News 5/14/08

From IsItTrue: "Re: Hersher. It appears Betsy Hersher is selling off to Furst Group. A look at the Hersher website shows very few searches and virtually no staff." I e-mailed for confirmation, but got no reply. You are right – they have only four IT executive position listings and the home page says, "We are actively moving into career coaching and organizational coaching and consulting."

From Mick Ronson: "Re: QuadraMed. Look out for news from one of their biggest clients that will affect the future of QCPR."

From Doc Image: "Re: 1500s. To help Samantha Sang brainstorm ways to fax 1500s, I would suggest looking at fax server software. I work for a document imaging company, and while I have
never seen an organization go from EMR to fax server, I know many of our customers will configure a third party fax server as a printer, and then ‘print’ documents stored by our software to fax. I would assume that you could do the same with an EMR or billing system, but you know what they say about assumptions …"

From Deloitte’s Tush: "Re: CCS Summit. I saw a story about a panel on secondary use (or ‘reuse’) of healthcare information from this conference. Reading the agenda, it looks like a good one. I was wondering if the HISTalk community has any experience with / reviews of it?" Link. Sometime I’ve got to get out of my routine and actually attend conferences, although it’s tough to get time off from work. I only go to HIMSS, so I miss stuff (including some cool blogging opportunities).

From Alyssa: "Re: your marital status. It doesn’t bother me – let’s get together." Thanks for the thought and the pic (nice), but I’m pretty sure Mrs. HIStalk wouldn’t be up for it.

From Cesar Geronimo: "Re: Labcorp. They are likely to buy the outreach labs from Stanford and Carilion."

From Hannah: "Re: TeraMedica. I’m new to the site from Australia and looking for assistance. Anyone used Evercore?"

For those who left pithy comments on their LinkedIn contact requests, I just now realized that I could have replied (I should have read the manual). No slight intended. Anyway, here’s a fun one left just now: "I’ve begun to read HIStalk religiously (or at least a couple times a week) since I figured out that you guys knew things I didn’t know about the company I work for, weeks before I knew it. The wisdom of the crowds indeed. Me love you long time."

Misys shares continue to rise on more speculation that competitors (banking software, not healthcare, of course) will make a play for them. The company seems anxious to get its Allscripts merger done, but an acquisition or even the possibility of one could complicate it. If Misys were to be acquired, you would have to expect the healthcare division (merged or not) to go on the block since it’s not their core business (for Misys either, but that’s another story).

Listening: The Last Shadow Puppets, new, 60’s-sounding Brit pop, like Gerry and the Pacemakers with an orchestra. Cheery. Like it lots.

Philips keeps finding monitoring companies to buy, this time one in Brazil. Philips announces it will acquire Dixtal Biomedica e Tecnologia, which makes hospital monitoring equipment.

Healthcare IT Transition Group releases a report about implementation of the National Provider Identifier. Marty summarizes: "Things look bad, of course, as they always do for nationwide HIT implementation. But this time we’ve got worse news — adding more time to the project is probably the worst thing we could do (though it is the most predictable course of action by CMS)." He’s offering a BOSO – buy one and they’ll send one free to a trading partner of your choice.

Eclipsys opens an office in Pune, India, its second in that country.

Jobs: Revenue Cycle Consultant (FL), Eclipsys Clinical Consultants (national), Technical Healthcare Consultant (CO).

OSF Homecare (IL) buys McKesson Horizon Homecare.

HP will acquire Electronic Data Systems (started by Ross Perot in 1962) for $13.2 billion in cash, apparently fulfilling a desire to get into the data center and custom software development business as an IBM competitor. Bad news if you work for EDS since HP says it will lay off bunches of people to try to make the deal work, adding on to the 15,000 HP already ditched since HP’s CEO came on board to replace Carly Fiorina in 2005.

Unions and other groups rally against New Jersey’s proposed healthcare program cuts. Everybody’s concerned (mostly about their own self-interest) but nobody seems to want to pay in the form of personally lower wages or higher taxes. In other words, they’re in favor of somebody else picking up the tab, which describes healthcare in a nutshell.

A New Zealand hospital will be investigated after the head of anesthesia complains its new surgery system is unsafe.

A Microsoft guy says printers could be like mini-pharmacies, mixing custom drugs from their cartridges.

Unrelated: is there a razor blade cartel? A pack of razor blades costs more than an MP3 player, is now stored under lock and key in the grocery store, and the last ones I got were in one of those plastic clamshells that require scissors to crack into. Surely they cost a tiny fraction of their price to manufacture, so why doesn’t someone undercut? I’m thinking about finding an overseas supplier and selling them over the web.

A Libertarian group doesn’t think much of Hillary Clinton and EMRs, apparently: "Clinton plans to pay for the remaining $50 billion by eliminating waste and inefficiency. Her ideas include all the latest fads–electronic medical records systems (designed in Washington, DC of course), pay-for-performance (bureaucrats telling doctors how to practice medicine), and evidence-based medicine (more bureaucrats telling doctors how to practice medicine). Have ideas like these saved money anywhere before? Not that anyone can verify."

A Med Flight helicopter crash kills a surgeon, nurse, and pilot from the University of Wisconsin Hospital. The 37-year-old doctor leaves his ED physician wife and toddlers aged 3 and 5. Sad.

Emageon’s Q1 numbers: revenue down 30%, EPS -$0.21 vs. -$0.09. Imaging business is sucko, obviously.

Stuff you can do here: use the Google box to your right to search through HIStalk going back to 2003 (has it been that long?) Drop your name in either or both signup boxes for e-mail updates or the Brev+IT newsletter. You can send me new or rumors anonymously, of course. Make some sponsors happy and click the ads to your left to see what cool stuff they’re doing. And lastly, pat yourself on the back for reading HIStalk – Inga and I appreciate it a lot. We love you long time.

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Inga’s Update

When Mr. H indicated that he and I needed additional LinkedIn contacts for self-validation, what he really meant was he was tired of always having to come up with creative ways to praise me since I am so neurotic and insecure. So, he figured that if I had more contacts, I would feel more loved. Well, let me tell you, the love is now flowing! I’m not sure how many new contacts I’ve gotten in the last week, but it seems like perhaps 30. I am now connected to 70 people!! I was feeling pretty heady and perhaps even validated until I happened to notice that Mr. H now has 87 connections. Fortunately LinkedIn has this cool feature that lets you see what connections another person has that you don’t so, at least I now know who is snubbing me. (Big sigh … life as the undercard).

Sage Healthcare is a new reseller of the NCR MediKiosk product. The MediKiosk and Intergy EHR will be integrated later this year to allow patients to complete their own office visit check-ins and demographic updates, as well as electronically sign consent forms.

Tawam Hospital in UAE has successfully implemented multiple Cerner Millennium solutions, with more hospitals and clinics to follow over the next year.

The Wisconsin Pharmacy Quality Collaborative launches its Pharmacy Quality Collaborative and is using McKesson’s newly developed Medication Therapy Management (MTM) software to connect pharmacies, physicians, and payors.

CHIME names Sharon F. Canner as director of advocacy programs to lead CHIME’s government affairs activities. She comes from HIMSS, where she was director for corporate relations and the EHR Vendors Association. I noticed in a certain publication that she “declined to provide her age.” I personally wouldn’t have considered her age if I hadn’t read that, but now I am left wondering if she is really, really young or really, really old. Would a man ever decline to give his age?

The Chicago Tribune runs an interesting article that looks at the struggles of for-profit hospitals in the Chicago market in light of the recent announcement that MSMC Investors and Transition Healthcare are planning to purchase St. Francis Hospital.

CDW Healthcare announces it is collaborating with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical to provide more than 300 affiliated physician practices access to the hospital’s EHR/PM software.

Memorial Hermann Healthcare System is partnering with AirStrip Technologies to provide OBs with real-time waveform data from L&Ds onto PDAs and Smartphones. I am all for technology, but if I were in labor I am pretty sure I would just as soon have a nurse call the doctor to say, “Get over here now!”

Completed: the first data exchange between LSU Health Science Center and Delhi Hospital. Using Dairyland Healthcare technology, the exchange is a milestone in a state-wide Louisiana Rural Hospital Coalition project to provide EHR and telemedicine services to rural communities.

Dr. Deb Peel dropped us a note saying that 25 members of the Coalition for Patient Privacy are urging Congress not to pass e-Rx unless the data mining and sale of Americans’ prescriptions to insurers and employers is stopped. “Prescriptions should be used for the single purpose of obtaining medicines — nothing else without informed consent.” Dr. Peel indicates the current legislation is hidden into another “must-pass” bill. She’s supposed to be on Dan Rather’s show tonight.

Ardent Health Services selects Surgical Information Systems’ perioperative system for its 10 hospitals across New Mexico and Oklahoma.

IPA Monarch Healthcare in California chooses NextGen’s PM/EMR suite for its 2,200 independent physicians across Orange County.

The LA Times reports that 14 more UCLA Medical Center staffers have been implicated for snooping, including four physicians. I wonder if the physicians will get any more than a hand slap this time.

Finally, I was very distressed to read that, in addition to having to pay ever-increasing amounts to fill up my car, the price of shoes is anticipated to rise 10-15% over the next year. What’s next – chocolate?

E-mail Inga.