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August 13, 2013 News 11 Comments

Top News

8-13-2013 5-48-53 PM

Surescripts adds 19 state HIEs and health information service providers to its national health information network, including Cerner, ICA, and Quest Diagnostics.


HIStalk Announcements and Requests

inga Mr. H has taken a day or two off so I am flying solo tonight. He can never rest for long so be assured he’ll be back at the keyboard later this week.


Reader Comments

  8-13-2013 5-42-00 PM  8-13-2013 5-43-38 PM

From Elsie: “Re: Epic’s new campus. If I were a cow I think I’d want to live in Verona.”  Epic opens its Farm Campus, which includes a white farmhouse with a wraparound porch, a red barn with a silo, a creamery, and a John Deere tractor. The buildings, which have standard offices on the inside, will house up to 1,000 employees and include extra decorative touches that follow the farm motif. Verona city officials have estimated the value of the farm campus and Epic’s new 11,000-seat auditorium at about $400 million.


Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

8-13-2013 8-01-21 PM

Marlin Equity Partners acquires long-term care software vendor 6N Systems, which will be merged with Marlin’s portfolio company SigmaCare.

8-13-2013 8-03-30 PM

Emdeon reports Q2 adjusted earnings of $77.2 million, down 3.7 percent from a year ago. Revenues were up almost six percent to $311 million.

8-13-2013 8-04-40 PM

Endo Health Solutions subsidiary HealthTronics agrees to sell HealthTronics Laboratory Solutions, its anatomical pathology business, to Metamark Genetics as part of Endo’s announced plan to pursue strategic alternatives for HealthTronics.

Medical device maker Medtronic buys Cardiocom, a provider of telehealth and patient monitoring services, for $200 million.

CareFusion reports Q4 earnings: revenues down six percent, adjusted EPS $0.49 vs. $0.55 and in line with expectations. The company also announced a $750 million share repurchase program.


Sales

8-13-2013 8-07-46 PM

East Tennessee HIN selects DataMotion Direct as its secure messaging service.

Apria, a provider of home healthcare products and services, extends its contract with predictive analytics provider Connance.

8-13-2013 8-42-40 PM

Brazosport Regional Health System (TX) will implement MEDHOST’s EDIS.

8-13-2013 8-46-29 PM

Mercy Health System (ME) selects Allscripts RCM Services for back office processing and patient collections.

The Chain Drug Consortium renews its agreement with Emdeon to provide services through the Emdeon Clinical Exchange eRx Network.

The AHRQ awards ECRI Institute a contract to continue operating, maintaining, and enhancing the AHRQ National Guideline Clearinghouse and the National Quality Measure Clearinghouse.

PinnacleHealth System (PA) and Meridian Health System (NJ) select the SIS perioperative IT platform.


People

8-13-2013 8-48-24 PM   8-13-2013 8-49-12 PM

Impact Advisors promotes Matt Duncan and Kent Gray from principal advisors to VPs.

8-13-2013 8-50-21 PM

Conifer Health Solutions hires James C. Bohnsack (TransUnion Healthcare) as VP of acquisition strategy.

Healthcare analytics provider PTS Physicians names Penn Krause (Treatspace) CEO, replacing the retiring William Bennett.

8-13-2013 8-56-37 PM

WebMD names David Schlanger its permanent CEO following three months serving as interim CEO. The company also promoted Steven Zatz from VP of professional services to president.

8-13-2013 8-54-02 PM

US HealthCenter hires Paul A. Markham (V3 Healthcare Strategies) as chief strategy officer.


Announcements and Implementations

8-13-2013 8-58-44 PM

Cullman Regional Medical Center (AL) deploys the MedSnap ID Enterprise application, which can identify a patient’s pills from a single image and identify the name and strength of each drug. Mr. H mentioned the app several months ago and characterized it as “brilliant.”

Humana agrees to subsidize up to 85 percent of the purchase of Greenway’s PrimeSuite EHR for physicians practicing in the Humana network.

8-13-2013 9-00-03 PM

Appalachian Regional Healthcare System (NC) implements Allscripts Sunrise Clinical Manager.

8-13-2013 9-01-17 PM

Connections Counseling (WI) installs Forward Health Group’s PopulationManager for analytics.

The Kansas HIN will launch a statewide patient portal next month, which will be free to patients and based on the NoMoreClipboard PHR platform.

8-13-2013 9-02-25 PM

The Dallas Business Journal reports that Baylor Health Care System (TX) providers are electronically placing about 94,000 orders each weekday. Orders originate from multiple EHRs but integrate into Baylor’s existing EHR (Allscripts Sunrise, I believe.)

8-13-2013 2-06-52 PM

Novant Health (NC) begins implementation of its $1.1 million patient identification iris scanning system from M2SYS Technology.

Nuance Communications announces that in the last three month 100 hospitals and radiology practices, including 50 new customers, have converted to the latest PowerScribe 360 platform,

 


Government and Politics

The Obama administration reports that the VA backlog of disability claims is now 496,000, a 20 percent reduction since March.

8-13-2013 3-48-01 PM

The ONC selects 28 practicing providers and staff from 18 states to serve as the inaugural class of the Health IT Fellows program, which aims to “help other providers overcome challenges faster and more efficiently by sharing key lessons learned.’”


Innovation and Research

The Scripps Translational Science Institute launches Wired for Health, a clinical study to evaluate whether the integration of wireless technologies, online social networks, and medicine have a direct effect on healthcare spending. Half of the study’s 200 participants will use a mobile health device for six months to monitor blood pressure, heart rhythm, or blood glucose and will have the ability to track their conditions through a web portal or mobile device. Researchers will evaluate whether the device-wearing patients have more online interaction with their providers and more success managing their health conditions.

 


Technology

The FDA extends 510(k) clearance for Verizon’s Converged Health Management remote patient monitoring medical device.

LRS and Siemens Healthcare jointly develop a solution that reduces the number of Windows print servers and printer drivers that need to be defined and maintained within the Siemens Soarian platform.


Other

8-13-2013 9-06-37 PM

The Jackson Clinic (TN) reports positive results from the first year of its collaborative accountable care initiative, including better than market measures for annual eye exams and kidney disease screenings for diabetics, breast cancer screenings, and adolescent well-child visits, as well as lower total medical costs compared to the local market.

Sign of the times: The AMA announces it will shut down its print and online news magazine because of its inability to generate a profit over the last 10 years. AM News has a print circulation of about 230,000 but saw an $8.7 million decline in print display advertising last year. Pharma advertising has historically accounted for the bulk of the publication’s advertising revenue.

8-13-2013 9-07-24 PM

Only 38 percent of providers participating in an athenahealth/Epocrates survey claim they are at least somewhat confident in their practice’s ability to transition to the ICD-10 code set, while 79 percent express confidence in satisfying the requirements for Stage 2 MU.


Sponsor Updates

  • Frost & Sullivan awards Kareo its 2013 North American Physician Practice Management Customer Value Enhancement Award for demonstrating excellence in implementing strategies that create value for its customers.
  • Vitera Healthcare offers an August 28 Webinar to help physicians and their staff prepare for MU Stage 2.
  • NextGen Healthcare will utilize Clinical Architecture’s Symedical Server for its terminology integration architecture within the NextGen Hospital Solutions suite.
  • Allscripts Enterprise 11.4.1 and Professional 13.0 EHRs receive 2014 ONC HIT Certification from the Drummond Group.
  • API Healthcare looks at the healthcare system trend of eliminating differential pay in order to reduce costs.
  • Impact Advisors identifies three challenges in achieving MU Stage 2.
  • Billian’s HealthDATA ranks MedAssets the top healthcare group purchasing organization based on the number of affiliate beds.
  • Pro golfer Jason Dufner, who is sponsored by Greenway, wins the 2013 PGA Championship, his first major title since partnering with Greenway two years ago.
  • Alere Analytics releases its Electronic Laboratory Reporting solution for hospital reporting of results to state health departments and to improve care coordination between lab personnel and clinicians.
  • Ophthalmology EMR provider Medflow will give users access to LDM Group’s healthcare messaging programs for improved patient medication compliance.
  • iSirona posts a video featuring its client services team and how it supports hospitals’ medical device integration efforts.

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 "11 comments" on this Article:

  1. I think it’s very interesting that Siemens is partnering with LRS to seemingly reinvent enterprise output management technology that SMS developed about 40 years ago.

    The technology was mainframe-based, and is still used in some Siemens products. Some needs and solutions are persistent.

  2. For all the billions that Epic has removed from the health system, are we really better off? Is it comforting to know that our payroll deductions and tax dollars have funded Judy’s posh new digs? I find it to be a very sad commentary on the state of our industry.

  3. Seriously, questioning Epic’s spend on their new campus while hospitals continue to build ever bigger more grandiose edifices seems a bit ironic. Not that I am a big fan of Epic, just that I see a lot of such waste throughout this industry. And don’t even get me started on the grand edifices that Pharma has built for themselves…

    And as to that Scripps study, just what this industry needs, yet another research report on the efficacy of wireless remote patient monitoring. Who funds all these projects anyway? Sure hope it is not the taxpayer.

  4. Epic is building office space for their employees. This space is pleasant and accommodates the needs of a growing business. I guess they could have put up plainer structures and saved money. But is there not some return on investment in providing a pleasant work space?

  5. At its core, how do you improve the leading EMR in the business,(which everyone agrees has room for improvement? You need talent. When recruiting against the Google, Facebook, Twitter’s of the world for said talent, you need a pretty big differentiator when weighing living in Silicon Valley vs. Madison, WI. The Epic campus is that differentiator.

    Judy’s done plenty of ROI studies and even over the short-term (<4 years), those building' more than pay for themselves.

  6. re: Insidehr

    If you think the campus is going to persuade someone to pick Epic over Facebook, Google, or Twitter, you need to stop drinking the Kool-Aid. I defy you to find ONE employee that got an offer from any of those companies and chose to work at Epic. Let’s be clear: Epic is doing some great things with those 6-7th round draft picks but they need to stop pretending they’re continuously drafting blue chip prospects.

  7. @Ex-Epic:

    I found one – myself. I turned down Google for Epic. Didn’t apply for FB or Twitter because no amount of money would make me be willing to work for either of those companies.

    As to the buildings – the cost difference of building a “fun” building versus a “plain” building is fairly minimal. Heck, when you consider the usable life of the building, all of the building costs are small compared to the costs of the people who work in those buildings.

  8. “I defy you to find ONE employee that got an offer from any of those companies and chose to work at Epic”

    I personally know someone who had a job offer from Amazon and chose Epic instead. Considering that Amazon’s cloud services are some of the best in the world, that’s high praise for Epic.

  9. RE: Epic.

    I’d rather have the money be invested back in Epic’s buildings (and don’t forget their software!!) than lining the pockets of shareholders who could give a darn about the quality of the EHR!! Let me count the ways vendors go down the tubes once they become public!

  10. As someone who received an offer from Google that works at Epic – the campus was a differentiator but the salary for a Project Manager at Epic vs. Ad Operations at Google is also a factor. Why make less and have to pay SF housing prices.

    Epic still only focuses HR at recruitment and does nothing to try to retain employees, but I think for people like me who enjoy the work, the salary bumps are sufficient. That being said, on any given day, I’m guessing 50% of Epic’s implementation staff who have stayed for 2+ years are browning LinkedIn and Indeed.com looking for job.

  11. To EHR Geek…no one at Epic is “lining their pockets”? Sorry, but companies only have one responsibility—ROI for thier shareholders.







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