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July 6, 2010 News 11 Comments

sentillion

From GladToBeLongGone: “Re: Sentillion. You should check with your sources at Sentillion or now the marketing leadership of HSG of Microsoft in Andover about some recent changes in personnel with one of the key players leaving, which they are keeping hush hush.” I did check. Microsoft confirms that it will announce today that former Sentillion president Paul Roscoe has resigned as GM of worldwide sales. Steve Shihadeh will take over as GM of North American sales, reporting to Peter Neupert.

From Boboloo: “Re: Stryker Imaging Division. It’s being sold to Merge Healthcare.” Unverified. Stryker focuses on orthopedic PACS, including CR, HDDR, OrthoPad EMR, and NetPractice PM.

billfera

From Sabrina: “Re: Ernst & Young. They are trying to restart their healthcare consulting business. VP/MD Bill Fera of UPMC is moving there. Guess the Capgemini non-compete ran out.” Unverified. E&Y sold their consulting business to Cap in 2000, which then sold everything but life sciences consulting to Accenture in 2005.

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CCHIT responded to a reader’s question about its commissioners, trustees, employees, and consultants. Its Web site is current with regard to commissioners and trustees, it says. It does not publish the names of employees. Specifically, Linda Kloss of AHIMA is a trustee, while Steve Lieber of HIMSS is not. Update: I should have noted that while the site lists Linda Kloss as AHIMA CEO, she stepped down from that role last November.

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HERtalk by Inga

Access acquires the intellectual property and contracts of Formetta. Access is the developer of the Access Enterprise Forms Management suite and Formatta is a provider of on-line forms and workflow solutions.

my mdanderson

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center says that 28,000 patients have accessed their medical records on its year-old portal, with 40% of referring community physicians tracking the progress of their patients online.

Kansas City’s Swope Health Services selects eClinicalWorks EMR/PM for its 200-provider FQHC.

University HealthSystem Consortium partners with AcuStream to offer a co-branded version of AcuStream’s RevBuilder service to UHC members.

mid-coast

Last week I was on a field trip of sorts, hanging out in a hospital. The level of automation at this community hospital was pretty typical: clinicians still rely heavily on paper charts despite having a clinical system (CPSI) in place. Providers enter orders into the system (though not at the point of care), which are then available to the pharmacy, lab, etc. The hospital uses a Pyxis CUBIE system for medication administration with individual stations at each nursing pod. (I actually asked the nurses to give me a demo of the Pyxis system, but they looked at me like I was some sort of drug seeker.) I was reassured to learn that the hospital and community physicians were able to see one another’s record. All and all, their IT usage at this stage won’t qualify them for Meaningful Use money, but it seems to be serving their needs.

Here’s something I’m all for: software that simplifies medical terminology so that clinical information is better understood by the masses, suggesting plain-English replacements for jargon. That topic reminds me of the time a male doctor once suggested I had cellulitis. I almost slapped him.

Capital Health Systems (NJ) contracts with Aprima for EHR, PM, and RCM solutions. The health system manages 13 practices with 49 physicians.

A HealthPartners Research Foundation team wins a five-year, $3.7 million NIH research grant to develop and implement an EHR-based clinical decision support system to help reduce patients’ risk of heart attack or stroke.

mcmillian

HIMSS names CynergisTek CEO Mac McMillan as chair of its Privacy and Security Steering Committee.

A former VP from Beverly Hospital (MA) faces charges of commercial bribery and felony larceny. Paul Galzerano is accused of accepting kickbacks in the form of cash and services in exchange for awarding contractors lucrative hospital contracts. In addition, Galzerano allegedly placed valuable hospital-owned antiques in his own home. Prosecutors believe the schemes netted him almost $500,000.

The CDC awards the Association of Public Health Laboratories $2 million to provide technical assistance in advancing the electronic exchange of laboratory data. That’s chicken feed compared to the $800 million in loans and grants the government will spend to bring broadband to underserved Americans, including $17.7 million to the Iowa Health System.

Patient Safety Technologies (PST) closes on $6 million in private placement financing to be used to fund working capital and continued growth. The company also names a new president and CEO plus four new directors. PST has quite a complicated history, so if you care to read the tale of a suffering company, here’s a recap.

A class action lawsuit is filed in connection with a patient privacy scandal at University Medical Center (UMC) in Las Vegas. A former UMC employee was paid $8,000 to fax information on over 55 patients involved in traffic accidents. The lawsuit claims UMC “recklessly” distributed news releases that indicated when credit monitoring would end for affected patients, thus alerting would-be privacy thieves.

lower umpqua

The 24-bed Lower Umpqua Hospital (OR) agrees to spend $560,00 for an EMR, which includes $332,000 for software from Healthland.

Nebraska Orthopaedic Hospital makes plans to implement Wellsoft’s EDIS.

Dell’s strategy to increase its healthcare presence seems to be making an impact. Its service division, which includes the former Perot Systems, accounted for 13% of Dell’s first quarter revenue and helped sustain the company’s 17.6% margin. In addition, the services unit is fueling sales for hardware, including a recent $3.5 million order from Methodist Hospital (TX), which has a services agreement with Dell.

inga

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Currently there are "11 comments" on this Article:

  1. Mr. Histalk,
    You did not state who responded to your question regarding CCHIT staff, trustees and commissioners, but I can only guess it was Sue Reber, Marketing Manager, who makes more than $157K.

    Considering Linda Kloss, CEO of AHIMA (one of the three founding members of CCHIT) is listed–and she is no longer with AHIMA, much less the CEO–I do not hold anything that comes out of CCHIT as credible. Reber could have least attempted to do some real work and updated the CCHIT website. How embarrassing…

    Mark Leavitt is also listed as Co-Chair under the LTPAC Advisory Task Force.
    http://www.cchit.org/about/atf/ltpac

    And Leavitt is also listed as Co-Chair under the PHR Advisory Task Force.
    http://www.cchit.org/node/951

    Is Mark Leavitt holding those positions as a “paid consultant”, still on the HIMSS payroll, and still receiving his health insurance for him and his family through HIMSS? Do we have to wait for another Washington Post article that discloses all of that?

    CCHIT states: “It does not publish the names of employees”. That’s because the Revolving Door still exists between HIMSS and CCHIT. I know that for a fact: Pat Wise, Lisa Gallagher, Gaile Arnett, Cathy Ryan to name a few.

    A condition for CCHIT to receive future HHS grants MUST BE to disclose all staff (consultants included). Senator Grassley should demand it directly from HIMSS’ corporate lawyer, Racquel Orenick. She is the person who responded to Grassley’s first request to HIMSS, and the person who lied to govt agencies regarding the two HIPAA complaints filed against HIMSS.

    Grassley is aware of that too, as I was contacted by his staff for more information.

  2. Thanks for the update on Sentillion/Microsoft. Maybe Mr. Roscoe was ready to retire and certainly wish I could do the same at times:) On Steve Shihadeh I had the chance to interview him last year and he’s an Amalga integration expert for sure. Actually was a very nice interview and informative as to where they were going at the time, most of which is still applicable today. This was from 2/2009.

    http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/02/steve-shihadeh-vp-microsoft-health.html

  3. Spectrum Health Systems (Grand Rapids, MI) is in talks with Zeeland Hospital for a possible merger. With Spectrum’s impending merger with Munson Healthcare (TC, MI), Spectrum will control hospitals in Western Michigan from Zeeland north to Petosky. It seems Spectrum and Trinity Health are in competition to control medical care for the entire western side Of Michigan.

  4. I was reassured to learn that the hospital and community physicians were able to see one another’s record.

    Did you say this meaning that you felt reassured, or that they reassured you by telling you this? Just so you know, in a recent CMS survey a hospital was actually dinged for giving out too much access to community physicians.

  5. Has anyone heard anything from ONC or CMS on the release of the HITECH final rule? Is there any bottom-line pressure on those responsible? (ie, if they didn’t release until Aug. 1 or later, would anybody at HHS really pay a price?). Any insights would be appreciated.

    [From Mr. HIStalk] Everything has been turned over to OMB, which can take up to 90 days but probably won’t. See: http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=201004&RIN=0938-AP78

  6. Thanks for the q & a, Waiting and Mr. HIStalk. I too have wondered when we’re going to get that final rule out and rolling. Hopefully things pick up soon and we can all get the full picture on MU.

  7. The MyMDA patient portal has actually been live at MD Anderson since early 2003 after being co-developed with Tower Strategies (small Texas web consultancy in healthcare space). Patient focus groups were employed early on to define the real needs.

    Great example of patient engagement in their chronic care (Cancer in this case).

  8. The information I got from MD Anderson was useless. Pages of computer printout without clarity of the objective, asessment, plan, and recommendations for follow up.

    As for C$HIT, the commenters are correct. Certification heretofore has been a sham, and the C$HIT leaders have not been accountable…just like the Leapfrog “recommendations” for the CPOE panacea, now proven by that organization to be erroneous. The taxpayers have been defrauded and the patients have been subjected to dangerous care.







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