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Monday Morning Update 9/23/13

September 21, 2013 News 9 Comments

9-21-2013 6-03-19 PM

From HIS Junkie: “Re: ONC. I find it absolutely depressing that the government has created a monster bureaucracy to test and certify healthcare software and spends over $70 million a year to do that,  yet these same people cannot release one piece of software that works right from the get-go. There is an article in the Wall Street Journal entitled ‘Pricing Glitch Afflicts Rollout of Online Health Exchanges.’ Another buggy system brought to you by Uncle Sam. If that was the only  glitch, I could look past it. But consider that over the last two years ONC has issued three software systems to support the vendor certification process and all have bombed more than once. They were – POP Health, Cypress, and the Transmission Transport Test tool. They eventually killed POP Health. All were needed to pass ONC certification. Each one created major delays and resubmits for vendors, not to mention the related wasted time and costs. Amazing that a federal agency that can’t get relatively simple software right the first time is telling vendors of mission critical complex software how to build theirs. I think we need to create another federal agency to certify ONC software before we let them move to Stage 3.”

9-21-2013 6-21-51 PM

From Vandy Watch: “Re: Vandy VPIMS lawsuit. I wonder if other facilities could be at risk? According to Acuitec’s website, ‘Acuitec’s flagship products are VPIMS, an integrated clinical solution for the perioperative continuum of care, and Vigilance, a customizable remote presence monitoring solution. Our strategic relationship with Vanderbilt Medical Center (VMC) enables us to ensure our products are thoroughly tested and clinically verified.’" I wouldn’t be too worried. The government hasn’t proven their rather broad claims against VUMC and even if they really did use VPIMS to intentionally overbill Medicare, that doesn’t mean anyone else would be forced to use VPIMS in the same way. It’s unlikely that fraud was baked into the product.

From The PACS Designer: “Re: Google Glass. The Yale football team got a chance to test Google Glass in a practice game and found the experience exciting from a quarterback perspective. The Internet link could present some interesting uses in healthcare for physicians seeking to inform others of their daily wants and needs.”

9-22-2013 5-49-14 AM

Poll respondents say the most valuable part of an electronic medical records system is clinical decision support. New poll to your right: when will vendor opportunities for population health and analytics really kick in?

Listening: new from The Sadies, Canadians who offer a compelling blend of American music styles like country, surf, and psychedelia. One of the members is Travis Good, no relation as far as I know to Travis Good, MD from HIStalk Connect.

9-21-2013 4-33-20 PM

Welcome to new HIStalk Gold Sponsor AirWatch, the leader in enterprise-grade mobility and security solutions. More than 8,000 customers across the world trust AirWatch to manage their most valuable assets: their mobile devices. The company’s highly scalable solution provides an integrated, real-time view of an entire fleet of corporate, employee-owned, and shared iPads, iPhones, Androids, Toughbooks, and more. With AirWatch, healthcare IT can automate the management and tracking of all mobile assets; reduce the cost and effort of device deployments; improve the technical support experience for device users; and enable and enforce IT security and compliance policies that secure the device and its data. Thanks to AirWatch for supporting HIStalk.

Here’s a YouTube video I found on AirWatch’s mobile device management.

9-21-2013 3-52-02 PM

The local paper covers the move from Healthland to Epic of Heart of 20-bed Heart of America Medical Center (ND).

9-21-2013 5-18-49 PM

I interviewed a patient about her use of the Good to Go recorded discharge instructions system from ExperiaHealth.

The HCI Group creates an integration and testing services division, naming Scott Hassler and Mark Jackson as VPs of integration services.  Both were previously with Information Technology Architects.

ABC for Health, a Madison, WI-based nonprofit healthcare advocacy law firm, receives a $1.2 million NIH grant to develop software that determines if a patient is eligible for government health programs.


Upcoming Webinars


9-21-2013 6-01-04 PM

Speaking of Webinars, I said when I started doing them that I wanted to showcase fresh ideas, giving a voice to folks who don’t usually do conference presentations. I’m really happy that several of those Webinars will be coming your way soon. I’m certain you will enjoy the topics and the presenters. Vendor-sponsored webinars make it possible to offer these non-commercial ones where everybody can use the Webinar platform I’m already paying for. If you have a great message that needs an audience, let me know.

9-21-2013 6-02-31 PM

FDA issues a rule requiring medical devices to bear manufacturer tracking codes. FDA will used the IDs to create a publicly searchable database. The likely next steps: (a) FDA, Joint Commission, Medicare, and insurance companies require logging the ID of each device implanted, and (b) vendors of systems used in the OR or elsewhere will be pressured to make recording and recalling this information easier.

Vince finishes up his HIS-tory of Cerner this week. Next up will be McKesson, which should be interesting.


Craig Richardville on the Future

Carolinas HealthCare SVP/CIO Craig Richardville followed up his September 13 interview on HIStalk with thoughts on the future.

As you look ahead over the next several years, one thing we can count on — it will be here and gone before you know it. The boost of HITECH has made technology more than an enabler as it has become a foundational element for all future endeavors. It is the common thread that not only provides the glue within service lines and organizations, but also connects the care, the care team ,and our patients across the continuum. 

The financing challenges of healthcare requires us to be more selective in our ideas, as only the best of the best will survive, and more innovative in how we deliver care and maintain the health of our consumer. As part of the Triple Aim, a main focus is on quality and high quality will become the norm to play in the game, and the other two elements — service and pricing — will become equally dominant as the industry continues its movement towards consumerism and choice. 

Healthcare will start to take on other characteristics of other consumer industries such as retail and banking. Online services will become the routine. Consumers will access a variety of comparative sources to make decisions, the same that we do today for other personal products and services, such as Consumer Reports, Angie’s List, Google Reviews, etc. Technology will be used to transform operations to be more efficient and provide access and engagement for the consumer, wherever and whenever it is required or requested. 

The care offered will continue to travel rapidly to the patient. Self-service tools will be a necessity. We will connect to patients via mobility, instant access, and migrate monitoring for fixed devices to smartphone apps and wearable devices. We will go to the patient, wherever they are and whenever they need us — the workplace, the home, across state boundaries, and while in motion. We will see competitive communities becoming connected and unifying for the benefit and health of the patient and of our populations.

Historically competitive organizations will start to share data and collaborate to ensure that we are reducing duplication and providing all information necessary to treat the patient. We will not compete on data, but rather on how we use the data. Predictors and analytics will be a core competency and those who get their first, will have a small advantage as others will get there as well, and then we will need to quickly move to the next prospect. 

Expectations will continue to rise and new innovations discovered and the ability to be agile and collaborative will create a competitive advantage. Look to the use of data, ensuring privacy and security, development of new evidence, analytics, genomics and be prepared for the next unknown and seize the opportunity not to compete on transactional data, but predicting and engaging. 

There is not a day that goes by that new opportunities to optimize and advance arise, times will be challenging, and also very opportunistic. The best of times are ahead for all of us, especially our patients.


Contacts

Mr. H, Inga, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg, Lt. Dan, Dr. Travis.

More news: HIStalk Practice, HIStalk Connect.

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Currently there are "9 comments" on this Article:

  1. Complaints about government rolling out software that “isn’t right from the get-go” or has bugs are simply naive. No software is without bugs. I believe most software has approximately 1 bug per 7 lines of code after many rounds of testing and fixing. Why? Because it is complex, because there are millions of combinations of events that can occur, and the software mu

  2. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the exchange software wasn’t created by the government, it was outsourced. Maybe what we really need is better contracting so that private industry stops delivering us crap. Happens all the time with contractors, at all levels of government.

    While it’s true bugs are to expected, they’re not expected to be so prominent in your main feature.

  3. Mr H,
    Do the DoD and VA have to comply with MU at any point, or are they summarily exempt because it’s not technically Medicare? Seems like the government should try their own dog food on this one.

  4. Re: HIS Junkie’s comment: The Federal Health Exchanges are run by The Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight and not ONC. Of course, both ONC and CCIIO sit under HHS. Also, the programming for the Health Exchange cost calculator was not done by CCIIO/Uncle Sam but (as the WSJ article states) by a private vendor called CGI Group. His tirade against Uncle Sam also fails to take into account the fact that the Federal Health Exchange were, in fact, not supposed to exist at all. The intention and the expectation of the ACA was that the states will run their own health exchanges. Several states, mainly the Republican ones, wanted to have nothing to do with running of the exchanges and as a result, Federal government had to step in. One can imagine that this would have led to shortened timelines for implementation of the software and as a result, there are glitches.

    Additionally, as the WSJ article continues:

    “Glitches in technology projects of this scale are “totally to be expected,” said Michael Krigsman, an information-technology consultant who advises companies on IT projects. “On the surface, you’d think this is pretty easy for a website to give you a price, but behind the scenes, the number of variables is very high,” he said.”

    No one would contend that the government’s roll out of the MU program and the ACA did not have room for vast improvements. But a blanket statement condemning everything the government does is not constructive.

  5. Hey…Joey & Raechel , all I am asking is that we have another fed agency check the work of the ONC and other agencies since getting relatively simple software done right seems to be a big hurdle (far less complex than an EHR). See I like fed agencies so much I want more!

  6. Re: Vince Ciotti’s ERP Quiz

    I just wanted to correct an error from Vince’s ERP quiz in this week’s HIStory. Healthland Centriq is listed as “EHR only” – i.e., not having an ERP. Centriq does in fact have not only an ERP suite, but full revenue cycle management – all written in the same language (.NET), on the same integrated database (Microsoft SQL), that runs on the same hardware, all developed to be one integrated system. It even has an integrated, self developed Time & Attendance application.







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