News 10/16/13

Top News

Cerner shares hit a 52-week high Tuesday following announcement of a partnership with Wolters Kluwer Health to develop a physician documentation system using Provation Clinic Note content with Cerner Millennium. CERN shares are up 52 percent in the past year, with the company’s market cap now at $19 billion. 

Reader Comments

From Veteran: “Re: insurance marketplace. I take it all back. This really is a disaster. A New York Times article this weekend chronicled a whole series of issues going back months, not the least of which was HHS’s decision to project manage this themselves when they (and everyone else) knew they had neither the expertise nor the experience. Hope this doesn’t set health reform back years.” Veteran (and a few others) were critical of my comment that the opening day of the insurance marketplace was a “failure” because I was unable to access the system. According to the Times, insiders were aware of the system flaws long before the launch, but because of political concerns, continued with the original timeline. By one estimate the project is now about 70 percent of the way toward operating properly, but the time frame for completion could be anywhere from two weeks to a couple of months. Apparently I am just one of a few thousand people who have opted to wait a few weeks before making additional attempts to enroll.

From CA/DC Fellow: “Re: failed health insurance exchange site. Will US CTO Todd Park take the fall?” Healthcare.gov is a high-profile political embarrassment. In politics and government, someone has to be lynched publicly to appease the press. Todd was sent out to try unsuccessfully to talk around the situation, which I think puts him at risk. Sebelius would toss him overboard in a second to save her image. Nobody ever blames the contractors since it was someone’s job to manage them.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

Listening: Nada Surf, a nearly perfectly listenable alternative rock band that’s been around for 20 years. I’m playing them constantly.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

A report predicts that HIT funding will double over last year thanks to the implementation of the ACA and HITECH. Venture capitalists invested $737 million in 51 deals during the third quarter, compared to $623 million in 168 deals a year ago.

CareCloud CEO Albert Santalo tells the Boston Business Journal that his company may launch an IPO next year.

A business publication says transcription vendor MModal, saddled with heavy debt and slow sales, may need to seek restructuring if its current turnaround efforts fail.

Sales

Australia’s NSW Heath will implement iMDsoft’s MetaVision throughout the state’s adult, pediatric, and neonatal ICU beds.

Adventist Health System selects the Explorys suite of analytic and population health management solutions.

TeamHealth (TN) chooses Shareable Ink’s Anesthesia Cloud and ShareMU solutions for selected sites nationally.

Virginia Hospital Center Physician Group selects eClinicalWorks EHR for its 100 employed physicians.

People

Henry Schein appoints Steve Klis (CareFusion) president of global practice solutions.

CareCloud names R. Scott Lentz (Aprima Medical, Picis) CFO.

AtHoc names John Tempesco (Informatics Corporation of America) as senior director of healthcare operations and marketing.

Vocera Communications hires Paul Johnson (Intuit) as EVP of sales and services.

Announcements and Implementations

Heritage Valley Health System (PA) activates Allscripts Sunrise for its Beaver and Sewickley campuses.

Medfusion rebrands its recently reacquired Inuit Health patient portal technology back to its original name and adds Vern Davenport (formerly of MModal) and Buck Goldstein (UNC Chapel Hill) to its board.

For-profit surgical hospital operator Victory Healthcare (TX) implements Omnicell’s G4 Unity medication management system.

Optum and Dignity Health introduce Optum360, a new company that will address the back office functions of healthcare systems.

Unified emergency notification systems Vendor AtHoc announces the launch of its healthcare vertical with the launch of AtHoc Home Care Alerts, which offer home care service organizations with mobile duress and emergency alerting, field reporting, and personnel tracking.

Jordan Shlain, MD and Todd Johnson of automated patient follow-up solution vendor HealthLoop will present at the UHC Conference Innovation State on Friday.

Lewistown Hospital (PA) implements Summit Downtime Reporting System for business continuity.

Lucca Consulting Group and ICD-10 Coach announce a partnership to help small hospitals and practices implement ICD-10.  

Government and Politics

The VA names Health eTime the winner of its medical appointment scheduling competition and a $1.8 million prize. The open source app allows veterans to schedule visits across VA locations and gives VA providers the ability to share appointments with the personal digital calendars of veterans.

A Pittsburgh Tribune-Review investigation finds that the VA is one of the largest violators of health privacy laws. From 2010 to May 31, 2013, VA workers or contractors committed 14,215 privacy violations at 167 facilities that victimized at least 101,018 veterans and 551 VA employees. Violations included postings of anatomy on social media sites and identities stolen to create fraudulent credit cards.

Innovation and Research

CEOs of hospitals with high levels of advanced technologic capabilities earn an average of $135,862 more than hospitals with low levels of technology, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. Hospitals with high performance on patient satisfaction also compensated their CEOs more, but no association was found between CEO pay and processes of care, patient outcomes, or community benefit. Based on the findings, researchers suggest that hospital boards place more emphasis on quality when setting compensation.

Two graduate students in Israel develop a computerized system for diagnosing Parkinson’s disease consistently. The patient performs specific movements in front of a 3-D depth camera, whose data is the analyzed by computer to determine a diagnosis with 94 percent accuracy.

Other

Encore earns top scores in a KLAS report on go-live support vendors. Santa Rosa Consulting was recognized for having the most engagements overall, followed by Encore and ESD.

The Carolina eHealth Alliance (SC) reports that the four hospital systems participating in its electronic exchange network saved more than $1 million over a 12-month period by reducing unnecessary admissions and redundant procedures.

Clinithink posts an animated video depicting the role of clinical NLP in transforming healthcare.

An article in Medical Marketing & Media says that mobile devices are yesterday’s news for marketing drugs to physicians, concluding that “EHRs will become the dominant context for physicians” in promoting drugs at the time of e-prescribing. However, it warns that overly aggressive drug promotion could lead to regulation. A drug company spokesperson predicts  consolidation of the EHR industry, saying “a relative few will own the space and will own the access” for drug companies to promote their products as part of physician workflow. Drug companies are doing away with traditional field reps for product promotion.

The local newspaper writes up Novant Health (NC), which earned HIMSS Stage 7 EMRAM last week for its $600 million Epic implementation, which Novant says it finished three years ahead of schedule and under budget.

Sponsor Updates

• Caradigm will add predictive clinical analytics capabilities from MEDai to its Care Management platform.
• Sunquest announces a new partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tucson.
• Cynthia Davis, RN, FACHE of CIC Advisory will speak Thursday at the 2013 Annual Healthcare IT Symposium in Las Vegas sponsored by the Shriners Hospital for Children. Her topic will be “Paddling Upstream: From Data Collection to Better Patient Care.”
• Epic will allow direct use of the QlikView Business Directory platform within Hyperspace and will support content sharing between joint Epic and QlikView customers.
• NTT DATA’s Optimum Suite achieves 2014 Edition Complete EHR Inpatient certification.
• The SSI Group announces that both its clearinghouse services and RCM solutions are ICD-10 ready and that it is currently testing with provider and payer communities.
• An Imprivata survey finds that the adoption of server-hosted virtual desktops in the EMEA healthcare industry could increase 74 percent within 24 months.
• Trinity Health (MI) shares how it generated $3.1 million in profits and an eight to one ROI in five years using Medseek Predict for marketing campaigns.
• VitalWare partners with DCBA to create CDiDocuMint, a clinical documentation improvement tool that uses a query and tracking methodology.
• The Washington Business Journal recognizes Clinovations as the 10th fastest-growing company in the district.
• Utah Business Magazine honors Health Catalyst Chairman David Burton, MD for his lifetime achievement as a healthcare hero.
• Weill Cornell Medical College CIO Curtis L. Cole shares how he helped Intelligent Medical Objects develop its flagship product.
• UltraLinq Healthcare Solutions partners with Mobisante to integrate UltraLinq’s image management platform with MobiUS point-of-care imaging devices, enabling providers to deliver remote diagnosis and second opinions.
• LDM Group’s pharma messaging technology is featured in an article on engaging physicians through EHR messaging.

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk Practice, HIStalk Connect.