships with nearly every major medical device manufacturer and HIS company. Our proven Enterprise Medical Device Connectivity Solution, chosen by over 650 facilities, features a patient-centric, vendor neutral design that allows hospitals to connect virtually any medical device, to any information system, in any unit of the hospital. Featuring the innovative Capsule Neuron™ platform, the solution actually integrates with existing technologies and infrastructures and works within the established or planned caregiver work processes. Furthermore, Capsule’s solution is completely flexible and scalable thereby allowing a hospital to grow as their needs grow to meet their short and long term connectivity, patient care, and safety needs.

Capsule Says: Capsule’s proven Enterprise Medical Device Connectivity Solution, chosen by over 650 facilities worldwide, features a patient-centric, vendor neutral design that allows hospitals to connect virtually any medical device, to any information system, in any unit of the hospital.

Carefx

Booth: 4543

Contact:
Amy Ferretti, Vice President of Marketing
480.833.5010 ext. 446
www.carefx.com
aferretti@carefx.com

Carefx is a leading provider of interoperable workflow solutions and supports healthcare organizations in achieving their vision of advancing the quality and safety of patient care delivery. Carefx supports more than 700 hospitals, health systems, regional health information organizations (RHIOs) and health information exchanges (HIEs) across North America and Europe.

Carefx Says: Come by the Carefx booth to learn how customers are responding to industry and regulatory changes—all while achieving High-Performance Healthcare (pick up a copy of our newly released White Paper on the topic). See Carefx’s new Business Intelligence dashboards (originally developed and implemented at Cleveland Clinic). Of course, our booth is always good for a little bit of fun, too.

CareTech Solutions

Booth: 1831

Contact:
Anne Santori, Public Relations Manager
248.823.0908
248.312.8385 (M)
anne.santori@caretech.com
www.caretech.com

CareTech Solutions, Inc., an information technology and Web products and services provider for more than 150 U.S. hospitals and health systems, creates value for clients through customized IT solutions that contribute to improving patient care while lowering healthcare costs. From implementing emerging technologies to supporting day-to-day IT operations, CareTech offers clients expert health information management services across the entire patient data lifecycle earning it the 2008, 2009 and 2010 Best in KLAS award for IT Outsourcing (Extensive) as ranked by healthcare executives and professionals in the Top 20 Best in KLAS Awards: Software & Professional Services report. For more information, please visit www.caretech.com.

CareTech Solutions Says: You could win a $1,000 donation for your hospital foundation when you stop by CareTech Solutions’ booth and enter the raffle drawing that celebrates healthcare’s extraordinary people doing extraordinary things. To learn more visit http://www.caretech.com/HIMSS_Raffle.

Clairvia

Booth: 3123

Contact:
Phillip Madden, Vice President, Client Services
919.382.8282 ext.231
pmadden@clairvia.com
info@clairvia.com
www.clairvia.com

Clairvia serves more than 1,200 healthcare organizations, medical facilities, nursing departments, and group practices with advanced software solutions for patient and staff management. Clairvia Care Value Management (CVM) is a comprehensive software suite that empowers healthcare providers to deliver the right caregivers to each patient – at the right time – to achieve the next, desired level of wellness. In more than 200 successful implementations, Clairvia CVM has driven measurable improvements in quality of care, patient safety, patient throughput and financial performance, as well as patient, staff, and physician satisfaction. The complete Clairvia CVM solution includes the following software products: Staff Manager | Care Cost Manager | Demand Manager | Patient Progress Manager | Outcomes-Driven Patient Acuity | Demand-Driven Patient Assignment | MobileConnect | ShiftAlert Mobile.

Clairvia Says: Clairvia’s Physician Scheduler software automates the demanding, time-intensive task of creating an equitable schedule based on the complex rules of individual physician groups, while ensuring an equitable share of call and adequate coverage.

Culbert Healthcare Solutions

Meetings By Request

Contact:
Brad Boyd, Vice President
Culbert Healthcare Solutions, Inc
781.935.1002 ext 13
bboyd@culberthealth.com
www.CulbertHealth.com

Culbert Healthcare Solutions specializes in assisting healthcare organizations with strategic planning, interim management, revenue cycle, clinical transformation and information technology services. Our team of experienced healthcare professionals thrives on implementing best practices, optimizing technology and guiding clients through the change management process.

Cumberland Consulting Group

Booth: 6943

Contact:
Jim Lewis, Managing Partner
615.373.4470
www.cumberlandcg.com
jim.lewis@cumberlandcg.com

Cumberland Consulting Group is a national technology implementation and project management firm serving ambulatory, acute, and post-acute healthcare providers. Through the implementation of new technologies, Cumberland works with providers to advance the quality of care delivered, and improve business performance. Named one of America’s Best Small Firms to Work For by Consulting Magazine in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Cumberland Consulting Group offers an invigorating, positive work environment and a commitment to superior talent acquisition, development and retention.

Cumberland Consulting Group Says: Make meaningful use of your time at HIMSS 11. Stop by and learn why Cumberland doubled in size in 2010. Cumberland has an excellent delivery record, straightforward implementation methods and lean operating model that delivers big company results at a very attractive price. Be sure to catch partner Dave Vreeland’s presentation on designing EMR programs for Voluntary Medical Staff: Session 223 on Thursday at 11:15.

Special Give-away Just for HIStalk Readers: Mention our listing in the HISTalk HIMSS Guide and be entered for a chance to win the top-of-the-line 64GB WiFi Apple iPad!

CynergisTek

Booth: 4118

Contact:
Caroline Kirby, Director of Marketing & Business Development
512.402.8550
caroline.kirby@cynergistek.com
www.cynergistek.com

CynergisTek delivers a powerful combination of information security consulting and proven technologies that enables organizations to efficiently protect their information and comply with regulatory requirements. With decades of experience in the healthcare and IT security industries, the company offers its clients authoritative guidance for practical, data-centric approaches to solving specific security challenges, from fundamental HIPAA compliance to the complex, evolving regulatory requirements associated with the HITECH Act and healthcare reform.

dbMotion

Booth: 2063

Contact:
Kate Kolbrener, Sr. Marketing Mgr, N. America
412-802-2248
www.dbmotion.com
katek@dbmotion.com

dbMotion is an innovative provider of health interoperability solutions for connected healthcare. The dbMotion™ Solution is a proven SOA-based platform that enables healthcare organizations and HIEs to meaningfully integrate and leverage information assets to drive improvements in the quality, safety and efficiency of patient care.

dbMotion Says: You will not want to skip a visit to the dbMotion booth this year at HIMSS! There you will have the chance to speak with our clients who are enjoying the benefits of truly connected healthcare such as genuine care coordination embedded within the caregivers’ workflow, mobility, payor/provider integration, analytics, ACO – all enabled by dbMotion’s technology.

Digital Prospectors Corp

Booth: 968

Contact:
Chris Roos, Principal
603.772.2700 x201
croos@dpcit.com

DPC provides healthcare organizations with project management, implementation, integration, end user training and legacy systems support. Over the last eleven years DPC has helped dozens of hospitals achieve their IS goals and stay within their planned budget. Integrity, reliability and delivery of outstanding results are the key factors for the continued success of DPC’s HIS practice. Our Consultants are experts in Epic, Siemens, Eclipsys and Quovadx. Come visit us at Booth #968 and register to win an ipad.

DPC Says: Work with DPC when you need reliable, experienced and certified consulting resources to help manage, implement, customize and support your EHR/EMR and HIS Financial systems.

DIVURGENT

Meetings By Request

Contact:
Colin Konschak, Managing Partner
info@divurgent.com
757.213.6875
www.DIVURGENT.com

DIVURGENT, a healthcare consulting firm focused on providing advisory services, revenue cycle management, project management, and clinical transformation services, will be attending the 2011 HIMSS conference Saturday, Feb. 19 – Thursday, Feb. 24. They look forward to meeting new healthcare industry leaders and sharing insight on trending topics. DIVURGENT will be presenting at 11:15 am on Thursday the 24th; Presentation # 229. Reach out to info@DIVURGENT.com if you are interested in meeting.

e-MDs

Booth: 5669

Contact:
Mike DeMuth, Executive VP of Sales
512.257.5200
sales@e-mds.com
www.e-mds.com

e-MDs delivers the most highly rated EHR/Practice Management solution in the United States. e-MDs, with over 30,000 users nationwide, offers affordable, easy to use products for small practices and enterprise organizations alike. As a physician informaticist led EHR company, e-MDs is committed to demonstrating how biomedical knowledge, coupled with powerful, simple to configure and customize HIT products, can improve the quality of healthcare. Through the accurate coding and practice optimization tools of e-MDs Solution Series™, many providers realize marked revenue enhancements well in excess of the HITECH incentive payments.

e-MDs Says: Visit us at Booth# 5669 and see why e-MDs IT-friendly integrated solutions received 2010 Best in KLAS in the Ambulatory EMR (2-5 physician) category, and 2010 Best in KLAS for Practice Management (2-5 physician). And get a sneak peek at our Mobile Solutions coming soon!

eClinicalWorks

Booth: 2311

Contact:
866.888.6929
www.eclinicalworks.com
sales@eclinicalworks.com

eClinicalWorks offers a comprehensive EHR and practice management solution, allowing practices to improve efficiency and enhance patient care. With more than 50,000 providers and 225,000 medical professionals across all 50 states using its technology, customers include physician practices, out-patient departments of hospitals, health centers, departments of health and convenient care clinics.

eClinicalWorks Says: At booth 2311, eClinicalWorks will be showing Version 9 of its Comprehensive Electronic Health Records and Practice Management Solution, along with 100MillionPatients.com and eClinicalWorks P2P, our new integration platform.

EDIMS

Booth: 2031

Contact:
Jamie Kohl, VP Marketing and Strategy
973.220.9577
www.edims.net
kohlj@edims.net

EDIMS 2.6 is CCHIT and MU certified –an advanced emergency department EHR, fully interoperable and ready to install out of the box with over 1000 evidence based medicine templates and order sets. EDIMS experienced team of ED professionals provides peer-to-peer training and support, optimization, customization and express implementation options. With industry leading clinical decision support, a robust charge capture engine, and the quickest and easiest to use documentation system, EDIMS improves profitability and productivity for every ED.

EDIMS Says: EDIMS will have several of their current clients on hand to discuss lessons learned from implementing and using a best-in-breed EMR. Booth activities will include playing Xbox Kinect, adult beverages, guest speakers, multiple give-aways, including a raffle for a great vacation to view the last shuttle launch, and of course opportunities to demo the product.

Elumin Healthcare Solutions

Meetings By Request

Contact:
Mark Williams, CEO
866.597.5861 ext. 707
425.369.8211
www.eluminhs.com
mwilliams@eluminhs.com

Elumin Healthcare Solutions is a privately held premier national technology implementation and project management firm serving ambulatory, acute, and post-acute healthcare providers. Our comprehensive range of programs and services includes system implementation, integration, optimization, project management, custom reporting, education and knowledge transfer expertise. We primarily focus on the Allscripts, Cerner, Epic, and Siemens, customer bases. We strive to successfully establish and maintain long term relationships by providing experienced professionals who consistently exceed their customers’ expectations. Come out of the dark and let our expert consultants shed light on your projects. Become Illuminated!!

Elumin Healthcare Solutions Says: Contact us to arrange a personalized meeting where we can focus on you and your organizations projects. Elumin possess an excellent delivery record, coupled with straightforward implementation methods and a lean operating model offers clients big company results at a very attractive price. Our clients appreciate our business approach and the small firm commitment and personal attention we provide. We’ve been in healthcare IT for 20+ years and are invested in the success of each client.

Emdeon

Booth: 2201

Contact:
www.emdeon.com/HIMSS11

Emdeon. Powering Clinical Information Exchange. Emdeon powers the exchange of clinical information. By using Emdeon’s existing independent national health information network hospitals, physicians, labs, pharmacies and other healthcare stakeholders are able to securely and cost-effectively exchange patient-centric information. With Emdeon, customers gain access to tools that help enable accountable care, achieve Meaningful Use and maintain regulatory compliance.

Emdeon Says: Stop by Emdeon booth 2201 at HIMSS in Orlando, February 21-23 to learn more about how Emdeon powers the exchange of clinical information and hear presentations from industry known speakers. 16 iPads® will be given away during Emdeon’s in-booth speaking events!

Special Give-away Just for HIStalk Readers: We are giving away one iPad just for HIStalk readers. Come by the booth for any of our speaking events and write “HIStalk rocks!” on your entry form. You will be entered to win the iPad drawing during the speaking event and again for a HIStalk specific drawing. That’s double the chance to win for each speaking event you attend!

Enovate

Booth: 2738

Contact:
Tommy Hodge
thodge@enovateit.com
248 655 0548 ex 112
c 734 891 4620
f 847 890 6131

Headquartered in Canton, Michigan, Enovate is a national provider of mobile and wall mounted clinical workstations for the healthcare environment. Enovate provides multiple solutions for medication delivery, computerized physician order entry, clinical documentation, and electronic medical records and services. Enovate – advancing health information technology. For more information, please contact Enovate at (877)258-8030 or visit www.enovateusa.com.

Enovate Says: See our new products including the new e900 series, sign up to win an iPad.

Enterprise Software Deployment

Booth: 2777

Contact:
David Tucker, VP of National Sales
512.350.1735
www.enterprisesoftwaredeployment.com
dtucker@enterprisesoftwaredeployment.com

We assist healthcare organizations implement new EHR technology in the most efficient way possible by preparing organizations for implementation. Through the help of our configuration experts, we train your staff with experienced clinical trainers and stay with you through activation to ensure your go-live runs smoothly. Whether it’s time to implement a whole new system throughout your organization or just a component to one department, we have the experience and resources to both complement your team, and meet your goals.

Enterprise Software Deployment Says: Are your feet aching from walking around the show? Come stop by our booth for a pair of cozy flip flops! Perfect for the Orlando beach, resting your tired conference feet, or for just hanging out in our booth that features an nice grassy floor and some healthy goodies! You can also register for your chance to win a FLIP Handheld Camcorder.

Special Give-away Just for HIStalk Readers: Tired of all of the ARRA rumblings? Well turn up the Sonos, and turn down the stress with a Sonos Music System! ESD will be having a special drawing specifically for HIStalk readers. Sign up at our booth (#2777) and mention specifically that you are a HIStalk reader to qualify.

FormFast

Booth: 4963

Contact:
Laura DeVries, Director of Marketing
www.formfast.com
ldevries@formfast.com
800.218.3512

Since 1992, FormFast software has enabled healthcare organizations to achieve significant lean process improvement across the enterprise, supporting HR, contract management, rogue clinical processes, risk management and countless other workflows. A top-ranked provider of electronic workflow solutions, FormFast serves more than 850 hospitals internationally. Our easy-to-use software helps healthcare organizations accelerate their progression from time-consuming manual processes to fully automated workflows.

FormFast Says: Become a lean high performance hospital with FormFast. Stop by booth #4963 to learn how our solutions can help your hospital gain efficiency, improve coordination of tasks, reduce supply costs, and eliminate errors resulting from misdirected routing, mistakes in form completion and delayed delivery.

GetWellNetwork

Booth: 3635

Contact:
Tony Cook, Vice President Marketing
240.482.3200
www.getwellnetwork.com
info@getwellnetwork.com

GetWellNetwork offers the first digital platform — using the bedside TV in the hospital, TV or Web at home — that entertains, educates and empowers patients to throughout the care continuum, from pre-admission to home. This patient-centered approach enables hospitals to engage patients throughout their journey leading to increased patient activation, higher satisfaction, lower cost per case and better compliance with Meaningful Use Standards. The company is recognized by KLAS® as the leader in the new interactive patient systems category. The GetWellNetwork interactive patient care solution is exclusively endorsed by the American Hospital Association.

GetWellNetworks Says: Expand your hospital’s patient-centered care to the entire patient journey. From pre-admission through post-discharge, empower patients to take a more informed and active role in their care. The results are improved patient satisfaction, clinical quality and enhanced financial operations.

Greenway Medical Technologies

Booth: 2430

Contact:
Laura Mendenhall, Trade Shows Coordinator
404.309.9326
lauramendenhall@greenwaymedical.com

Greenway Medical Technologies, Inc. provides a fully interoperable EHR and practice management solution PrimeSUITE® 2011 that integrates clinical, financial and administrative tasks to streamline the entire patient encounter. The platform also allows for tight data exchange and application networking to combine the needs of ambulatory and hospital systems. Custom templating currently in use by more than 30 specialist and subspecialty practices also allows for greater flexibility and long-term results.

Greenway Medical Technologies Says: Having earned 11 KLAS awards in seven years while also staying current on 2011 ambulatory CCHIT certification and the addition of ONC-ATCB Complete Stage 1 2011/2012 Meaningful Use certification, Greenway’s PrimeSUITE® 2011 electronic health record (EHR), practice management and interoperability platform is a successful long-term business solution. See why CCHIT granted PrimeSUITE 2011 a 5-star usability rating. Visit www.meetgreenway.com to hear from our customers.

Hayes Management Consulting

Meetings By Request

Contact:
Joy Tewksbury-Pabst
Joy@hayesmanagement.com
617.559.0404 ext. 235
www.hayesmanagement.com

Hayes works with healthcare organizations across the country to improve quality, efficiency and the bottom line. Our work ultimately leads to greater clinician, staff and patient satisfaction. Many of Hayes consultants are clinicians, and many have worked in hospitals and physician practices as business and clinical leaders. They are also certified and experienced in premier technologies such as Epic, GE Healthcare, Allscripts and NextGen. On average, our consultants have more than 15 years of experience.
We have been ranked Top Overall Professional Services Firm by KLAS* for four consecutive years (2007-2010). Hayes is 100% focused on healthcare. Seventy-five percent of our annual business is from repeat clients. Hayes’ services include: IT strategic planning, ICD-10, 5010 migration, system implementations, data conversions, revenue cycle management, and interim staff.

Hayes Says: We’re available for networking/coffee/lunch at HIMSS. Please contact Joy Tewksbury-Pabst at Joy@hayesmanagement.com or call her at 617-559-0404 ext. 235 to set something up!

Healthcare Innovative Solutions

Booth: 4023

Contact:
Cody Calapa, BS BME, Vice President, Project Development
800.236.0141
www.CustomizedEHR.com
info@hisorg.com

Founded in 2001, Healthcare Innovative Solutions (HIS) delivers advanced consulting, systems implementation, optimization, and redesign services for any size hospital. Our customers range from large multi-facility health systems to small community hospitals. Several of our customers have received national recognition for EHR and CPOE adoption directly related to our work.

Healthcare Innovative Solutions Says: The HIS Difference is over 20 years of CPOE/EHR consulting expertise. Stop by booth #4023 to learn more about our clinician-focused approach, our team of clinicians and clinical process engineers, and our new CPOE workflow planner software, Pillars.

Holon Solutions

Booth: 2475

Contact:
Sandra Schafer, VP Marketing
678.324,2939
sschafer@holonsolutions.com
www.Holonsolutions.com

Holon’s brings a new way of thinking about interoperability. We convert information from disparate systems into consumable formats, automate routine processes and provide comprehensive workflows to manage all of your information sharing needs. Holon is setting a new standard for delivery of actionable information managing both delivery and viewing preferences and enhancing and extending current systems to deliver information WHEN, WHERE and HOW you need it. For more information please visit us at www.HolonSolutions.com.

Holon Solutions Says: Visit Holon Solutions to see interoperability in action and learn how Holon can deliver tailored, comprehensive services and solutions to help you put meaning into your exchange of healthcare information.

HT Systems / PatientSecure

Booth: Innovation Technology Pavilion 218-10

Contact:
Carl Bertrams, SVP, Sales & Marketing
630.464.6002
www.patientsecure.com
cbertrams@patientsecure.com

HT Systems is a healthcare technology leader, providing the latest innovation in patient identity management. PatientSecure™, the company’s flagship Biometric Patient Identification Management System, links the biometric palm vein pattern of the patient to their medical record in any HIS registration, EMPI or EMR system. HT Systems is the first to successfully implement a large scale biometric patient identification system in the nation. PatientSecure is currently installed at over 50 hospitals and hundreds of affiliated clinics and physician practices, with more than 2 million patients enrolled.

HT Systems Says: Come join us to learn from your fellow healthcare systems about their experience with PatientSecure, an award-winning biometric patient identification system. Orlando Healthcare Systems is going to share their story on their successful implementation of PatientSecure at 4:15pm on 2/22 Tuesday at Innovation Technology Pavilion. Register with us in advance and enter the raffle to win an Android-based Tablet PC! Email to marketing@patientsecure.com.

Iatric Systems

Booth: 3601

Contact:
John Danahey, Vice President, Sales and Marketing
978.805.4153
John.Danahey@iatric.com http://www.iatric.com

Iatric Systems is a leading provider of software applications, interfaces and reporting solutions for healthcare information systems. Our solutions help healthcare professionals optimize patient care while improving clinical, financial and administrative workflow.

Iatric Systems Says, “Interoperability is all about connections – connecting to patients, to providers and to communities. Iatric Systems has the solutions that make these connections and can put your healthcare organization on the forefront of Interoperability.

Special Give-away Just for HIStalk Readers: In recognition of Mr. HIStalk’s appreciation for music, Iatric Systems will be giving away three (3) $50 iTunes Gift cards. Simply stop by the Iatric Systems’ booth and mention HIStalk and we will enter you in the drawing. Three random winners will be chosen at the end of the show and the iTunes gift cards will be mailed to the winners.

ICA

Booth: 2837

Contact:
John Tempesco, Chief Marketing Officer
615.866.1465
john.tempesco@icainformatics.com
www.icainformatics.com

Informatics Corporation of America’s (ICA) health information exchange (HIE) solutions, originally envisioned by practicing physicians at Vanderbilt Medical Center, capture, integrate and provide comprehensive patient data from numerous and disparate installed systems. ICA adapts and deploys this pioneering technology to design and deliver comprehensive HIE solutions to hospitals, IDNs, communities and states generating cost efficiencies and improving patient care and outcomes. ICA’s solutions align with physician workflow empowering caregivers to make informed decisions at the point-of-care with standards-based interoperability to help health care enterprises achieve operational efficiencies across multiple providers and settings. Visit www.icainformatics.com, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/icainformatics, and Facebook at www.facebook.com.

ICA Says: Come preview the most comprehensive and easiest to use portal for the most comprehensive and powerful health information exchange available today. Visit Booth #2837 to see how clinics, hospitals, IDNs, communities and states are exchanging health information easily and quickly, using existing systems, and bringing patient information to the point-of-care and the moment-of-need.

iMDsoft

Booth: 1050

Contact:
Steve Sperrazza, Vice President Sales, North America
866.4 iMDsoft
781.449.5567

iMDsoft is a leading provider of Clinical Information Systems for critical and perioperative care. The company’s flagship family of solutions, the MetaVision Suite, was first implemented in 1999. It captures, documents, analyzes, reports and stores the vast amount of patient-related data generated in a hospital. Over 125 hospitals worldwide use MetaVision to support their workflow, and arm their healthcare professionals with timely, accurate, and actionable information. iMDsoft products demonstrate 100% implementation success rate and a 100% customer retention rate.

iMDsoft Says: Come visit our booth to find out why 4 of the top 10 US hospitals have decided that MetaVision is the best choice for improving care quality and financial performance. Learn more about how MetaVision interoperates with the latest technologies, and seamlessly integrates with all standard hospital systems. Hear how Lehigh Valley Health Network reduced mortality by 31% on Wednesday, February 23, at 10:00 AM when Ethan D. Gershon, MD, Chief Medical Informatics Officer, iMDsoft, speaks about “Tele-ICU, Reduced Mortality, and Continuous Improvement.

Imprivata

Booth: 3872

Contact:
Jim Whalen, VP Sales – Healthcare
781.674.2700
www.imprivata.com
sales@imprivata.com

Imprivata is the leading authentication and access management solution for simplifying password management and securing user access to patient health information.

Imprivata Says: Stop by Imprivata’s booth # 3872 to see live presentations from CIOs and CMIOs on how Imprivata’s solutions enable faster EMR access for their clinicians at their hospitals – with no clicks, no passwords and no problems. You can also test Imprivata’s #1 KLAS-rated single sign-on and access management solutions for yourself at one of our four live demo stations.

Ingenix

Booth: 1163

Contact:
800.765.6713
www.ingenix.com
engage@ingenix.com

Ingenix is a leading provider of health information, technology and consulting services. In an effort to provide health care organizations with an end-to-end capabilities and expertise, we have brought together some of the health care industry’s leading companies, including Picis, Lynx, Axolotl, Executive Health Resources and A-Life Medical. By combining these services and technology, Ingenix will provide a single vendor solution that helps health care organizations solve their most significant challenges to clinical and financial performance improvement and simplify the administrative complexities of health care. Visit www.ingenix.com for more information.

Ingenix Says: Much is riding on the decisions and actions health care professionals make in 2011. The ICD-10 implementation deadline is just two years away; new health care laws will soon require greater coordination of patient care and the ability to share critical patient and clinical information quickly; and Meaningful Use rules now detail what health care providers must do to receive federal incentives and avoid future penalties. HIMSS attendees will be looking to hear real-world success stories around these topics, plus developing accountable care organizations, establishing health information exchanges and accelerating clinical and financial performance improvement.

Intellect Resources

Meetings By Request

Contact:
Tiffany Crenshaw, President/CEO
tcrenshaw@intellectresources.com
Anne Sydnor, Manager Client Services
asydnor@intellectresources.com
www.intellectresources.com

Intellect Resources is a search firm specializing in full-time and contract placements in the healthcare It industry, primarily in core HIS implementations. We’ve been working exclusively in the industry since our inception twelve years ago and serve the recruiting needs of both hospitals and consulting firms.

Intellect Resources Says: Finding resources is a current challenge for new and ongoing implementations. Feel free to reach out to our team. We are always happy to provide insight on and discuss the current and future talent pool.

Intelligent Medical Objects

Booth: 3517

Contact:
Melinda Watman, VP of Strategic Relationships
www.e-imo.com
melinda.watman@imo-online.com

Intelligent Medical Objects (IMO®) develops and licenses medical vocabularies that allow clinicians to capture clinical intent when documenting in EHR systems while at the same time attaching the guaranteed billing codes. IMO has market-leading clinical interface terminology products that cross link standardized vocabularies such as SNOMED CT®, ICD-9, CPT®, MeSH, UMLS, and now even ICD-10-CM, that are necessary for healthcare organizations to connect providers with patient records, administrative information, academic references, decision support content and consumer information. This allows healthcare professionals to focus on patient care rather than administrative details. Products include Problem (IT), a vocabulary database allowing clinicians to enter diagnoses into clinical systems using common, familiar and desired terms; Procedure (IT), a powerful master index used to enter procedure terms quickly and easily for charge capture; Medical Necessity, which provides organizations with the tools they need to integrate reimbursement checking and iHealthSearch™, an intelligent search portal for content.

Intelligent Medical Objects Says: IMO’s suite of vocabulary products can go a long way to ease the transition to ICD-10-CM, which you can learn about along with our groundbreaking new Procedure IT solution at our booth (3517). While there, take “The IMO Challenge” to see if you have what it takes to stump our system – if you enter a key vocabulary term that’s not included in our system you’ll receive a gift and your term may be added to our extensive vocabulary database.

iSirona

Booth: 6083

Contact:
Peter Witonsky, President
850.303.0575
Peter.witonsky@isirona.com
info@isirona.com

iSirona provides simplified, software-based solutions for medical device integration. By automating the flow of data from devices directly to a hospital’s clinical information system, iSirona helps improve clinician productivity as well as data accuracy and availably. Completely vendor-neutral, this proven solution integrates patient data from any medical device, regardless of manufacturer, into any CIS.

iSirona says: Are your nurses still writing patient device data on paper, only to have to key it in later? Why make them manage the data twice? Stop by our booth (#6083) to hear about how hospitals are saving 30 minutes per nurse per shift using our device integration solution.

Keane

Booth: 1548

Contact:
Larry Kaiser, Marketing Manager
lkaiser@keane.com
631.824.5318
www.keane.com/hsd

In business since 1975 and based in the United States, Keane’s Healthcare Solutions Division (HSD) offers complete IT solutions to hospitals and long-term care facilities throughout the country. Keane’s proprietary software and services help health organizations increase efficiency, reduce medical errors, meet regulatory requirements, and enhance the revenue cycle. An electronic health record (EHR) solution, the Keane OptimumTM suite of fully integrated certified clinical applications helps hospitals and healthcare facilities reduce medical errors, increase efficiency, and improve the delivery of care.

Keane Says: Your journey towards meaningful use starts when you visit the Keane booth. Find out how Keane Optimum can help you receive full reimbursement under ARRA and register to win an iPad.

maxIT Healthcare

Meetings By Request

Contact:
Mark Fangman, Executive Vice President, Sales & Operations
877.652.4099
www.maxithc.com
mark.fangman@maxithc.com

maxIT Healthcare, the largest privately held healthcare IT consulting firm, has been completely focused on Healthcare Information Technology since our founding in 2001. With over 525 consultants, maxIT is the trusted technology advisor and partner to healthcare organizations, providing seasoned professionals and expert guidance to maximize quality, safety, and financial performance. maxIT offers implementation, project management, and management consulting expertise in healthcare information systems (HIS), electronic medical record (EMR) systems, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, payer systems, and clinical imaging and informatics systems.

maxIT Says: The challenges and multiple priorities that healthcare information technology executives are faced with are well-documented. At maxIT, our focus is on our clients’ success and overcoming these challenges by maximizing IT outcomes. Whether you need help with Meaningful Use assessments and roadmaps, 5010 testing, ICD-10 assessments, ACO strategy, system selection, or HIS/EMR implementation, maxIT has the depth and breadth of experience you need. If you would like to discuss these critical initiatives or any other IT priorities with us at HIMSS, we would greatly appreciate the opportunity to meet with you and discuss your needs.

McKesson

Booth: 6471

Contact:
Joey Nord, Director, Communications
www.mckesson.com/mpt
Joey.Nord@mckesson.com

McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 14th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to helping its customers deliver high-quality healthcare by reducing costs, streamlining processes, and improving the quality and safety of patient care.

McKesson Says: McKesson is focused on helping organizations make healthcare better. Our healthcare IT experts will be available in Booth #6471 to demonstrate how our solutions empower organizations to link clinical data, streamline processes, leverage analytics and improve financial performance.

MED3OOO

Booth: 917

Contact:
Nicole Contardo, Marketing Director
919.794.5881
Nicole_Contardo@MED3000.com
www.MED3000.com

MED3OOO provides products and services that optimize clinical and financial results for healthcare providers. MED3000 solutions bring real meaning to meaningful use by delivering the tools necessary for positive outcomes. Outcomes matter and our 360 degree solution enables hospitals and physicians to operate efficiently and deliver optimal results for their patients. We provide solutions for: physician practices, community health centers, integrated physician networks, accountable care organizations, independent hospitals, health systems, labs, billing companies, employers & municipalities, and payers.

MED3OOO Says: Stop by booth #917 to experience MED3OOO’s 360 degree solution. We’re bringing a comprehensive set of solutions to Accountable Care Organizations with our Meaningful Use Certified EHR, PM, RCM, data warehouse and lab outreach products.

Special give-away just for HIStalk readers: We’ll be doing a HIStalk-readers-only drawing on Wednesday at noon for an iPad. Stop by the booth for details.

MedAptus

Meetings By Request

Contact:
Jennifer Crowley, Marketing Director
617.896.4030
www.medaptus.com
jcrowley@medaptus.com

MedAptus’ offerings include powerful and easy-to-use Intelligent Charge Capture technologies and high-impact revenue cycle consulting services. Many of the nation’s most prestigious healthcare organizations rely on MedAptus for financial optimization; additional product benefits include EMR enhancement, manual process re-engineering and substantially improved productivity.

MedAptus Says: MedAptus representatives will be attending HIMSS for networking purposes. Any organizations, particularly provider groups, EMR vendors and/or medical billing companies interested in learning more about our physician charge capture technology and financial benefit should contact us to set-up time to speak.

MEDecision

Booth: 2563

Contact:
Eric Demers, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer, Health and Life Science
610.540.0202
www.MEDecision.com

MEDecision offers collaborative health management solutions that provide a way for payers and providers to harness the power of knowledge to enable the best clinical decisions, engage patients and improve health outcomes. Designed around a patient-aware health management philosophy, MEDecision’s solutions include Alineo®, a health management platform for delivering outcome-driven case, disease, utilization and behavioral health management; InFrame™, a set of tools that facilitate the health and performance management processes for physicians and accountable care organizations; and Nexalign®, MEDecision’s health decision support service that applies analytics to information gathered from multiple sources to foster better business and clinical decisions on a patient’s behalf. For more information, visit www.MEDecision.com.

MEDecision Says: Stop by the MEDecision booth for a complimentary cup of Starbucks coffee! It’s the only Starbucks coffee available on the mile-long show floor. Sip on a hot latte and ask about our comprehensive solutions to support patient-centered medical home and accountable care organizations. We’ll be demonstrating the technology we’re developing to power these important new game-changing models.

Medicity

Booth: 6749

Contact:
Lilian Myers, SVP of Marketing
801.322.4444
marketing@medicity.com
www.medicity.com

Medicity, the industry standard for health information exchange (HIE), is the leading innovator and largest provider of HIE technology – with more than 750 hospitals, 125,000 physicians and 250,000 end users in its connected ecosystem. Medicity’s solutions empower hospitals, physicians and HIEs with secure access to and exchange of health information – improving the quality and efficiency of patient care locally, regionally and nationally.

Medicity Says: Visit us at HIMSS to see how our certified meaningful use modules run on iNexx – the first open, modular, HIE-native platform for healthcare IT applications – to enable physicians to qualify for stimulus funds. We will also be presenting how our new partnership with ActiveHealth Management enables a turnkey solution for ACO technology and management.

Medicomp Systems

Booth: 2231

Contact:
James Atia, Senior Product Manager
703.803.8080
www.medicomp.com
jaita@medicomp.com

Medicomp’s dynamic, as opposed to static template-based, EMR tools provide clinicians immediate access to the total patient picture, based on the way doctors think and work. At the heart of every product is Medicomp’s powerful MEDCIN® Engine, a robust clinical data engine in use throughout the world by a growing number of physicians and hospitals.

Medicomp Says: Come experience our newest innovation, Quippe, that enables clinicians to access and document information in the cloud. We’ll also be rolling out CliniTalk, Medicomp’s voice-enabled, easy-to-use EMR tool. Look for a big HIMSS announcement on HIStalk on Monday evening, February 21.

MediServe

Booth: 5054

Contact:
Ruth Taylor, Corporate Event & Trade Show Coordinator
480.831.7800
www.mediserve.com
medimail@mediserve.com

MediServe delivers software solutions designed to manage the unique workflows associated with providing rehabilitation care. MediServe solutions are fully integrated companions to any EMR. MediServe works with clients to improve revenue and make compliance easier in the complex environment of rehabilitation care.

MediServe Says: Come see us at booth #5054.

MedPlus, a Quest Diagnostics® Company

Meetings By Request

Contact:
Steve McDonald, President, Hospital Sales
MedPlus, a Quest Diagnostics Company
800.444.6235, ext. 2792
smcdonald@MedPlus.com

MedPlus, the healthcare information technology subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics, provides clinical connectivity for hospitals/IDNs and physician practices, helping bridge the gap between inpatient and outpatient worlds. Care360™ EHR provides physicians with a step-wise approach to EHR adoption that helps transition key activities from paper to electronic with features like electronic lab order management, clinical messaging, ePrescribing, document management and multi-system interoperability. For more information, visit www.Care360.com.

MEDSEEK

Booth: 1149

Contact:
Lori Moore
Lori.moore@medseek.com
205.982.5881 office
205.834.5263 cell

Since 1996, MEDSEEK has focused exclusively on creating a 360-degree optimal eHealth experience for patients, clinicians and administrative staff by removing traditional integration and communication barriers, workflow roadblocks and redundant processes. Used by more than 785 hospitals, MEDSEEK solutions enable hospitals to execute enterprise-wide strategic objectives by improving quality of care, uncovering new sources of revenue and generating meaningful loyalty among physicians and patients with a low-risk, high-return investment that leverages existing IT investments and infrastructure. For more information, visit www.medseek.com or call 1.888.MEDSEEK.

MEDSEEK Says: We began this journey in 1996. Now,785 hospitals later, MEDSEEK is happy to mark 15 years in eHealth. Join us for our 15th anniversary celebration Tuesday, February 22 at 5pm at booth #1149 at HIMSS in Orlando, and hear Apprentice’s Bill Rancic present “Entrepreneurship in Health Care”. Space is limited, so get details and RSVP online today.

MedVentive

Meetings By Request

Contact:
Info@medventive.com
781.290.2511

MedVentive – in the right place and now the right time. While healthcare was evolving the concept of an accountable care organization, MedVentive was busy operating as one. MedVentive was founded as the PSN in 1997 by the CareGroup Healthcare System, an integrated, at-risk network of 4,500 physicians and eight hospitals that cared for more than 450,000 at risk patients. Our origins as an ACO give MedVentive a deep understanding of provider organizations and the healthcare environment. Having been an at-risk provider network, MedVentive is uniquely qualified to support an organization’s transition from a fee-for-service payment environment to risk-based contracting, and provide the clinical integration/ population management infrastructure necessary to be successful under this new model.

MedVentive Says: Take the opportunity to schedule a one-on-one meeting – breakfast, lunch, dinner or more detailed meeting at our onsite guest suite – with our Executive team to discuss how our history can impact your future in transitioning from managing patients to patient populations (clinical integration and registries) to successfully taking on risk-based contracts.

Merge

Booth number: 3348

Contact:
Jennifer Jawor, Marketing Manager
312.565.6825
www.merge.com
jjawor@merge.com

Merge Healthcare develops software solutions that automate healthcare data and diagnostic workflow to create a more comprehensive electronic record. Our products, ranging from standards-based development toolkits to fully integrated clinical applications, have been used by providers, vendors and researchers worldwide for over 20 years. In addition, we provide Interoperability solutions that link systems together and image-enable broader health information exchange.

Merge Says: Hurdle ‘Meaningful Use’ with ease with Merge Healthcare – your partner for diagnostic content and instrument connectivity! Visit booth #3348 to discover Merge iConnect™, our new comprehensive and modular solution suite built to enable interoperable image exchange and management. We’re the guys in orange with a Tesla in our booth. Stop by, check out the car and get a photo!

Microsoft Health Solutions Group

Booth: 3101

Contact:
Nancy Narraway, Senior Industry Marketing Manager
nancyna@microsoft.com

Over the past 13 years, Microsoft has steadily increased its investments in health with a focus on addressing the challenges of health providers, health and social services organizations, payers, consumers and life sciences companies worldwide. Microsoft closely collaborates with a broad ecosystem of partners and delivers its own powerful health solutions, such as Amalga, HealthVault, and a portfolio of identity and access management technologies acquired from Sentillion Inc. in 2010. Together, Microsoft and its industry partners are working to deliver health solutions for the way people aspire to work and live.

Microsoft Says: Come learn more about Microsoft’s health solutions: Amalga™, HealthVault™, HealthVault Community Connect, Vergence™, ProVision™, ExpreSSO™ and Way2Care™ — and check out some cool tablets made by Microsoft partners. While you’re in the booth, test drive Kinect™ for Xbox 360® and try your luck at the Way2Win kiosk for a chance to win a Microsoft Arc™ Mouse.

MyHealthDIRECT

Booth: 218, Kiosk 11

Contact:
Carol Heideman, Director of Marketing
262.787.3439
www.myhealthdirect.com
cheideman@myhealthdirect.com

MyHealthDIRECT “connects people to providers” through its web-based service solution. We offer the missing gateway, which enables hospitals/health systems, managed care organizations, HIE and state Medicaid agencies to link patients to the right health professionals offering the right health care services at the right time and location.

MyHealthDIRECT Says: Come see and learn first-hand through a live demo of MyHealthDIRECT on how our SaaS-enabled application links supply-to-demand in the referral and scheduling process by connecting patients to provider appointments in real-time; taking only 1-3 minutes. MyHealthDIRECT analytics and reporting can clearly quantify the outcomes—as well as the real-dollar-results of more efficient care delivery, and access to timely care. Come hear Jay Mason, CEO and president of MyHealthDIRECT speak during HIMSS at the New & Emerging Technology Pavilion (Booth #218), Monday, February 21st (1:30 pm – 2:15 pm). Marilee Benson, VP Community Alliances will also be speaking on Monday (3:30 pm – 4:15 pm).

NCR

Booth: 2805

Contact:
Jim Dowling, VP of Sales
Jim.dowling@ncr.com

As the #1 provider of patient self-service, NCR can help you manage the anticipated 32+ million new patients entering the healthcare system as a result of Healthcare Reform. Our proven online, mobile and kiosk-based solutions automate routine transactions, allowing patients to pre-register, schedule appointments and pay bills how and when it is most convenient. We have the consulting, industry and consumer expertise to help you improve the patient experience, optimize revenue cycle and streamline workflow.

NCR Healthcare Says: Visit us at Booth 2805 to see the latest, most innovative and widely deployed patient self-service solutions. Free copy of "Paper Kills 2.0: How Health IT Can Help Save Your Life and Your Money", signed by Newt Gingrich, founder of the Center for Health Transformation, to the first 25 people who schedule a booth appointment.

NextGen Healthcare

Booth: 2163

Contact:
NextGen Healthcare
www.nextgen.com
215.657.7010
Sales@NextGen.com

NextGen Healthcare drives patient-centered, accountable care across the continuum. Ambulatory and inpatient providers of all sizes are leveraging our integrated clinical, financial and connectivity solutions, along with our quality management and consulting services, to improve care coordination within their communities and drive business growth. NextGen Healthcare is proud to share that its product suite was one of the first to be Meaningful Use certified for both eligible professionals and hospitals.

NextGen Healthcare Says: In our booth this year, HIMSS11 attendees will see the vision of collaborative, higher quality care come alive before their eyes, as incredible splash artists embody the characteristics that make world-class products, services, and partnerships on canvas. Don’t miss the chance to see them in action, and then win one of their amazing creations, a new smart phone or an iPad! Also stop by to check out the NextGen Patient Portal, test NextGen Mobile on an iPad, and catch the unveiling of our revolutionary new data capture device.

Nuance

Booth: 2744

Contact:
Mark Erwich, Senior Director Marketing
781.565.5070
www.nuance.com/healthcare
mark.erwich@nuance.com

Nuance will be exhibiting our full suite of speech-driven clinical documentation and communications solutions including eScription, which will be receiving its 7th consecutive Best-in-KLAS Award at HIMSS this year (an accomplishment of very few HIT software products!) At the booth, also visit our Physician Station, to see hands-on best practices demos of Dragon Medical in the EHR; a Clinical Language Understanding (CLU) Station where we will highlight new technologies for extracting structured data from free-form text, and our VERY COOL Mobility Station where we are previewing a bunch of clinical documentation apps for the iPhone and other devices!

Nuance Says: Stop by our booth too see how Nuance Healthcare is building on its leadership in speech-driven clinical documentation, communication and decision-support systems to capture and transform clinical data into actionable patient information.

Orion Health

Booth: 5146

Contact:
Michael Burke, VP of Sales
310.526.4030
www.orionhealth.com

Orion Health is the leading Health Information Exchange solution provider with over 15 years of experience in clinical workflow and integration technology for the healthcare sector. Orion Health’s easy to use solutions and applications improve patient care and clinical decision making by enabling the exchange of healthcare information among disparate systems and providing integrated health data in a single, unified view. Our HIE solution also meet the ‘meaningful use’ requirements and the goals of Accountable Care Organizations to improve care coordination, cut cost and provide better quality of care.

Orion Health Says: Come visit the Orion Health booth at HIMSS and hear what other CIOs and IT professionals have to say about using the Orion Health HIE solution including outcomes of a successful statewide implementation, achieving better collaboration between regional physicians in a competitive market, and ROI from an effective regional disease management program. Register for free today.

PatientKeeper

Booths: IO showcase Hall E, booth #7343, Exhibitor booth #5543

Contact:
Kathy Ruggiero, director of corporate marketing
www.patientkeeper.com
kruggiero@patientkeeper.com
781.373.6433

PatientKeeper® Inc., the leading provider of physician healthcare information systems, enables physicians and hospitals to focus on their patients, not technology, by providing highly intuitive software that streamlines physician workflow to improve productivity and patient care.

PatientKeeper Says: Stop by our booth or visit us at the Interoperability Showcase to learn how PatientKeeper offers customers an alternative path to Meaningful Use to meet the stimulus requirements outlined in the HITECH Act. See how we’ve designed our CPOE and Physician Documentation software to increase the probability of physician adoption; our new handheld platform to support all the latest mobile devices for many of our applications (Charge Capture, Mobile Clinical Results, etc.); and our HIE solutions to create a longitudinal view of patient health status across a community.

Perceptive Software

Booth: 5163

Contact:
Adam Meloan, Marketing Program Manager – Healthcare
800.941.7460
adam.meloan@perceptivesoftware.com
www.perceptivesoftware.com/healthcare

Perceptive Software creates enterprise content management (ECM) technology that integrates easily with your EMR, EHR and HIS applications to complete the patient record and connect staff with the information they need. With ImageNow document management, imaging and workflow, you can capture, process and collaborate on important documents, protect data integrity throughout its lifecycle and access precise content in the context of your everyday processes.

Perceptive Software Says: Accessing the content you need isn’t brain surgery. Visit us at Booth #5163 and see how ImageNow easily puts patient information and content into the context of your facility’s daily processes. While you’re there, register to win one of three Apple iPad mobile digital devices. Plus, on Tuesday, Feb. 22, we’ll be serving fresh-baked cookies and gourmet coffee starting at 9:30 a.m.

Picis

Booth: 1163

Contact:
Mark Blazejewski, Sales Operations Manager
781.557.2271
Mark_Blazejewski@picis.com
www.picis.com

Picis, an Ingenix company, is a global provider of innovative solutions that enable rapid and sustained delivery of clinical documentation, financial and operational results in the emergency departments, surgical suites and intensive care units of more than 2,200 hospitals in 19 countries.

Picis Says: Learn how Picis takes the guesswork out of meaningful use. Stop by our booth to hear how hospital executives are using our solutions to support HIEs, meet CPOE requirements, ease quality reporting and optimize continuity of care.

Quality IT Partners

Meetings By Request

Bruce A. Werner, Director of Business Development
828.635.6525
828.234.0075
bwerner@qitp.com
www.qitp.com

Quality IT Partners (Quality) is a premier national healthcare consulting firm with an unparalleled reputation of taking good care of their clients and employees. We provide implementation and support services for healthcare applications such as Epic, Cerner, QuadraMed, Siemens, Eclipsys and McKesson. Quality also specializes in Meaningful Use, ICD-10, Revenue Cycle Management, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Planning, and New Construction IT Infrastructure Planning & Management.

Quality IT Partners Says: Quality is interested in meeting with clients and prospects as well as professionals who may be interested in joining our firm while at HIMSS. Please contact (Bruce Werner, Director of Business Development, Office: (828) 635-6525, Mobile: (828) 234-0075, or e-mail: bwerner@qitp.com) to schedule a time.

:RATIO, a division of Software Testing Solutions

Booth: 2975

Contact:
Brent Christensen, VP
877.765.0100 ext. 408
bchristensen@ratio.us.com,
www.ratio.us.com

Software Testing Solutions has been the leading provider of true technology-based quality assurance solutions to Primary Acute Care organizations for over a decade. Our dedicated staff of Healthcare and IT professionals leverage over 70 years of experience to deliver state-of-the-art automated testing solutions to hospitals of all sizes throughout North America. Our focus on setting the highest possible standards of testing in the lab, the blood bank, and across a wide spectrum of CPOE offerings brings the flexibility of a customized solution with the ease of use of a turnkey implementation, bridging the gap of patient safety by eliminating the risk of untested applications.

Ratio Says: Learn new ways to make your CPOE application more robust, insure higher levels of quality care, and meet critical standards of “meaningful use” more efficiently and with greater speed. Stop by to discuss options with the experts in the automated testing at booth 2975.

RelayHealth

Booth: 1663

Contact:
Lynette Cortez, Solutions Advisor, RelayHealth
888.743.8735
rhinfo@relayhealth.com
www.RelayHealth.com

RelayHealth enables information exchange for all those involved in healthcare – including providers, patients, payers, pharmacies, financial institutions and pharmaceutical manufacturers – to simplify clinical and financial interactions. RelayHealth’s SaaS solutions accelerate quality of care, financial health and workflow efficiencies. The RelayHealth network provides connectivity services to approximately 1,800 payers, 2,000 hospitals, 200,000 physicians, 1.35 million patients and thousands of retail pharmacies across the nation.

RelayHealth Says: RelayHealth’s clinical integration capabilities offer a low-cost, scalable and highly networked SaaS solution that doesn’t require a costly infrastructure and is sustainable. RelayHealth creates a way for hospitals and physicians to facilitate care coordination and take advantage of federal ARRA incentives. Visit RelayHealth at Booth #1663/Hall B and experience Health Connections Brought to Life.

Renaissance Resource Associates

Meeting By Request

Contact:
Maria McBride, Managing Director
206.949.6011
maria@rraconsulting.com
Laura Noble, CEO
425.241.9210
laura@rraconsulting.com

Renaissance offers over 20 years experience in meeting the challenges of HIT in an ever changing and evolving industry. We get it right the first time, saving IDNs time and money, and delivering optimized use of technology in a clinical care environment. Meaningful Use, ICD-10, Clinical Informatics, Strategic Planning, Process Redesign, Implementation, Upgrade, Maintenance.

Renaissance Resource Associates Says: We make sure you implement your vendor’s software in a way that will achieve the meaningful use criteria. Buying a certified product will not get you there – we will take you from product to your first payment. We can get you to ICD10 – mapping, transition, even certified coders until you get up and running!

Sage Healthcare

Booth: 1713

Contact:
Tony Ryzinski, senior vice president of marketing, Sage Healthcare Division
813.202.5511
www.sagehealth.com
tony.ryzinski@sage.com.

At Sage, our philosophy is simple: We are physician-focused and patient-centric, providing clinical and financial technology solutions for the ambulatory market, serving more than 400,000 healthcare professionals including approximately 80,000 physicians in small, medium and large practices and Community Health Centers. Our products are designed by clinical and technical specialists who focus their skills on developing solutions for key medical specialty areas including primary care, OB/GYN, Pediatrics, Cardiology and Orthopedics. Sage’s certified connected solutions meet the end-to-end technology needs of physician practices from portal to integrated Practice Management and EHR to Revenue Cycle Management and Practice Analytics.

Sage Says: Experience the Sage difference: We are physician-focused, patient-centric. Sage has teamed with the Larry King Cardiac Foundation to highlight the importance of prevention and early detection of heart disease, the leading cause of death in the US. At Sage, we’re putting the “care” back in healthcare technology by providing practices with the technology they need to enable them to take better care of their patients and achieve better outcomes. As such, feel free to come by and sign our Red by Sage Wall of Inspiration to commemorate those you know and love whose lives have been touched by heart disease. Or, just stop by and get some heart health information, and enjoy a complimentary stress reducing chair message.

Salar

Booth: 1141

Contact:
Greg D. Wilson, RVP Sales
860.294.9877
gwilson@salarinc.com
www.salarinc.com

Salar delivers the healthcare industry’s most flexible and physician-centric inpatient documentation and billing solutions. With Salar, physicians and hospitals alike achieve notable productivity, financial and patient safety improvements. Physicians are free to document the way they want, using customized electronic forms that save time and improve collections by automatically transforming physician notes into billing and clinical data. By integrating with existing health information systems, Salar helps hospitals capture and share this data in real time to achieve a higher-quality, more complete EMR.

Salar Says: If you’re struggling to migrate physicians to an electronic clinical documentation platform, or seeking a better solution than traditional dictation systems and paper processes, let Salar show you a better way. Actually, let our customers show you. Visit us a booth 1141 and talk directly with several CIOs, CMIOs, and physician champions who have increased physician satisfaction and adoption of the EMR using Salar’s intuitive documentation and charge capture solutions.

Sentry Data Systems

Booth: 1737

Contact:
John Peebles, CIO
john@sentryds.com
Samantha Stevens, Administration Manager
sstevens@sentryds.com
800.411.4566 xt. 2403
www.sentryds.com

Sentry Data Systems offers healthcare business intelligence technology solutions that address a variety of operational, workflow, compliance, and financial challenges found within hospitals and pharmacies. Built upon Datanex™, a healthcare cloud computing platform, they include the pharmacy management product Sentinel RCM™ (Revenue Cycle Manager), pharmacy transaction processing platform Sentrex™, and the healthcare business intelligence platform HealthBIT® (Business Intelligence Technology).

Sentry Data Systems Says: Stop by to learn how healthcare cloud computing can save you time and money while giving you access to incredible processing power. Watch us securely deploy a server for you in less than a minute. Access your data with a powerful query engine. Use application programming interfaces (APIs) to build applications or run advanced analytics on your existing data. See how you can put hundreds of servers to work running queries on massive data sets without the headache of a large scale data center build-out.

Shareable Ink

Booth: 623

Contact:
Suzanne Cogan, Vice President, Sales & Marketing
877.572.7423 x802
www.shareableink.com
scogan@shareableink.com

Shareable Ink is the natural approach to electronic health records that complements an organization’s existing IT systems and strategies. Enabling electronic capture of information with no change in workflow, Shareable Ink allows data to be routed to specific modules within an EHR, as if typed with a keyboard. Built-in analytics give hospitals and practices insight into their operations – from a clinical, quality, and efficiency standpoint –previously inaccessible from paper records.

Shareable Ink Says: Visit Shareable Ink at Booth #623 to learn how to achieve 100% physician adoption of electronic documentation without changing workflow or hampering productivity.

SRSsoft

Booth: 349

Contact:
Evan Steele, CEO
www.srssoft.com
esteele@srssoft.com

SRS is the leading provider of productivity-enhancing EHR technology and services for high-performance specialty practices—with a successful adoption rate unparalleled in the industry. Offered via the Unified DesktopTM, the robust EHR, SRS CareTracker PM, and SRS PACS increase speed, free physicians’ time, boost revenue, and heighten patient care and satisfaction.

SRS Says: SRS is all about productivity for high-performance physicians—specialists, in particular. Stop by the SRS booth to see how SRS has cracked the code to productivity-focused meaningful use.

Stimulus Search

Meetings By Request

Contact:
Dan Moriarty, Chief Sales Officer
504.875.5172
www.stimulussearchllc.com
dan@stimulussearchllc.com

Stimulus Search LLC is a national search firm that helps Healthcare Software & Services companies achieve optimum results by attracting, qualifying and delivering high-performing sales and support talent.

Stimulus Search Says: Please contact Dan prior to the show to set a time to meet on Wednesday.

Stockell Healthcare

Meetings By Request

Contact:
Rich Lewis, Vice President of Sales
800.786.2535, ext. 186 (Office)
314.616.2459 (Cell)
richl@stockell.com

Stockell Healthcare Systems features InsightCS®; our proven Electronic Financial Record (EFR) solution that effectively coexists and interoperates directly with the leading Clinical/EMR systems, and provides end-to-end Patient Access, Patient Accounting, and Revenue Cycle Management solutions to Hospitals, Behavioral Healthcare Providers, Rehabilitation Facilities, and Integrated Health Networks. With InsightCS®, you get the tools you need to more effectively manage costs via a patient-centric, workflow-driven approach which delegates the right work to the right person at the right time and place.

Stockell Healthcare Says: InsightCS® is the ONLY proven EFR solution that dynamically captures, edits, and manages encounter-based patient care delivery data by converting it into actionable enterprise information. We invite you to speak with us to learn more about the many benefits of InsightCS® and how it has been successfully deployed with a wide variety of EMR/CPOE systems at hospitals, mental health facilities, and rehabilitation centers across the United States.

Sunquest Information Systems

Booth: 6171

Contact:
Chris Fraker, Manager, Marketing Communications
520.570.2302
chris.fraker@sunquestinfo.com
www.sunquestinfo.com

Sunquest Information Systems, Inc. delivers market-leading diagnostic information technology and outreach solutions designed and implemented to fulfill the business objectives of today’s healthcare leaders. Sunquest’s vision is encompassed by a commitment to patient safety, workflow excellence, predictive medicine, and physician & patient affinity. Sunquest serves the global marketplace with reliable laboratory technology required for mission critical applications. Transforming the delivery of healthcare, Sunquest continues to strive for strategic growth through expansion, operational excellence, technological innovation, and industry-leading thought leadership.

Sunquest Says: Solutions from Sunquest are transforming the lab like never before. At our booth, you will find outreach solutions, like Sunquest Outreach Advantage® and Sunquest Physician Portal™, that expand diagnostic services into the community. You will also see how Sunquest Diagnostic Intelligence™ provides laboratories with critical information in real time so they can make data-driven decisions based on meaningful metrics.

Surgical Information Systems

Booth: 5963

Contact:
Kermit Randa, SVP, Sales and Marketing
678.507.1650
www.SISFirst.com
Randa@SISFirst.com

Surgical Information Systems (SIS) offers perioperative information management solutions designed to increase the safety, efficiency and profitability of healthcare providers. As the only healthcare IT company focused exclusively on the complex surgical environment, SIS provides adaptable single-database solutions that integrate easily with other hospital systems.

SIS Says: Stop by booth # 5963 to learn how the SIS solution, a certified modular EHR, fits into your EMR strategy.

Thomson Reuters

Booth: 5263

Contact:
clinicalxpert@thomsonreuters.com
www.healthcare.thomsonreuters.com/HIMSS2011

The Healthcare & Science business of Thomson Reuters provides intelligent information for healthcare payers and providers to better manage the cost and quality of healthcare. Our clinical decision support solutions use real-time clinical surveillance and integrated Micromedex® content to help clinicians improve outcomes and reduce costs by making more informed treatment decisions at the point of care. Our payer solutions help employers and health plans manage healthcare costs, maintain regulatory compliance and identify fraud, waste, and abuse. With our management decision support capabilities hospital administrators have the benchmarking tools they need to improve clinical, operational and financial performance.

Thomson Reuters Says: Hospital CIOs and IT managers. Clinicians. Administrators. Payers – Thomson Reuters has the intelligent information you need to improve the cost and quality of healthcare. Stop by booth 5263 to learn more about our clinical intelligence dashboards, our integrated content solutions or our HIE offering. You can also register to win a Logitech Revue.

T-System

Booth: 3323

Contact:
Corinne Tso, Director of Marketing
214.673.4696
www.tsystem.com
ctso@tsystem.com

T-System, Inc. sets the industry standard for clinical, business and IT solutions for emergency departments, with approximately 40% of the nation’s emergency departments using T-System’s products. To meet the individual needs of hospitals, T-System offers both a paper template and an emergency department information system (EDIS). These tools help clinicians quickly see information so they can provide better patient care, while improving efficiency and the bottom line.

T-System Says: Welcome to HIMSS11! We are excited to be demonstrating the capabilities of our EDIS at the Interoperability Showcase. Our T SystemEV® was one of the first ED solutions to be certified for Stage 1 Meaningful Use. To learn more about our presentation and industry-leading ED solutions, please visit us at booth #3323.

Virtelligence

Booth: 2131

Contact:
Akhtar Chaudhri, President and CEO
952.548.6601
www.virtelligence.com
akhtar@virtelligence.com

Virtelligence is a privately held premier healthcare IT consulting firm that offers solution advisory and healthcare IT consulting services to payor and provider organizations throughout the U.S. Our comprehensive range of services includes system implementation, optimization, reporting, technology integration, and training in the Cerner, Epic, Eclipsys, McKesson, MEDITECH and Siemens. Virtelligence earned recognition as a Top 500 Small Business in America by Diversity Business.com, “Great Places to Work” by Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal, Top 100 Healthcare IT Companies (HCI-100) by Healthcare Informatics Magazine and as one the fastest-growing private companies in America for Inc5000 by Inc. Magazine.

Virtelligence Says: Choose the most cost-effective alternative in Healthcare IT. Since 1998, Virtelligence has partnered with clients in a proven record of success. Our efficient operating model allows us to deliver top-quality results at a very competitive price. Our customer loyalty far exceeds industry standards. Virtelligence pairs a solid knowledge of HIT products with true client commitment. Enjoy the benefits that come from access to the best resources available. We keep a national focus but a local commitment.

Special give-away just for HIStalk readers: Virtelligence will give away an iPad during the HIMSS Orlando conference. Stop by booth #2131, mention you are a HIStalk reader, and drop off your business card.

Vitalize Consulting Solutions

Booth: 3070

Contact:
Cyndi Cahill, Senior Vice President
610.444.1233 Ext. 4103
www.getvitalized.com
ccahill@getvitalized.com

Vitalize Consulting Solutions, Inc. (VCS) draws on the keen insight and proven methodology from its considerable HIT experience to help you fulfill organizational objectives. Our team of healthcare professionals joins your team and provides documented, high quality solutions for each engagement primarily based in Allscriptsä, Cerner, Epic, McKesson, MEDITECH, and Siemens solutions, as well as in the Ambulatory and Project Management practices. We offer the full breadth of consulting services from strategic services, operational improvement, and revenue cycle optimization projects to implementation, staff augmentation, project management, and training and go-live support. Together, through this blend of professional services and packaged solutions, we seek to forge positive outcomes that satisfy clinical, financial, and informational goals, all for a predictable cost.

VCS Says: Stop by booth #3070 at HIMSS ‘11 and help us giveback to the people of central Florida. In an effort to eliminate the need for individuals to choose between paying for healthcare and feeding their family, VCS will donate $5 to Orlando’s Second Harvest Food Bank for every “link” supplied to our Chain of Hope. You can pick up a link at the booth and attach it. Please help us help Second Harvest “fight hunger and feed hope.”

Special give-away just for HIStalk readers: For each HIStalk reader who stops by our booth and connects a link, we will double the $5 Second Harvest Food Bank donation to $10.

Voalte

Booths:

Philips: 3845
Rauland-Borg: 3031
Meru: 2979

Contact:
Trey Lauderdale, VP of Innovation
941.312.2830
trey@voalte.com

Voalté provides compelling software solutions for healthcare institutions that solve communication problems at the point-of-care. We believe that better, more efficient communication improves clinical performance, which in turn improves patient care, safety and satisfaction. Our products are designed to be intuitive, high value, mission critical applications running on the latest generation of touch-based smartphones. We provide an exceptional end-to-end user experience. We do it better than anyone else, and we spend our time thinking about ways to improve this experience.

Vocera Communications, Inc.

Booth: 4450

Contact:
salesweb@vocera.com
408.882.5600
www.vocera.com

Vocera Communications, Inc. is the leading provider of communication systems designed to restore the human connection to healthcare. By providing integrated communication solutions for voice, alarm and alert, and text systems, Vocera allows care teams, patients, and loved ones to exchange critical information at the point of care.

Vocera Says: Visit the Vocera booth to learn how hospitals across the country are elevating patient care with a variety of Vocera products. Stop by to hear about new solutions that deliver pages, text messages, and alerts directly to smartphones including iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android devices.

Wellsoft Corporation

Booth: 2230

Contact:
Denise Helfand, VP, Sales & Marketing
800.597.9909
www.wellsoft.com
dhelfand@wellsoft.com

Wellsoft, developer of the industry-leading Wellsoft EDIS (since 1988), is an ONC-ATCB 2011/2012 Certified EHR Module*; is CCHIT® Certified and is consistently ranked the #1 EDIS by KLAS and MD Buyline. Wellsoft EDIS is recognized for providing the most complete functionality, and the most scalable and configurable product in the marketplace. Features offered include patient tracking, clinical documentation, CPOE, Charge Capture, Clinical Decision Support, workflow consulting and more. Wellsoft works with you to analyze patient flow and determine how to support best practices. Wellsoft is EDIS at its Best.

Wellsoft Says: We welcome the opportunity to discuss how Wellsoft can partner with your hospital to achieve Meaningful Use. We invite you to see our newest features and to see why Wellsoft is ED clinicians’ favorite EDIS. Easy to learn and easy to use, Wellsoft is EDIS at its Best.

Wolters Kluwer Health

Booth: 6162

Contact:
Laura Gilbert, Sr. Director, Marketing Communications
612.313.1506
Laura.Gilbert@provationmedical.com
www.pointofcareapplications.com

Wolters Kluwer Health Clinical Solutions delivers intuitive clinical decision support tools designed by and for clinicians to advance the practice of evidence-based medicine and maximize outcomes from EMR/EHR, CPOE and other clinical information systems. These include ProVation® Order Sets, powered by UpToDate® Decision Support, an easily customizable order set authoring and management solution that streamlines the delivery of standardized care and integrates easily into any facility or vendor EMR/CPOE system; Medi-Span® Clinical, a robust CDS platform that delivers CCHIT-compliant medication-related clinical decision support; and UpToDate®, the resource of choice for more than 400,000 clinicians worldwide covering more than 8,300 topics in 17 medical specialties. Other offerings include its flagship drug reference, Facts & Comparisons®; pharmacy’s #1 Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider, Pharmacy OneSource; and procedure documentation and coding solutions from ProVation® Medical.

Wolters Kluwer Says: An opportunity to test drive some of the industry’s leading clinical decision support tools, including ProVation Order Sets, Medi-Span Clinical and UpToDate, isn’t the only reason to swing by the Wolters Kluwer Health booth (#6162). You’ll also have the opportunity to register to win a trip for four to the U.S. Masters in Augusta!

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Filed under News on February 11, 2011 - No Comments -

News 2/11/11

From HL7RN: “Re: result messages. I’ve submitted two flavors of this question to ONC and received no response – do you think your readers would help me out with their opinions? My hospital interfaces our best-of-breed ancillary systems to our certified EMR. Since the EMR doesn’t rebound the results to outside providers, we use our interface engine to send exact HL7 copies of result messages to a third-party vendor, who then forwards them to physician offices. Does this qualify for sharing electronic data for other providers or do we need to send the data directly from the EMR?” The floor is open.

From Cabana Boy: “Re: penetration testing companies. Who are the top one or two firms in the healthcare market?”

From DrFeiedFan: “Re: Craig Feied. Calling him a vendor hack just because he works for Microsoft misses the fact that he’s a giant in informatics.” I don’t think HITworker said that; he suggested that people with Microsoft ties were overrepresented on the PCAST committee that recommended a national healthcare architecture that’s darned close to what Microsoft is selling. I think it’s a fair question, just like you’d ask when Wall Street types help draft financial policy. He’s brilliant, no doubt – drag the video timeline above to about the 37:50 mark.

From Dr. Herzenstube: “Re: Primary Care Home. Making good on their threat, Joint Commission has come out with proposed requirements for their version of the Patient-Centered Medical Home. Getting my attention: (a) practices would have to provide language translation at their own expense; (b) they would have to ‘facilitate access’ to dental care; (c) they would have to use e-prescribing, which doesn’t have much to do with the PCMH model; and (d) they would have to provide 24/7 appointment scheduling, prescription refill requests, and general health information (they probably have online resources in mind, but can you imaging a 3 a.m. page for a Viagra refill or outstanding balance request?) It’s nice to see a truly grassroots movement in health care, proven in multiple controlled trials, getting some recognition. I suppose that some kind of accreditation is necessary for reimbursement, but I do wonder how much the spirit of the thing will be lost in reductionism into atomic functions that this kind of approach fosters.”

Listening: the just-released first album of The JaneDear Girls. It’s classified as “new country,” meaning it’s radio-friendly, overproduced pop with an occasional hint of banjo or unconvincing Southern accent (one of them’s from Utah, for God’s sake). I’m not a big fan of the genre, but this is pretty good in a Lady Antebellum or Taylor Swift sort of way. They’re young, cute, and chipper, so naturally they’re going to be massively popular except with fans of real country music.

If you haven’t completed my just-once-a-year reader survey, would you mind? It’s all I use to plan HIStalk for the next year.

Is is my imagination, or is HIMSS spamming the heck out of my work e-mail? I’m getting multiple e-mails every day urging me to attend the conference, which would be coming a bit late if I wasn’t already signed up, but thus being pointless since … I’m already signed up. I promise I won’t forget to show up.

Community Healthcare System (IN) goes live on its $40 million Epic implementation.

RelayHealth is running a Facebook contest to send Dr. Jayne a welcome basket. You suggest an under-$25 “fun gift to give her to express support for her new role,” and if other Facebookers like your idea, you get a stainless steel mug and other goodies while Jayne gets the gift you suggested. Sure, it’s obviously social network marketing, but I thought it was pretty fun when they e-mailed me about it earlier today.

SCI Solutions is another non-exhibiting HIStalk sponsor who would be happy to meet with folks interested in their solutions for access management. Contact Stuart Hammond to set up a time.

Canada Health Infoway sets up a $380 million fund to co-fund EMRs and invest in peer support networks throughout Canada.

Thanks to Aspen Advisors for supporting HIStalk as a Platinum Sponsor. I just finished interviewing founder Dan Herman if you need some background. The Pittsburgh-based consulting firm offers services that include strategic planning, system selection, implementation, facility expansion, informatics, physician strategy, healthcare reform planning, infrastructure services, business analytics, IT service management, and Meaningful Use planning. They don’t send out noobs: 75% of their consultants have more than 10 years’ healthcare experience and 40% have more than 20 years. If you’re a non-noob yourself, check out their leadership team and I bet you’ll know at least one of them. Their site has white papers, case studies, and open consulting positions (including clinical informaticists). Thanks to Aspen Advisors for supporting HIStalk.

Here’s the transcript of Cerner’s Tuesday earnings call. Nuggets: (a) they bragged on beating Epic in both inpatient and outpatient in a Q4 academic medical center deal; (b) they signed two outsourcing deals in Q4; (c) non-US sales aren’t doing much; (d) they’re big on Healthe, their cloud-based tool that allows EMR searching and future “microapps”. I always like reading the Q&A since the stock analysts and company people start speaking in financial tongues, asking for “color” on some obscure financial number and continuously saying “sort of” and “kind of” to keep it casual. Neal popped in for his usual 20 seconds at the end. Shares jumped past $100 for a short time, then retreated.

Jobs on the HIStalk Jobs Page: CPOE/EHR Educator, Project Manager, Project Manager – Healthcare Implementation, CMIO. On Healthcare IT Jobs: EMR Systems Analyst, Business Development Manager, VP Business Development, Soarian Clinicals Consultants.

Christ Hospital (OH) promotes Alex Vaillancourt to CIO.

QNX Software Systems announces an extension to its real-time operating system that could allow FDA-approved devices to connect to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Florida Governor Rick Scott (that still just sounds wrong to anyone who remembers Columbia/HCA) wants to shut down the state’s in-progress doctor shopper database even though it won’t cost the state anything to keep tabs on drug seekers. Scott answered a question about it by saying, “That program has not been working,” which is not surprising given that it isn’t even live – bid protests have gone on for more than a year.

Australia’s $56 million JeDHI military health records system (cool name) will be developed by CSC Australia, which will modify a British primary care system from EMIS. Technology from Microsoft and Oracle will be used, while Health Language will provide clinical terminology support.

Speaking of Health Language, they are supporting HIStalk as a Platinum Sponsor. The company, with offices in Denver, England, and Spain, has 4,000 installed sites of its HLI Language Engine, a medical terminology management solution. Terminology management has always been important, but is now much more so for two reasons: (a) the ICD-9 to ICD-10 conversion, and (b) the HITECH push toward interoperability and the resulting need to exchange not just bits and bytes, but medical concepts. The HLI Language Engine supports over 100 healthcare code sets (ICD-10, SNOMED, LOINC, RxNorm, MVX, etc.), can prompt clinicians in medical terms to complete problem lists coded in SNOMED and ICD, links lab codes to LOINC, maps proprietary drug terminologies to RxNorm, and creates Consumer Friendly Terminology from medical terms for discharge summaries and patient education. Co-founder George Schwend was an interface engine pioneer as co-founder of Healthcare.com and its predecessor companies and he’s applying those same concepts to terminology management. I appreciate the support of Health Language.

Children’s Hospital Central California gets a $5 million gift from the foundation of financier Kirk Kerkorian to implement electronic medical records.

The new government in Victoria, Australia kills a hospital trial of 500 iPads, claiming the former government did not provide the necessarily wireless infrastructure. The health minister also wants to end Victoria’s $360 million HealthSmart healthcare IT program, which includes Cerner Millennium.

Nuance reports Q1 numbers: revenue up 11.5%, EPS $0.00 $(0.28 before one-time expenses) vs –$0.02. Analysts were expecting $0.31. Healthcare was called out as a strong performer in the conference call. Chairman and CEO Paul Ricci says Nuance has disrupted the transcription model, causing consolidation among transcription firms, but that works against Nuance in the short term because those companies have dropped prices to survive.

The head of the $76 billion Ohio Public Employees Retirement System will resign to take a job in healthcare consulting with Ingenix.

E-mail me.

HERtalk by Inga

From Practice Consultant: “Re: Meaningful Use costs. One of my clients, a user of Allscripts Professional EHR, was told that even though they have upgraded to MU version 9.2, they need to purchase two Stimulus Sets. Phase 1, needed to run reports for the 15 Core objectives and the 5 menu objectives, costs $200 per MD per year. Phase 2, the Clinical Quality Solution that lets the practice pull numerator and denominator quality numbers, is $185 per provider per month. I guess if the practice doesn’t pay, they won’t be able to pull quality data. This seems unfair.” I shared this information with an Allscripts representative, who provided this official reply:

As you know, not every client is pursuing Meaningful Use. There is a development cost to make the additional functionality beyond the traditional EHR available. Allscripts bundled the necessary capabilities for clients to pursue Stage 1 incentives if they wished. We are not aware of any other vendor bundling and marketing this as an easy, off-the-shelf option. And, naturally, we make certain considerations available to clients to encourage adoption of advanced technology.

From Louboutin Lover: “Re: IngaTinis. I do remember a certain vendor started the now-infamous cocktail at HIMSS last year and hear they will feature The Original IngaTini at their in-booth happy hour.” Perhaps Surgical Information Systems should have copyrighted the IngaTini name since they did concoct the original drink for HIMSS last year (you can see the SIS logo on the glass above). I do recall sipping a most delightful drink last year and am pleased to hear IngaTinis will be back. I’ll be back sipping, too.

From Gals Wanna Have Fun: “Hot parties. I am wondering what other hot parties (not on Monday, of course) are happening next week. Care to share?” I am amused that at least one person thinks I am privileged enough to be a VIP at all the fun gatherings. Interestingly, I did receive invites for about half a dozen events on Monday, but I don’t think I have seen anything for the other nights. I know HIMSS is having an event Wednesday at Universal’s Islands of Adventure, but that’s about all I have heard. I suspect that between HIStalkapalooza, education sessions, and the exhibit floor I will be too wiped out to do much more than order room service and write HIStalk updates. (That’s my story, anyway.)

The Valley Hospital (NJ) begins implementation of Webmedx’s QualityAnalytics solution for clinical documentation. The hospital also deployed Enterprise5, Webmedx’s outsourced transcription services.

Carter BloodCare (TX) licenses Mediware’s KnowledgeTrak software to manage training requirements and improve reporting.

Advocate Health Care (IL) deploys Certify Data System’s HealthDock to provide enterprise health information exchange.

Florida selects open source software provider Mirth Corporation to provide the interoperability platform to power the state’s HIE.

Butler Health System (PA) will implement GE’s HIE solution.

Coming this weekend: Mr. HIStalk’s Must-See Guide to HIMSS 11. Mr. H will be publishing a list of some of the hottest exhibitors this year, all of whom happen to be faithful HIStalk sponsors. In addition to short summaries of each company, we are giving you the heads up for some of the coolest giveaways, including several just for HIStalk readers. I love trinkets, but some of the goodies are trinkets on steroids, including iTune gift cards, a Dell netbook, a Sonos Music System, a trip to the Masters, and quite a few iPads. In fact, with the plethora of iPads being offered this year, I will be bummed if I come home iPad-less.

Also for your weekend reading pleasure: several HIT vendor execs share their predictions for the hot topics of HIMSS11. I am happy to report that most participants provided thoughtful and insightful answers that reflect what’s going on in the industry, and not just what will be going on in their exhibit booth. Meaningful Use is the hottest of the hot, of course, but there will be plenty of discussion on other subjects, including ACOs and other health reform implications, interoperability, ICD-10, and mobile health. You’ll want to read up before you head to Orlando. If nothing else, you will sound really smart while drinking your IngaTinis.

More cocktail party fodder, perhaps? Between August 2009 and the end of 2010, there were 225 significant healthcare security breaches that affected six million people. More than half were due to malicious intent.

Phelps County Regional Medical Center (MO) selects Perceptive Software’s ECM solution to integrate with its Meditech application.

Sequoia Hospital (CA) says it reduced its mortality rate in cardiac surgeries more than 50% through the use of IBM predictive analytics software by reducing risk and offering personalized patient care.

Microsoft continues to expand its healthcare-related offerings with the introduction of its new state Health Insurance Exchange (HIX) solutions.

Apparently Epic’s existing 5,300 seat auditorium is not big enough, so the company is proposing a new 13,000 seat venue. Epic says it needs the facility for its annual user group meeting, which in recent years has had to use tents for the overflowing crowds. The Verona City Council must approve the project.

Cold? Going to HIMSS? Here is something to look forward to.

E-mail Inga.

Sponsor Updates

The Huntzinger Management Group is hosting a (free) lunch February 21 at HIMSS to discuss the future viability of hospitals. Attendees are automatically entered to win one of five iPads.
Southern Ohio Medical Center will deploy Wolters Kluwer Health’s ProVation MD software for cardiology procedure documentation and coding in the hospital’s cath lab.
Merge Healthcare announces seven new contracts for its clinical trial solutions.
Dan Underberger, MD joins MedVentive as vice president and medical director. He was previously a board-certified anesthesiologist and co-founder of Peminic, a developer of reporting and compliance software.
Ridgeview Medical Center’s Two Twelve Medical Plaza (MN) goes live with Wellsoft’s EDIS. It’s Ridgeview’s second ED to implement Wellsoft.
NextGen clients have secured nearly $2 million in 2009 PQRI reimbursements leveraging their NextGen Ambulatory EHR and HQM reporting module.
Carefx releases a new white paper, “High-Performance Healthcare: Gateway to Accountable Care.” Download here or pick up a copy at Carefx’s HIMSS booth (#4543).
DIVURGENT announces ACTIVATE!, a new management service offering to help organizations improve go-live project quality and reduce activation support costs.
McKesson’s Horizon Ambulatory Care earns Complete EHR certification from Drummond Group.

EPtalk by Dr. Jayne

I don’t know if any of you are familiar with the book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, which is a charming collection of essays by Robert Fulghum. After today, I think I’m going to start penning the companion volume, Everything I Needed to Know about Healthcare IT, I Learned Reading HIStalk. I’ve been reading for a couple of years now, and thank goodness for the search feature because I’m always looking for something that I think I read on one of the sites.

Today, I had one of those totally déjà vu experiences where life imitates art, living in a real-world version of the Accountable Care Organization clip that Inga shared on HIStalk Practice back in August.

Although I do distinctly remember sleeping through classes in medical school that had subjects like “101 Obscure Diseases You Will Never Ever See” and “Fungal Delights,” I must have also slept through the parts of CMIO school that covered the following: “Achieving ACO Status Without Physician Buy-In: Just Avoid the Tough Conversations”; “Blind Budgeting”; “Payers Know Best”; and my personal favorite, “How to Not Let Quality Interfere With Arbitrary Deadlines.”

The one class I did not sleep through, however, that the other folks on this hellishly painful half-day conference call apparently did: “Mute Features: Your Friend and Mine.” It’s calls like these that make me envy my friends who work at Critical Access Hospitals, where everyone works in the same building rather than the multi-state madness I cope with. Seriously people, learn how to mute yourself. I do not want to hear you emptying your dishwasher or snoring, both of which I have heard recently. If I cannot trust you with knowing how to mute, I am not going to trust you with a $200K interface project.

You may have noticed that I am a shameless fan of these clips created using Xtranormal. I’d like to issue a challenge to our readers who work the front lines of implementation with real, live users. Create a clip, three minutes or less, of the funniest scenario you’ve ever encountered during training. I’ll feature the best of the best, with the prize being eternal HIStalk bragging rights.

Obviously, the weather has been leading me to spend more time on the Internet than I usually do. I’ve been feeling a bit neglected when I see those Facebook updates that read “Tim Histalk and Inga Histalk are now friends with Joe Reader.” As a charming and sassy CMIO, why do I care if Mr. H and Inga have more friends than I? One snappy literature search later: Social Media: A Great Uncontrolled Experiment on Kids (and shame on MD Consult for trying to charge me for a subscription to read something that’s free on Internal Medicine News. Really.) Being a member of the social media as well as a scientist, I found it interesting.

Dr. Michael Rich, associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard, describes himself as a “Mediatrician” and educates parents about the impacts of social media (Facebook, Twitter, and texting) not only on behavior, but on brain development. His blog discusses the competitive nature of friending on Facebook and the fundamental shift in the concept of friendship that is happening because of these technologies.

Although I sympathize with the maladaptive behaviors that I see in some people due to technology (see comments on the importance of the mute button above), I’m encouraged by the potential for the human brain to adapt to a digital environment. For those of us in IT, if we hold out long enough, perhaps the doctors of the future will be a teensy bit easier to implement. (And if not, we can Tweet about them after class.)

Have a question about medical informatics, electronic medical records, or whether scrubs start to smell after 24 hours of resident on call? E-mail Dr. Jayne.

Dr. Gregg Goes to HIMSS
By Gregg Alexander

First things first: I must offer up my two cents to all the marketing folks who blast out pre-HIMSS emails attempting to engage the press and spread the love for their company.

Ladies, gentlemen, please – put a little effort into it. I realize you may be sending out scores, even hundreds of these e-mails, but that’s no excuse for using sloppy grammar. It’s no excuse for doing a poor job with your copy-n-paste when creating your reach outs. Honestly, with mixed fonts and blatant false personalization that looks as personal as an IRS form, who do you expect to impress? Some of these emails are constructed so poorly it prompted me to coin a term for my own use: “Mickey Marketeers.”

Now if a marketer or PR person puts a little effort in to insure that an e-mail promo: a) looks good; b) reads well; and c) has a little bit of real person, real outreach in it, well, then you’ve got a hook with some bait.

One of the best to hit my inbox was one from a rep who included personal info directed to me (we all want to feel a little important) and told an interesting, though brief, story. She mentioned a few IT biggies who were involved with this start-up: Jeffrey Wilkins, founder of Compuserve and Herb Smaltz, former CIO at THE Ohio State University Medical Center and recent HIMSS board of directors member. Also, the rep noted that the inimitable Ivo Nelson, chairman of Encore Health Services and highly successful 2010 HIStalk reception sponsor, had joined their board.

When Ivo talks, people listen. I did, too. I undertook a pre-HIMSS look into them, Health Care DataWorks, to learn more about what they do. (I had heard of them, but had only a passing familiarity.) What I found was that they aggregate more data than I even care to think exists within hospital systems and then create easily visualized and easily understandable reports, graphs, and drill-down dashboard items which allow for “Actionable Knowledge.” They create true ease of use for this mountain of collected data.

I don’t normally look forward to trickle-down technology from big centers – it usually works horribly in the private practice setting – but this tool appears so end-user useful, it’s one I hope eventually heads our way. (FYI – Incubated at THE Ohio State University, they have abandoned the academic nest to fly capitalistically.)

Another quality outreach came from GE Healthcare regarding Centricity Advance. The initial e-mail was short, but sufficiently descriptive, displayed enough personalization that I could tell the sender actually reads HIStalk/HIStalk Practice, and avoided the too formal business-speak so rampant among Marketeers. This approach enticed me enough to start a pre-HIMSS look at them, too.

Those styles, while less efficient for the sender, seem much more impressive and engaging. (They got me to take a deeper look.) I realize that corporate folks often speak to each other in a more formal fashion, even sending out press releases with the implied “you will want to talk with us” approach. Maybe that works for some, but I find I’m much more likely to want to set aside some HIMSS time (or pre-HIMSS time) looking into those companies whose outreach people come across more as people – and who look at me that way, too.

I know I’m no real HIT “reporter.” But, maybe what works for me might work for real reporters, too.

E-mail Gregg.

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Filed under News on February 10, 2011 - 22 Comments -

HIStalk Interviews Dan Herman, Aspen Advisors

Dan Herman is founder and managing principal of Aspen Advisors of Pittsburgh, PA.

Tell me about yourself and about Aspen Advisors.

I’ve been in the business for 30 years this month. I did an internship with Rich Correll of the Detroit Medical Center as a management engineer and I always credit him for getting me in this business.

I worked in decision support, merging medical record and patient accounting data to come up with an early case mix system that I spoke about at HIMSS in the mid ‘80s. I then got into project management with a large revenue cycle implementation. I worked for consulting in the Big 6, or the Big 8 at the time, and joined a small firm called First Consulting Group back in 1991.

I started Aspen Advisors in 2006. We focus on healthcare, really three things. Helping IT executives with difficult decisions related to IT and strategic decisions with investment and planning. Managing large-scale projects and programs, particularly those on the clinical side, with revenue cycle and technology as well. Third, optimizing and looking at how we use the technology better through informatics, clinical content, and process enhancement.

What really distinguishes one consulting company from another other than the people that they employ?

It’s how they serve their clients and what services they focus in on. We’re organized as a multi-specialty group practice. It’s really practitioner-led and professionally managed and I guess I’m the head doc. I think it’s really having that experience of “been there, done that,” working in operations, working in IT.

It’s also core values, that professional integrity. Doing what’s in the client’s best interest and serving them first. And, making sure the associates share your core values and are continually growing themselves. It’s that understanding of what your client is looking for and doing one project at a time. It might be a small project. It’s developing that relationship over time.

With an apparent talent shortage, what makes consultants want to join a company and stay there?

It’s that challenge. It’s growth. It’s having mentors, people to look up to, people who have been there and can help them grow and guide them in their careers. It’s not “one size fits all.” Everyone has different needs and skill sets.

It’s looking for the talent and stretching people’s capabilities. I can make the analogy, “We’ll throw you out in the water, but you’ll have a life vest and we’ll be looking after you the whole time.” It’s getting individuals who are looking for a challenge, looking to grow their skills, and looking to do new things. You hear of consultants who get stuck at a client for a year, two years, three years. We don’t do that. We really look at what’s best for the client and what’s best for the consultant and make sure there’s that rotation there.

What are the pressing priorities and concerns of your clients and how have those changed over the last couple of years?

Going back 5-10 years, our clients have gotten the IT side. They have better leadership. They’re smarter. A lot of the clients we work with are former consultants. They come from the vendor environment.

What they are really looking for is expertise to fill a particular role for a particular period of time. Structure and discipline, whether it be project management or whether it be educating and working with them on a IT service management program. The third area is what I call the advisory – helping an organization with a decision where it’s difficult to make that decision themselves due to internal politics or various opinions such that you really need that outsider.

With respect to some specific areas, clearly the electronic medical record implementation is a priority. We don’t focus on the analyst, the builder side of things. We focus more on how we work with our clients to use the technology and get value from it. How do we shorten the length of stay? How do we reduce the errors? How do we improve the revenue cycle? It’s about the process and the technology coming together and putting methodologies in place for that.

Hospitals are spending up to hundreds of millions of dollars on clinical systems implementation. Do you think they have a solid plan for obtaining ROI and, given potential reimbursement challenges, can they afford those systems?

It depends on the organization. I’m working for one that has about 600 provider physicians and a financing arm associated with it. They’re very integrated from an organization and they have a very clear business strategy. They’re migrating to service line management and have very clear accountabilities.

They’re struggling right now because their IT environment on the EMR side is very, very fragmented. We worked with that organization to put a strategy together and a total cost of ownership model with respect to staying the course with a best-of-breed strategy compared with an integrated solution. Clearly it was in favor of the integrated solution.

Other organizations we’ll work with really don’t need to throw everything out and start from scratch. I’ve heard of some organizations that have recently thrown out Meditech and gone to another vendor. I just scratch my head sometimes if it’s an organization that doesn’t have a lot of capital and doesn’t have a lot case for change. Why throw out the technology? Why not just use what you currently have, better? It depends on the organization.

Looking ahead, it might be a land grab right now with respect to “Everybody’s throwing money at healthcare IT, and in particular, EMRs.” I think that’s going to change in the next couple of years. With the reimbursement changes that are coming into play — Medicare and Medicaid cuts, some of the aspects of healthcare reform, or healthcare insurance reform, rather — I think there’s going to be big pressure in margins. It’s going to be time to say, “What can we do with what we have? How do we get value out of what we have already and improve things?”

Some predict that HITECH is pushing software sales that were premature and there will be a second wave of purchases to replace them. How do you see that changing the vendor world?

That’s going to be an interesting one. I’ve been in this industry long enough to see vendors come and go. Those vendors and organizations that are focused solely on healthcare, whether it be one niche or the other, will be able to expand services within that.

Those bigger companies with other lines of business — across healthcare, not only in IT but in supply chain and pharmaceuticals and whatnot — I think they might shift their priorities elsewhere. The question is, what’s going to happen to that vendor in the market as far as the support? They’ll be there, but how much R&D will go into that product?

It’s a niche area there are a lot of new vendors coming in. In the EMR area, there is still a Top Six or so on both sides. There aren’t many more if you’re a big place.

You mentioned system and workflow optimization in hospitals. Is that happening or will it happen eventually?

I think it will. It depends on the life cycle. Organizations that were early on with the EMR like Allina, NorthShore Evanston, and St. Luke’s in Kansas City have been at this a long time. They’re past the stage of the basic EMR, revenue cycle systems, and PACS. They are optimizing what they have, but they are also gathering data, the business intelligence side of it. That will continue to occur, but I think it’s going to take a while.

One of the early projects I worked on was decision support in looking at case mix. Today they call it business intelligence and data warehousing. Unfortunately, the tools have changed and have gotten better, but I think the way we use analytics to change behavior and improve outcomes is still lagging.

Are hospitals that engage your company becoming more data driven?

Yes, some of them clearly are. They’ve gone through implementation and are now saying, “How do we improve? How do we use this to improve medication safety? Particularly in a capitated environment, how do we reduce the length of stay and reduce tests?” I see more organizations doing it, but we’re still not at the tipping point.

Aspen works on Epic implementations. Do you have concerns that Epic has so many balls in the air all of a sudden with so many large implementations going on at once?

It’s Epic more than others because, at the expertise level of the builder, the people that have been there, done that are in short supply. It’s a challenge.

We have a client in Louisiana. One of their biggest concerns on the ambulatory side is where they can get those resources, especially since a couple of other organizations in the region are doing the same. It comes down to having some creative HR recruitment and retention policies. We worked with the University of Colorado and they hired up hired up about 70 people on their team. They’re using consultants in a very limited way and they’re done it with some innovative practices.

There are other organizations that have done things like fixed-term employees, to retain individuals for a period of time and then give them to option to stay or leave the project when it’s done. What it comes down to is how creative your organization is in attracting this talent, as well as what part of the country you’re in. That can render a challenge. I don’t think it’s insurmountable, but you’ve got to get a little creative.

Will Epic’s employees be capable of the clinical transformation and optimization work given that their employees are mostly young and focus on Epic’s applications?

What I’ve seen is that on the vendor’s side, that type of talent was a rarity. I was a project manager, but rarely looked at process. I don’t think you get that from the vendor. Where you get that is either the organization is process oriented or gets outside help to put together an approach and insert some expertise and hope the client can do that because it’s not a one-time thing, it’s continual improvement.

Vendors weren’t big on those resources anyway. They were focused more on getting the system in and the specific knowledge of those products.

IT demand has always outstripped supply in hospitals. Is that still the case, and if so, how are hospitals making the priority decisions?

Yes, that’s a big thing. Demand, especially now, is outstripping supply.

In working with a big organization recently, we talked about if they embarked on this big EMR and revenue cycle project, what would come off the table. You can’t continue to do 15 other projects. This is the big one, not only for IT, but for the overall organization. It’s a constant struggle with IT governance and how it ties into the business.

I recently worked with a Midwest hospital. It was the same exact thing. They wanted to do everything. They had two or three vendors that were doing the same function, patient tracking for example, and they wanted to buy another one. We worked with them to put together a governance process tied into their overall capital and operating budgeting process.

It’s a struggle. Having organizations focus is a struggle. Often, it’s a cultural aspect, and not only with IT.

Are you seeing changes in role of the CIO or the CMIO?

I don’t have a super-technical background. I took one programming course in college and barely got through it. I’ve had people come to me and say, “You should be a CIO.” I said, “I’m not technical enough.”

Executives tell me that that that’s not what they want. They want a business person, someone who really understands their business, understands their culture, and can lead an IT function. Get good leaders underneath them, get it structured, and help them prioritize and make sure they’re putting their effort into the right things and not throwing money out the door.

I see that more. Folks who can sit at the executive table, but if they need to, go deep into their IT organizations and call a bluff with their technical guys. Someone who can work with the management team and the board to help them understand why they can only invest in these three things versus these 15 things, and not get shot for doing that.

Any final thoughts?

We’re going to see less reimbursement and more cost pressure. We’re going to see mergers and acquisitions and consolidation. What’s the priority? It makes no sense to invest in an EHR when your management team knows that down the road a year or two, it will probably not be an independent organization any more.

How do we manage interoperability? Not everybody has the money to throw out to vendors and start from scratch with an integrated vendor such as Epic. How do we make sure systems stay up? We’re depending more on the electronic medical record and clinicians and doctors are using the technology on a daily basis — we can’t have down time. How do we start taking data out and converting it to information on which we can make decisions or hold people accountable?

I’d like to refer to a quote by author Jim Collins. “Information Technology is never the reason for an organization’s success or failure, but can be an accelerator of either.” There’s a lot of attention and funding being directed to healthcare IT. However, IT itself is not the silver bullet riding in on the white horse.

Truth is, few organizations can afford huge IT investments, even with the help of the Meaningful Use incentives. Organizational change is never as easy as investing in the latest technological advancement.

I remember in 1998 the CEO of my client, an academic medical center, was complaining that test turnaround time hadn’t improved after the implementation of a new radiology information system. He laughed, but understood what I was referring to when I told him that they didn’t buy the cattle prod peripheral to alert the radiologists that it was time to read and dictate their results. IT is only a tool. Engaged leadership, skilled and trained staff, and effective operational processes are key to user adoption and extracting value from expensive IT tools.

Our philosophy at Aspen is to enhance the value of our clients’ IT investments. Whether we are leading an enterprise-wide EMR implementation or coaching the IT leadership team in instilling ITIL service management processes, the goal is always to save our clients money, help them get a return, and transfer expertise so they become self sufficient. Believe it or not, we want to work ourselves out of a job. It’s in the client’s best interest and our associates want to move on to other challenging projects.

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Filed under News on February 9, 2011 - 3 Comments -

Readers Write 2/9/11

Submit your article of up to 500 words in length, subject to editing for clarity and brevity (please note: I run only original articles that have not appeared on any Web site or in any publication and I can’t use anything that looks like a commercial pitch). I’ll use a phony name for you unless you tell me otherwise. Thanks for sharing!

Comments on the PCAST Report
By HITworker

You don’t have to look very far to see evidence of just how much this PCAST report is a sophisticated marketing piece for Microsoft’s ailing Health Solutions Group.

The committee co-chair (note – not just a member, a full co-chair so presumably he had a lot of control over input and direction) is Craig Mundie. The Health Solutions Group was set up by Craig Mundie and the Peter Neupert, who leads the Health Solutions Group and reports to Craig.

Listed under expert input at appendix A are a list of 47 ‘experts’ who contributed to the report. Thirteen of those experts are from vendor companies, the rest coming predominantly from federal departments and health providers. Of the 13 experts, three of them are from Microsoft including:

Craig Feied – Microsoft Health Solutions Group’s chief strategy officer, who joined Microsoft after selling the Azyxxi product he built to Microsoft, which later became Amalga UIS (which just happens to be a clinical data aggregation technology – so favored in the PCAST report).
Sean Nolan – Microsoft Health Solutions Group’s chief architect, who admits to having no experience in health IT before he led the development team that designed Microsoft HealthVault (which is a personal health record, also so favored in PCAST).
Peter Cullen – Microsoft’s chief privacy officer, who has a significant role around advocating in relation to Microsoft’s approach to privacy in cloud computing, (the third and final favored technology in PCAST).

Then of course, there’s Craig Mundie.

I got to looking into this after reading a blog posting on John Halamka’s blog (Life as a Healthcare CIO), where Sean Nolan of Microsoft illustrated how he believed Microsoft had all the answers for a Universal Exchange Language for health using their products Amalga and HealthVault. This was only a couple of weeks after the PCAST report was published in which he was a named ‘expert’.

So curious, I dove a little deeper into the other 10 ‘experts’ and found that seven of them work for three companies (Ingenix, athena, Sage, and Medicity) who all have partnership relationships with Microsoft.

Now I’m not opposed at all to vendors contributing to these kinds of reports – industry often has expertise and insight that is not readily available within government — but something didn’t seem right. These just aren’t the companies that would leap to mind at all when I think of the leading vendors in health IT with the most expertise and insights to contribute. Something’s amiss.

We’re being asked to believe a committee chaired by someone who runs Microsoft Health Solutions group, independently and without bias sought input from experts, and that three of the 11 experts from industry consulted just happened to work for the chair of the committee within Microsoft. And that these three had direct responsibility for products that just happened to address the three key technologies called out as enablers of the PCAST recommendations. Furthermore, seven of the other industry contributors work for companies that are Microsoft partners.

Something is most definitely wrong with this picture.

Bill Bria for ONC
By Ann Farrell

Note from Mr. H: industry long-timer and consultant Ann Farrell is mounting a campaign to have Bill Bria, MD (CMIO of Shriners Hospitals for Children) considered for David Blumenthal’s replacement at ONC. Her reasons: he’s an industry thought leader, he is regarded for his work with AMDIS, he is not self-promoting, and he recognizes the value of informatics in areas other than those involving physicians. Ann believes that his appointment would unit the industry and signal an HHS commitment to patient-centric, benefits-driven, interdisciplinary, and workflow-friendly technology strategies. Her letter is below.

Greetings,

I am a career-long champion of EMRs as end-user at first US commercial implementation, EHR vendor VP and now Principal of Strategic HIT consulting firm. The news of Dr. Blumenthal’s departure while not totally surprising is nonetheless of concern with now third hand off of leadership in high impact initiative that is advantaged by continuity. Nevertheless, this is an opportunity to look carefully at the character, characteristics and capabilities of the new leader so we can align the next set of challenges to the appropriate candidate and perhaps overcome flaws with current approach.

We recognize value of the next leader having directly supported ONC in HITECH initiatives. We also appreciate value of someone who has successfully supported change management with “hands on” experience in implementing EHRs in several diverse organizations who’ve achieved goals of HITECH in real world settings. The person ideally would be universally respected by vendors, hospitals, colleagues and the market – without political baggage and not part of “old boy network”.

In this regard, we think Dr. Bill Bria would make an exceptional candidate. His knowledge, passion and track record well position him for success. Perhaps most importantly, Dr. Bria recognizes that healthcare does not equal “MDs“ alone but requires a care team who execute MD orders as well as plans of care that together drive efficiencies and outcomes. All caregivers contribute to EHRs and patient care. Till this time, a clear MD-centric bias is reflected in Meaningful Use content, phasing of criteria and messaging. Ironically, this approach has had unexpected negative consequence for MDs as well as the program.

Dr. Bria has played a critical role in the “visioning” and design of several lead EMR/EHRs since the early days and played key leadership roles at diverse prestigious healthcare organizations and AMDIS. Bill is a hero to those of us who worked with him. Dr. Blumenthal’s departure provides a chance to “reboot” HITECH – Dr. Bria could bring a new more realistic and a-political, patient-centric, interdisciplinary approach needed to optimize this once on a lifetime opportunity for HIT.

Regards,

Ann
Ann Farrell
Principal, Farrell Associates
San Francisco , CA 94114

Five Things Hospitals Should Know About Backing Up Virtual Machines
By Charles Mallio

As more hospitals introduce virtualization to their data centers, they must incorporate virtual machines (VMs) into their backup and recovery strategies. How is backing up VMs in a hospital environment different? There are five things that hospitals should think about as they incorporate VMs into their overall DR program.

Don’t assume agentless backup. One of the most common misconceptions about VMs is that you will be able to perform backups on any machine without an agent. VMware does help in this regard, but it is often the case that you will need a backup client – virtual or physical – especially when you consider how you are going to recover applications.
VMware doesn’t reduce the importance of good DR planning. For example, virtualizing your server environment does not negate the need to fully optimize your backup routines. In every hospital, approximately 20% of data is dynamic (i.e. current, active content that is highly likely to be accessed and or changed), which should be given the highest priority in your DR cycle. Yet, around 80% of a hospital’s data is static (such as DICOM images from PACS, which will never change and are highly unlikely to be recalled again). Whether this static data is in a physical or VM is irrelevant – the fact is, if you don’t move it out of the primary backup stream, you will end up making unnecessary copies of copies, place a considerable, additional burden on your infrastructure and dramatically delay your backup processes.
VM sprawl will require more thorough DR planning. As VMs multiply within the data center, each hospital must align each VM with their overall DR strategy and assign policies for restoring mission-critical applications and data so that business continuity criteria are met.
VMware has produced some new features in vSphere, but these do not provide a DR silver bullet. vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP) offers great new facilities, such as changed Block Tracking, that may be applied in a VMware environment to enhance data protection and disaster recovery. These tools are ideal when protecting file and print servers, but you should always ensure they offer adequate facilities to RECOVER applications in your environment.
Choose backup hardware that meets your business needs. Although migrating from physical to VMs will bring new economies to the data center, it does not mean that you are restricted to disk-based backup. VMs can just as easily be protected on more affordable, portable tape media. Hospitals should choose the backup media that best meet their budgets and business processes.

Charles Mallio is vice president of product strategy and business development at BridgeHead Software.

Capitalizing on PQRI’s Financial and Quality Improvement Learning Opportunities
By John Nelson

It is not often that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) offers an initiative or mandate that allows doctors to receive extra money, deliver better care, and attract and retain patients without inflicting enormous pain and extra work on a practice. However, after a false start, CMS’s Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) has become such a program, enabling us to easily collect a bonus while positioning us to learn what we need to do to further enhance quality and prepare for an era where payments will be based on outcomes rather than visit or procedure volume.

This was not always the case. When the program began in 2007, the Heart Center of North Texas, a nine-doctor cardiology practice in Fort Worth, Texas, found that collecting and reporting PQRI quality measures was so burdensome and expensive that we did not want any part of the program. But we changed our minds in 2009 after CMS, acting on physician complaints and feedback, not only made it easier for doctors to participate in the program but also enabled them to report quality measures through registries.

Another reason we participated in PQRI is that the Texas Medical Association offered a coupon covering nearly the entire cost of the fee we had to pay CMS to register our participating physicians.

It took a clerk only a month to collect the information from our electronic health record and clinicians, which she then forwarded to our registry. Her effort had no impact on clinician workflow but had a huge impact on our bottom line: CMS paid us $87,000 for the 2009 reporting year.

Collecting data for 2010 turned out to be even easier than in 2009 in part because CMS changed the definition of consecutively seen patients. Now, the reporting physician did not have to see 30 patients consecutively which allowed them to go back and gather the data. This plus the fact that we stand to receive another substantial bonus led us to participate in PQRI again. We urge our colleagues follow our example, as they still have plenty of time to meet the March 15, 2011 deadline for the 2010 reporting period.

Another reason to file for 2010 PQRI incentives is that the bonus will be at its highest level. CMS will reduce the 2 percent bonus to 1 percent in 2011. From 2012 through 2014, the bonus will drop to 0.5 percent. In 2015, the carrot changes to a stick: reimbursement for non-participating physicians will drop by 1.5 percent and by 2 percent in 2016. Why pass up the bonus when it’s so easy to participate now?

Additionally, we believe PRQI enables us to identify areas where we are strong and where we can improve, giving us a head-start on accountable care, bundled payment, pay-for-performance and other care models that CMS and other insurers are rolling out. It is my job to ensure my group is clinically, financially and administratively efficient. The bonus, information and electronic reporting help me achieve these goals.

John Nelson is practice administrator of Heart Center of North Texas, a nine-physician cardiology practice in Fort Worth, Texas.

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