Weekender 11/20/20

Weekly News Recap

• Private equity firm Clearlake Capital will reportedly buy the software business of revenue cycle management company NThrive.
• Nuance sells its transcription services business and EScription technology to newly formed DeliverHealth Solutions, in which Nuance will hold a minority share.
• Time’s list of “The Best Inventions of 2020” includes the Vocera Smartbadge.
• Central Logic acquires Ensocare.
• Amazon launches an online pharmacy.
• ECRI announces that it will shut down its Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety collaborative on December 31 after seven years.
• UC San Diego Health reports the benefits of moving UC San Diego’s student health service to Epic.
• Researchers find that including a patient’s headshot in the EHR significantly reduced ED wrong-patient order entry errors.

Best Reader Comments

Cogito is more of an umbrella term for all of Epic reporting. It’s a brand more than a technology. Chronicles, which is a component of Cogito, is the piece most like OLTP because it uses the transaction processing database. Farther up the analytical stack, Cogito includes Radar, SlicerDicer, Clarity, Caboodle, Predictive Analytics, and even some AI support. All these items leave the TP database behind in order to do their thing! (Brian Too)

Part of the current benefit of the Uber style of telemedicine is that it is a nationally scaled model that outcompetes your local urgent care on price per quality visit. It is too big and remote for your local health system to crush with a location dependent monopoly. People say they want their local provider, but a telemedicine visit with their own provider is likely to cost MORE than an in person visit due to the technology overhead and the fact that the provider isn’t operating at the top of their license compared to an in-person visit, where they are prepped by an MA or possibly delegated to an NP. It’s interesting to think about the future that Kharraz proposes. In that future, I would probably prefer telemedicine until I met my deductible, then demand in-person visits. I’m not going to fiddle around with some “AI”-powered intake form and choppy video when the difference is $20 in co-pay rather than $300-plus without the deductible. The only cost reduction that could allow is having work-from-home be a perk for providers. That’s most likely going to come up in cash-strapped orgs or rural areas serviced by a provider that doesn’t want to reverse commute. (IANAL)

Watercooler Talk Tidbits

Readers funded the Donors Choose teacher grant request of Ms. A in Michigan, who asked for engineering centers for her Grade 3-5 learners that she teaches as an auxiliary science teacher who travels to different schools every day. She reported in April, “These kits are amazing!!!! The students were so engaged. They liked seeing the real-world component and then trying to engineer a structure to resemble that image. Some students just loved using their imagination and building whatever creation they could come up with. The team work was phenomenal, solving problems and working out disagreements on what to do next or how to build. They were sharing thoughts and materials. Each kit provided different building materials so if they struggled with one type of material or build, they could try another. The kids were always surprised when it was time to clean up because they were so involved and enjoying the chance to create. Thank you so much for providing these kits for my science classes. They were used in four different buildings for grades 1-5. They really hit the design and engineering standards for every grade. I can’t wait to use them again next year. THANK YOU!”

A Tennessee grandmother starts a 51-month prison sentence for impersonating a nurse, having been hired by eight nursing homes and home health agencies over six years by using nursing license numbers she found on the state’s online licensing system.

The president and CEO of Sanford Health, who is not a clinician, emails employees to say that he has recovered from COVID-19, believes that he is immune, and therefore has “no interest in using masks as a symbolic gesture” and won’t be wearing one.

Zoom eliminates its 40-minute meeting limit for subscribers to its free packages on November 26-27 to allow families to celebrate Thanksgiving safely online.

In Case You Missed It

• News 11/20/20
• EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 11/19/20
• HIStalk Interviews Kevin Coppins, CEO, Spirion
• Readers Write: Prioritize the Patient Experience to Turn Short-Term Telehealth Solutions into Long-Term Ones
• News 11/18/20
• Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 11/16/20
• Monday Morning Update 11/16/20
• Katie the Intern 11/13/20

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