I realize it's been quite a while since I taught - or was in school myself - but I'm distressed…
News 3/15/13
Top News
Wells Fargo Securities slices and dices CMS Meaningful Use data to arrive at the 2012 year-end table for EPs above. It finds that 65 percent of physicians have registered and 25 percent have attested.
Reader Comments
From TechTalk: “HIStalkapalooza. Are there video or stills of HIStalkapalooza expected?” In case you missed this last week in the midst of HIMSS craziness, here is the link to the video. We also have a few pictures on our HIStalk Facebook page. We appreciate Medicomp Systems for sponsoring the event, with the help of a production team from Patrice Geraghty (bzzz productions), Cindy Wright and Shannon Snodgrass (Thomas Wright Partners), and Anthony Istrico (Istrico Productions).
From Close but Not Inside: “Re: Voalte. What happened to Rob Campbell, CEO and founder? Erased from the site.” Voalte just announced that Trey Lauderdale has been moved to president and four new VPs have been hired: Phil Fibiger, engineering (Canonical, Ltd.); Bob Porterfield, product and alliance management (Capsule Tech); Frank Watts, sales and marketing (F. Watts & Associates); and Don Fletcher, chief architect (Google). No word on Rob.
From Carly: “Re: Howard University Hospital. Brought its first unit live on Soarian CPOE earlier this month. Rollout to general medicine coming later in the month. Physician participation has been strong and enthusiastic.”
From Natalee: “Re: Nordic Consulting. We have not been sold. We’ve enjoyed a recent surge in growth, and continue to be focused on helping our clients successfully install and support their Epic system. Perhaps your readers are referencing an investment partnership Nordic made last October.” Natalee is from Nordic Consulting and responded to a reader’s rumor report from right before HIMSS. Here’s a statement from CEO Mark Bakken about the October investment:
We’re thrilled to have partnered with three IT investment groups who share our vision and commitment to excellent customer service. One of the most exciting things we’re doing with the help of their resources is developing new strategic lines of business, branded Nordic’s SUMMIT Series of Epic Solutions. These new services, focused on Optimization, Upgrades, Remote Services, and Reporting/Analytics, provide strategy and execution expertise to clients enabling them to achieve peak performance from their Epic system and realize the business value and patient care benefits that are now within reach.
From Moe Betta: “Re: New Orleans airport delays caused by TSA cutbacks. BS. After over a dozen visits to New Orleans, they can’t do anything efficiently. Aside from the sometimes intriguing and tasty cuisine, the city operates in a third-world atmosphere. It was that way long before Katrina and will be forever. Sunday in and Thursday out has always been a HIMSS disaster at the airport. Yet, that is part of its ‘charm,’ a trip outside – but inside – the US.” Most interesting to me was that the long security line was divided into two lines, but once you got around the corner, they merged back into one line. Queuing theory experts and Disney fans would have been horrified. Seth Frank, VP of investor relations for Allscripts, agreed in an investor presentation: “Last week at HIMSS conference, the big healthcare IT annual powwow, which was in New Orleans, hopefully, never to go back there again — I love New Orleans, great town, just not for 35,000 people.”
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
This week’s HIStalk Practice highlights include: over 13,000 pharmacies now accept e-prescriptions for controlled substances. A survey of 2,600 primary care physicians reveals that 87 percent of doctors believe they receive too many EHR-based alerts. Emdeon begins working with CMS to map new HIPAA 6020 standards. HHS wants 50 percent of doctors online with EHRs by the end of the year. The average physician could lose over $43,000 over five years with EHR adoption. Culbert Healthcare Solutions’ Brad Boyd offers suggestions for the best ways for organizations to incorporate external data into their BI efforts. Dr. Gregg imagines the future of healthcare. It’s all good stuff so pop over and catch up on the latest ambulatory HIT news, check out a few of our sponsors’ offerings, and sign up for the e-mail updates. Thanks for reading.
On the Jobs Board: SCRUM Master, Healthcare Technology Project Manager, Practice Management/EMR Sales Executive, C-Level Healthcare Technology Sales Executive.
Sales
Integris Health (OK) will implement Phytel’s population health and care management tools at its physician practices.
South Jersey Healthcare (NJ) selects Surgical Information Systems Perioperative Management to work with its Soarian Clinicals.
People
Arcadia Solutions names Sean Carroll (Nuance) CEO.
Announcements and Implementations
The NHS invites Humetrix to present its iBlueButton platform at the NHS Innovations Expo 2013 in London.
iMDsoft releases MVpanorama for actionable cross-patient information and allocation of nursing resources.
Hawai’i Pacific Health goes live at its first of four locations with iSirona’s medical device integration solution.
NTT DATA is recognized by Canada’s Top 100 Employers program.
SuccessEHS goes live with a production connection to the South Carolina HIE (SCHIEx) as one of the first ambulatory EHR vendors to do so.
Cerner will add symptom-specific patient questionnaires from Primetime Medical Software to its patient portal.
St. Joseph Mercy Oakland (MI) implements the latest version of Voalte’s iPhone for clinical communication.
Other
Fired Allscripts executives Glen Tullman and Lee Shapiro say they will be starting a mobile healthcare company.
WellStar Health System (GA) leases 21,000 square feet of an off-campus data center to handle its Epic implementation.
Strange: authorities say a homeless man was able to live in a Louisville hospital because he always wore scrubs, a lab coat, and a surgical mask. He was caught after using a restricted computer system, which a helpful doctor helped him access by logging in under his own password.
Weird News Andy christens this story “Fickle Finger of Fake.” Five doctors in a hospital in Brazil are suspended for using fabricated silicone fingers to clock in their colleagues on fingerprint-reading time clock readers. One TV network says the ringleader was the head of the ED, whose daughter was paid for three years despite never actually showing up. Authorities say up to 300 paid employees may exist only in silicon finger form.
Sponsor Updates
- Alesco Medical becomes a channel distributor of e-MDs.
- Thousand Oaks Radiology Group (CA) chooses McKesson Revenue Management Solutions.
- KBQuest will showcase the Kony Solutions mobile platform at the Microsoft Tech Days conference in Hong Kong.
- The British National Formulary offers direct access to the DynaMed evidence-based clinical information resource to its subscribers.
- Commonwealth Orthopaedic Centers (KY) selects SRS EHR/PM for its 17 physicians, 10 physician extenders and 2 PT locations.
- Ping Identity is showcasing PingOne Single Sign-On at the Ultimate Connections Conference in Las Vegas this week.
- Cancer Treatment Centers of America expands its MedAssets relationship to include Capital and Construction solutions to drive construction costs down.
- GetWellNetwork CEO Michael O’Neil shared his personal experience as a cancer patient and how patient engagement improves outcomes and satisfaction at The Thirteenth Population Health and Care Coordination Colloquium in Philadelphia this week.
- Aycan, GE Healthcare, Siemens Healthcare, TeraRecon, and Vital Images participate in the European Society of Radiology’s Face-off.
- Ingenious Med releases a white paper on the breakdowns in communication during patient handoffs and offers best practices.
- Emdeon begins mapping HIPAA 6020 standards for CMS.
- Informatica adds support services to its MySupport portal including eService apps Call Me, simple online escalation and online bug tracking.
EPtalk by Dr. Jayne
The National Rural Health Resource Center offers an HIE tool kit that includes guide to Direct connectivity standards and an ROI calculator.
Through the retrospectoscope: CT scans on mummies from various parts of the world reveal evidence of heart disease. The presence of vascular disease was independent of the presumed diet consumed in the socioeconomic groups represented by the mummies. Several media outlets are using this to counter the theory that fatty diets and our modern lifestyle cause atherosclerosis. Bring on the curly fries!
Death by smart phone: researchers from West Virginia University are proposing that cell phones be rendered inoperable in moving cars. Drivers using cell phones cause more than 330,000 injuries per year including 2,600 deaths. Texting may account for more than 16,000 deaths between 2001 and 2007. I shudder every time I am cut off by a chatty driver who has no idea I’m in the lane. Of course blocking phone use in a moving car would also impact passengers. This may be responsible for a sharp uptick in teenagers forced to carry on a conversation with their parents which I definitely support.
A recent survey published in Health Affairs suggests that the majority of practices will lose money when adopting electronic health records. Major drivers of positive return on investment included the degree to which providers used the EHR to increase revenue and ceasing use of paper records. I continue to be amazed each time I step into a practice that professes to use EHR yet continues to either document on paper and scan, or document on paper and then key in the findings. Usually the providers are lamenting that they’re slower since they are on EHR and I wind up giving them a free informatics consult.
Speaking of EHR practices that still use paper, I had a patient appointment earlier this week at a rival academic medical center. Following the visit, I was given the opportunity to sign up for the patient portal. I was impressed by the ease of signing in using the combination of my Yahoo credentials and a token code given at the office. I was unimpressed that my chart has my name spelled wrong and a work phone number that I don’t recognize. Since my demographics were correct at the office, I sent a secure message to ask for a revision. The office again confirmed the accuracy of the outpatient chart and responded back that they had no idea who to contact or how to get it fixed. Since the Terms of Use included the vendor’s information, I know it’s a solid and highly regarded one. Just goes to show how a poor implementation can wreak havoc for patients.
Contacts
Mr. H, Inga, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg, Lt. Dan, Dr. Travis.
More news: HIStalk Practice, HIStalk Connect.
Mr. H,
In addition to the physician meaningful use stats which we see each quarter and where Epic comes out on top, could you also please post the hospital stats as in these with HCA included MEDITECH always comes out on top.
[From Mr H] Meditech was indeed a the top of the hospital list. I have a rule that I include only one graphic from someone else’s not-public material. The original document was intended only for Wells Fargo investors and I got it only because one of them forwarded it to me. I used the EP one instead of the hospital one because the trends of which vendors are losing momentum is much more pronounced.
Talking about Patient Portal…
Enrolled recently to Quest Lab mobile app “Gazelle” in order to receive my test results on my mobile. First – the enrollment process took forever. I guess a CIA debriefing is shorter and more pleasant….Questions about my previous addresses, cars, lovers, diet, etc…
Must be HIPAaaahhh related…they have to be sure, GOD forbid nobody will get hold of my results. Understandable.
But then, Gazelle really limps….Basically it doesn’t work: one submits query again and again and receives back “you have to wait 5 working days, and if you don’t get results by then, then contact the following email gazelle@jungle.herd”
After the mandatory 5 days of waiting – your query will get you “hey…it is in process” for a couple of days.
And now for the finale: “we cannot locate the lab results you have asked for”
?!?
Was it lost ? Who knows…
Called the doc office and they told me everything is fine…
Wasn’t GAZELLE supposed to be a fast, quick, EFFICIENT in its movement kind of animal ?
New Orleans is too cool for HIMSS. Not surprising HIMSS didn’t “get” New Orleans. That’s a town for enjoying life, not racing past it.
Regarding NOLA, I think the place is a dump, and HIMSS needs to find a better venue.
On the Nordic Consulting story, Private Equity is now a owner of the firm, so they will grow the place and in 3/5 years they will sell it to another SAIC type of company. So the question is, do all of the road warriors get a piece of the pie, or just the CEO, COO etc and the Private Equity. What is happening is that the PE and the owners who ‘partner’ with them make millions on the back of the staff aug people. Start to ask questions about how you benefit from the investment. I would suggest contacting some of the MaxIT people and Vitalize people and see how they made out. If your employer and Private Equity people say that we can now have great marketing collateral, and more polished service lines, then time to rethink your employer. Absolutely NO ONE takes Private Equity money with out a EXIT plan to cash out in 3 to 5 years. Ask ‘What’s your take?”
I went to the Superbowl in early Feb as well as HIMSS a month later and the Superbowl had twice as many attendees. I left both Mon post Superbowl and Thursday post HIMSS at 7 am thru same gate (coincidence), and the line post Superbowl was 10 or 20 times as long (almost no line at Delta at 7 am Thursday post HIMSS). The TSA didnt make us take shoes off and it was still way shorter than the security line at either Dubai or Atlanta airports that I’ve also had the “pleasure” of standing in this year.
New Orleans is fabulous and HIMSS & the Superbowl should be there every year–way better than soul-less Orlando or lost among the punters in Vegas. And so the power goes out and you cant drink the water now and again–man up and drink the hurricanes instead!! Inga made me do that at HISTalkPalooza (sorry to all the meeting attendees I missed the next morning!)
Regarding the Wells Fargo report:
Same issue keeps coming up with these attestation rates. 25% of eClinical users have attested; 35% of Practice Fusion???? Wells Fargo bases these numbers on user numbers that are FAR lower than what the companies say they have; an order of magnitude less in the case of PF.
Why doesn’t anyone call them on this? Either you have tons of users OR you have a decent rate of attestation… but they are lying when they say they have both.