Weekender 5/17/19

Weekly News Recap

• A large survey of clinicians finds that the #1 predictor of positive EHR experience is training, with EHR personalization also being a major contributor
• Cerner will connect its systems to state prescription drug monitoring databases via DrFirst
• AliveCor earns FDA clearance for its consumer device that offers a six-lead ECG and expanded arrhythmia detection
• Wolters Kluwer’s malware attack takes down its systems, some of them healthcare related
• Former National Coordinator David Brailer, MD, PhD urges support for HHS’s proposed interoperability rules, saying that the federal incentive program should have made sure that EHRs could share information and defined medical information as belonging to the patient

Best Reader Comments

Re: Anti-poaching clauses. I negotiate them into all of my major agreements, if they’re not already there. Typically the vendor has it one sided that you can’t hire their employees and I make it reciprocal. (Was a Community CIO)

Healthcare data is complex, and while advancing FHIR will help, the fact is healthcare organizations need to invest in an enterprise healthcare data strategy and platform to really leverage the power of data. The EHR is just not that platform. The challenges of healthcare data are too complex for EHR vendors and they do no one a service when then try to position themselves as having more capabilities than they do. (Wow)

There’s a lot of very professional sales people out there selling products designed to help your health system solve problems, to get better, to better care for patients, to improve processes, to drive more revenue. Your industry is being disrupted while you sit in your office not taking phone calls from dreaded vendors trying to help. (Mike Bull)

One person comments on how there is no indication that sharing of data has decreased the cost of care, or increased the quality. I encourage you to please visit ARHQ.gov or HBR.org and review the numerous articles showing positive outcomes. I also dare you to find a single study not published by an EHR vendor that demonstrates that the EHR has done anything to improve the quality or cost of care. (Dissent)

Here are some hard truths: clinical data isn’t shared because it doesn’t profit your doctor and the health system to do so. EHR vendors built their systems to suit their health system masters and use their size anti-competitively, just like health systems do. Existing patient portals are a joke. This rant is indicative of those in this industry that proudly proclaim “I’ve been in healthcare for 30 years” but don’t understand that they are clearly part of the problem and won’t take responsibility for the state it’s in. (Disruption Please)

Rethinking regulations to protect patients by enforcing rational HIPAA-protected interoperability, including both doctor-to-doctor exchange, but also patient to their chosen apps with full awareness, audit abilities, and responsibilities similar or under HIPAA for those app providers. Force apps to protect patient data in a reasonable and accountable manner similar to health providers. (Love Fishin Too)

Watercooler Talk Tidbits

Readers funded the DonorsChoose teacher grant request of Ms. K in Wisconsin, who asked for a “Jeopardy”-like game system for her elementary school class. She reports, “This gaming unit is very successful in my class and is especially good with the students that may not be good at paper assessments, whether it be ESL or special education students. This provides a different and motivating way to assess the students rather than a more traditional way. They are always asking to use this technology!”

The Baltimore paper reports that Johns Hopkins Hospital has filed 2,400 lawsuits against patients with unpaid bills since 2009, many of whom live in economically depressed East Baltimore where its multi-billion campus sits. The lawsuit totals made up less than 0.1% of the hospital’s annual revenue of $2.4 billion.

In England, University of Cambridge digitizes its 500 favorite examples from the trove of 80,000 handwritten medical records from the 1700s, with the notes of doctors including bizarre references to astrology, witchcraft, and treatment with horse dung. The records, translated into readable English, mention a man who got gonorrhea after “violating another’s wife,” a recommendation of bloodletting for a woman who “will not permit her husband to have the use of her body,” and a man bitten by a rabid dog who followed the prevailing wisdom of the time by eating the dog’s liver.

French police add 17 new cases to its investigation of an anesthesiologist who is accused of tampering with OR equipment so that surgery patients were overdosed on drugs, then rushing in to revive them to show off his skills. Investigators noted that in the 24 surgeries that are being reviewed, in which nine patients died, the anesthesiologist was “most often found close to the operating room.”

Dietitians in Oregon question why a bill failed that would have required hospitals and long-term care facilities to offer plant-based meals, speculating that the Oregon Dairy Farmers Association influenced the state’s dietitian group. Some hospital nutrition experts said the bill would have limited the choices of patients who don’t eat meat, but who are OK with dairy products.

A Nevada doctor whose Kentucky Derby exacta and trifecta bets both hit is elated to learn that the payoff is $600,000, but he receives only $35,000 because the Reno casino’s fine print notes that it isn’t a pari-mutuel location and thus caps player wins to avoid “taking on unlimited liability, which no one would want to do.” 

The Massachusetts medical board suspends the license of former Fox News contributor and celebrity psychiatrist Keith Ablow, MD, finding him to be an immediate threat to public health in alleging that he had sex with patients, stole their controlled substances, pointed a gun at employees, and fraudulently renewed his license.

A man smashes the front window of a Utah medical clinic and makes off with a gumball machine provided for its pediatric patients. Surveillance video shows that the machine’s size prevented the thief from closing his car’s rear door, so he drove off with it hanging open.

In Case You Missed It

• News 5/17/19
• EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 5/16/19
• Readers Write: Three Reasons to Look Beyond the SNF Five-Star Rating When Assessing Potential Hospital Partners
• HIStalk Interviews Ashish Shah, CEO, Prepared Health
• News 5/15/19
• Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 5/13/19
• Monday Morning Update 5/13/19

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