I'd never heard of Healwell before and took a look over their offerings. Has anyone used the products? Beyond the…
News 11/10/10
HERtalk by Inga
From Lars Ellison: “Re: ARRA push back dates and repeal. I agree with you 100%. Even with the shift of power in Washington, I do not think that Meaningful Use is going away. On another HIT front, we recently received ‘off the record’ confirmation from the Minnesota pharmacy board that the 2011 e-prescribing initiative would probably (leaning towards very likely) be pushed back to give dentists and doctors more time to comply with the initiative.” Lars is referring to Minnesota’s e-prescribing mandate requiring all providers and dispensers to “establish, maintain, and use” an electronic prescribing program by January 1, 2011.
Customer satisfaction with Siemens Soarian is climbing as customers report improvements in service and product quality, deeper clinical adoption by clinicians, and better interfacing with Siemens’ pharmacy system. Soarian still lags in CPOE adoption, though 23 hospitals are now on CPOE compared to three just two years ago. Soarian sales are still lagging due to lingering negative perceptions.
If this HIStalk thing doesn’t work out, being a social media manager for a hospital might be fun. Reportedly the demand for social media manager or interactive marketing specialists is on the rise as hospitals attempt to increase their social media presence and teach physicians and execs social media basics. The role is so new that it’s hard to pinpoint typical compensation, though one hospital recently offered job-seekers between $60,000-$80,000 a year. Eighty thousand AND you get to post to Facebook all day long.
The Cleveland Clinic plans to lay off nearly 200 employees from a variety of administrative and clinical jobs. The health system says the layoffs are the result of a challenging economy and restructuring.
CPSI announces the formation of its new IT Managed and Professional Services business unit. The division will offer managed IT and professional services for its existing hospital clients.
Emdeon reports net income of $3.73 million for the third quarter, compared to a loss of $7.21 million last year. Revenue was up 4.4% to $245.92 million compared to $235.46 million in 2009.
Several companies have sent notes asking if I’ll be attending RSNA later this month in Chicago. I’m not, though I think I’d like to go one day. I’m amazed that a conference for a single specialty could be so huge (60,000) and attract attendees from all over the world. The enormity of it intrigues me, though there is also the whole “Michigan Avenue shopping opportunity before Christmas” thing that sounds appealing as well.
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Speaking of huge conventions, HIMSS is just over three months away. I have secured my travel arrangements, which include a hotel half a mile away at $125/night. That’s definitely cheaper than what I paid in Atlanta and Chicago the last couple of years. Thus, I’ll have more spending money for the important things like fashion accessories. And speaking of fashion, Mr. H and I are scheming a few new things for this year’s annual HIStalk reception. Without leaking too many details, the gracious and fun folks from Medicomp are helping us with a red carpet entrance, which will allow all divas, wannabe-divas, and “I want to hang out with divas” to make an appropriate entrance. The “Inga Loves My Shoes” sashes will be once again be awarded to worthy candidates, so don’t leave your hot shoes at home. New this year: we will be encouraging cocktail attire and will award AMAZING prizes to the best dressed guests. We haven’t figured out what those amazing prizes will be, but are happy for any and all suggestions. The party sign-up will be sometime in January, but it is never too early for fashion planning.
CMS is conducting final testing of its system to handle registration, attestation, and payments for providers participating in the Meaningful Use program. Registration opens in early January.
According to the local paper, Banner Boswell and Del E. Webb medical centers have completed their conversion to Epic EMR. An RN with Boswell was quoted as saying the system seemed complicated at first, but was “easy to learn.”
Update: A US District Court judge dismisses a false claims suit filed by whistleblowers against Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush, several of its physicians, and Rush University Medical Center. The lawsuit, originally filed by a hospital executive and a fellow surgeon, stems from accusations that Rush physicians routinely overbooked their schedules and relied on residents to perform surgeries.
University of Utah Health Care installs TeleTracking’s TransferCenter software to speed patient transfers.
Saint Barnabas Health System (NJ) contracts with InSite One’s InDex Vendor Neutral Enterprise Archive to connect its six hospitals into a single, long-term data storage solution.
Sponsor Updates:
- Sage Healthcare announces the addition of six new practices running its PM and EHR applications. The healthcare facilities represent over 150 providers.
- CynergisTek CEO Mac McMillan will be the keynote speaker at next week’s Mississippi Hospital Association HITECH seminar on security.
- Mercy Memorial Hospital (MI) selects several Allscripts clinical products, including Sunrise Enterprise 5.5, EHR and PM for its employed and affiliated physicians, and Allscripts Care Management.
- Community Memorial Health System (CA) purchases PatientKeeper’s product suite, including CPOE, Physician Portal, Mobile Clinical Results, and eSignature
- RelayHealth launches its new Payer Connectivity Services 5010 and Beyond Program at the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange 2010 Fall conference this week.
- Frimly Park Hospital (UK) says that within months of going live with Picis solutions, it has improved utilization of its OR suites by 5%.
- Methodist Children’s Hospital (TX) claims its implementation of T SystemEV has allowed them to save $1.5 million in one year though improved documentation and increased efficiency.
- Children’s Hospital Boston plans to implement iMDsoft’s MetaVision Anesthesia Management System.
- Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare (MN) selects Carefx and Indigo Indentityware’s solution for secure identity management and context workflow. In addition, West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust picks Fusionfx to provide an aggregate view of patient information within a single portal.
University of Utah Health Care installs TeleTracking’s TransferCenter software to speed patient transfers.
Old news – they installed it at least 3 years ago
Re: RSNA, the reason for the volume of attendees and the scale is the huge ticket items purchased by radiologists. GE’s booth alone is about the size of a city block! Shopping on Mag Mile is, in fact the reason for the traditional post Thanksgiving Day timing (wouldn’t everyone want to fly to Ohare that weekend?) – RSNA is an outgrowth of the Midwest Radiolgist Society Meeting which had it the. To allow their wives the chance for holiday shopping in days of yore.
The Cleveland Clinic plans to lay off nearly 200 employees from a variety of administrative and clinical jobs. The health system says the layoffs are the result of a challenging economy and restructuring.
Are any of the 200 fat, or smokers?
If so perhaps they need to consult a labor attorney …
Sadly, the Mag Mile is no longer what it used to be. It is being over run by generic chain stores that you can find in any suburb mall.
I was working the Comdisco Healthcare Group booth at the 1999 RSNA in Chicago. Comdisco HC group at the time was a provider and restorer/recycler of expensive capital equipment such as CT MRI etc., and in effect competing with GE. At the show, GE had a huge booth proclaiming themselves the “Leader in Radiology Informatics.”
When I questioned the GE personnel there about what that meant, the best I was able to get was that informatics was about the “computers connected to their equipment.”
It’s a shame Comdisco went down the tubes not long after due to bad investments in dot-com and other issues, because I was going to suggest a campaign to exploit the apparent knowledge gap.
Re: RSNA
Most wild gathering of big-spending, over-imbibing Radiologists (and vendors) in the world… at least what I remember of it.
I find it interesting that the nurse in the picture at Webb Medical appears to be resting paper documentation on the computer cart in front of her. The newspaper article suggests they are 100% electronic. It makes me ponder if they are truly paperless.