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HIStalk’s Guide to HIMSS18

February 25, 2018 Uncategorized Comments Off on HIStalk’s Guide to HIMSS18

Access

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Booth 1417

Contact Lindsey Keith, marketing operations director
lindsey.keith@accessefm.com
913.752.9938

Looking for a better way to do paperless? Stop by booth 1417 to see how Access integrated eForms eliminate the efficiency, security, and patient experience gaps in any EHR. Check us out for electronic signature capture on surgical and radiology informed consents, registration packets, back office documentation, and more. Grab one of our cuddly stuffed Green Paper Monsters for the little swag lovers back home!


Agfa Healthcare

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Booth 4043

Contact: Lenny Reznik, IT Business Unit VP, commercial product leader
lenny.reznik@agfa.com
864.421.1735

Join Agfa HealthCare at the HIMSS18 Lunch & Learn, "The Big Picture Made Tangible: Realizing the Value of Enterprise Imaging," Wednesday, March 7, from 1– 2 pm. Agfa HealthCare Enterprise Imaging completes your EHR strategy by providing a multidisciplinary platform to improve patient care and revenue capture. Agfa HealthCare Enterprise Imaging solutions are purpose-built to help health systems aggressively pursue quality improvement and mitigate risk. The modular services empower clinicians to make informed decisions through continuity of care and value-based collaboration. Capture, share, and normalize imaging data so it can be utilized for predictive analytics and quality patient care, making images a strategic asset of the entire organization. Talk to Agfa HealthCare to solve clinical, operational, and financial challenges with a proven integrated IT platform to ensure constant monitoring, hardened security, and simplified upgrading.


Aprima Medical Software

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Booth 3610

Contact: Mark Richards, SVP of sales and marketing
mrichards@aprima.com
410.465.9645

Stop by booth 3610 at HIMSS and find out why Aprima has been named the 2018 Best in KLAS in the Small Practice Ambulatory EMR/PM Category (1-10 physicians). Aprima serves physicians in primary care and more than 70 specialties with a fast, flexible design that adapts automatically to a physician’s workflow and sets the benchmark for ease-of-use, speed, and flexibility. You’re also invited to a Surescripts Panel Discussion, Aprima’s Happy Hour, and a Precision Medicine + Genomics round table. Join us at the Surescripts booth, 632, on Tuesday, March 6 at 11 am as Aprima COO Neil Simon participates in the Surescripts Prescription Price Transparency: Not Just a Pipe Dream panel discussion, which will address issues like the challenges prescribers face when making medication decisions for patients. Networking reception to follow. Please join Panasonic in helping us celebrate Aprima’s 2018 Best in KLAS EHR/PM win in the Small Practice Ambulatory EMR/PM Category (1-10 Physicians)! during a reception at our booth from 4-6pm on Tuesday, March 6.  On Wednesday, March 7 from 5-6 pm, Aprima will host a Precision Medicine Roundtable with Andrew Ury, MD of ActX, which focuses on actionable genomics – evidence-based genetic risks that you can do something about. Aprima is one of the few EHRs providing innovative EHR, PM, population health, and RCM solutions under one roof and with a 20-year track record of success. To set up an appointment, or to let us know you’ll be stopping by, please click here.


Arcadia

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Booth 4221

Contact: Alyssa Drew, director of strategic marketing
alyssa.drew@arcadiasolutions.com
781.202.3775

Once again, Arcadia and HIStalk are jointly giving away "conference survival kits," which include Band-Aids, pain relievers, breath mints, and other necessities for getting through a conference as large as HIMSS! Other highlights at booth 4221: Our Data Gallery will premiere our latest 2018 data visualizations. HIT thought leader and CIO John Halamka, MD will do a Q&A on digital health March 7 from 11– 12 pm. Cocktail receptions at 4:30 pm each afternoon; come meet our clients. Check out our full schedule of event,s including our client speakers.


AssesURhealth

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Booth 3286

Contact: Caitlyn Manning, marketing coordinator
CaitlynM@assessURhealth.com
202.449.9646, Ext. 501

AssessURhealth is an electronic screening tool used for identifying varying mental and behavioral health risks in depression, opioid risk, alcohol misuse, anxiety, somatic symptoms, and more. AUH provides mission-critical data to providers in order for them to create comprehensive cares plans and help save lives – all while generating ROI to multiple verticals and without bogging down their resources. Join us at HIMSS18 Tuesday, March 6 through Thursday, March 8 for a chance to learn how to increase your ROI through innovative patient screening technology. AUH’s hosted events will feature daily coffee talks with product demos and daily happy hours with industry leader speaking series.


Black Book Research

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To arrange a meeting during the show, call or text 727.463.7806.

Contact: Doug Brown, managing partner
doug.brown@blackbookmarketresearch.com
727.463.7806

Black Book will present at the Investment Banking & Venture Capital Breakfast Tuesday morning before the exhibit hall opens. Black Book awards will also be distributed Tuesday. Download our IOS or Android Survey Apps during HIMSS18 and complete a vendor evaluation to be in the running for 10 Amazon gift cards valued at $50.


Boston Software Systems

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To arrange a meeting on the show floor, contact Matt Hawkins.

Contact: Matt Hawkins, EVP of sales and marketing
Matt.Hawkins@bossoft.com
603.343.5296, Ext. 823

Boston Software Systems revolutionizes how healthcare works by providing error-free automation for any application, enabling successful EHR migration, streamlined business processes, and improved productivity. Our products are the most sophisticated automation platforms available, giving customers peace of mind that critical data is 100-percent error free. We have the best reputation for ease of use and customer support helping organizations bridge the gap between technologies.


Cantata Health

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Booth 1621

Contact: Lauren DiGiuseppe, marketing and events manager
communications@cantatahealth.com
631.430.9022

Join Cantata Health at HIMSS! If you’re tired of forcing big EHRs and billing systems to fit your organization, join us at booth 1621 and take a look at something just for you – billing and RCM products that get you paid more and faster, and a certified EHR that is cost-effective and easy to use. Looking for more reasons to visit Cantata? Enjoy our entertainment featuring the fascinating skills of mentalist Bob Garner and enter to win a Bose speaker in our daily drawing! Come by our booth for details. Sign up for a free RCM Health Check, learn more about our products by participating in free software demonstrations, and explore our other exciting activities!


CarePort Health

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To arrange a meeting at the show, contact Careport@careporthealth.com.

CarePort Health, an Allscripts company and part of the next-generation care management solution, improves post-acute outcomes by providing solutions to guide patients to high-quality providers upon discharge and to track patients – and results – in real-time across the continuum. The end-to-end platform bridges acute and post-acute EHRs, providing visibility into the care that patients receive across post-acute settings so that all providers can efficiently and effectively coordinate patient care. Founder and CEO Lissy Hu, MD will participate in a #healthITchicks panel at HIMSS focusing on how women can forge their own career paths on Tuesday, March 6 from 2-2:45 pm at the HIMSS Spot.


CareSync

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Booth 373

Contact: Alex Korpita, manager of strategic partners
alex.korpita@caresync.com
860.455.5351

CareSync, founded in 2011, is the leader in chronic care management, serving over 1,000 healthcare providers at more than 300 locations that span the United States. We’re successful because we partner with our clients, following their preferences and protocols to deliver exceptional care coordination services to their patients on their behalf. The CareSync platform includes industry-leading technology and clinical support, enhanced by our proven patient and caregiver engagement tools and workflows such as our Remote Enrollment Program, educational onboarding tools, personalized member cards, pharmacy discount cards, and more. Patients benefit from 24/7/365 phone and online access to CareSync Health Assistants who can answer healthcare questions, provide clinical support, and help eliminate barriers to patient care, such as finding transportation to appointments, identifying special programs like smoking cessation classes, or locating discounts for prescribed medications. The scope of care coordination services offered by CareSync is broad with a goal to not just meet Medicare’s requirements, but exceed them. And the combination of our technology, integrations, services, patient engagement tools, and partnerships, all wrapped in a HITRUST-, Drummond-certified, secure framework, position CareSync to remain the leader in care coordination services for the foreseeable future. To learn more, visit www.caresync.com.


Casenet

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To arrange a meeting at the show, contact Kelli Bravo.

Contact: Kelli Bravo, VP of product marketing
kbravo@casenetllc.com
978.375.9532

Casenet is a leading provider of population health solutions. Casenet gives healthcare organizations around the world a single, comprehensive experience with their members so they can effectively coordinate the delivery of care to individuals and populations at appropriate costs. Casenet aligns data and resources, so you can manage care with confidence. As a result, you can improve the delivery and quality of healthcare for everyone. Contact Kelli Bravo at HIMSS to learn more about how Casenet can help your organization.


CenTrak

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Booth 7221

Contact: Adam Peck, VP of marketing
apeck@centrak.com
215.860.2928, Ext. 225

Meet healthcare’s leading location services experts and schedule a live demo of the latest RTLS and environmental monitoring technologies.


The Chartis Group

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To arrange a meeting during the show, contact Gregg Mohrmann.

Contact: Gregg Mohrmann, director
chartis@chartis.com
877.667.4700

The Chartis Group provides comprehensive advisory services and analytics to the healthcare industry. With an unparalleled depth of expertise in strategic planning, performance excellence, informatics and technology, and health analytics, Chartis helps leading academic medical centers, integrated delivery networks, children’s hospitals and healthcare service organizations achieve transformative results. Chartis has offices in Boston, Chicago, New York, Minneapolis, and San Francisco. For more information, visit www.chartis.com. Chartis has been privileged to work with over two-thirds of the academic medical centers on the US News & World Report “Honor Roll of Best Hospitals,” seven of the 10 largest integrated healthcare systems, four of the five largest not-for-profit health systems, nine of the top 10 children’s hospitals,  emerging and leading ACOs, hundreds of community-based health systems, and leading organizations in healthcare services.


Clinical Architecture

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Booth 5754

Contact: John Wilkinson, EVP of strategic partnerships
john_wilkinson@clinicalarchitecture.com
317.313.0013

Founded in 2007 by a team of healthcare and software professionals, Clinical Architecture is the leading provider of innovative healthcare IT solutions focused on the quality and usability of clinical information. Our healthcare data quality solutions comprehensively address industry gaps in content logistics, master data management, reference data management, data aggregation, clinical decision support, and text analytics.


CloudWave

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Booth 1060

Contact: Christine Mellyn, director of marketing
cmellyn@gocloudwave.com
781.636.8169

CloudWave builds multi-cloud solutions for healthcare with on-premises private cloud infrastructure, managed cloud services in our OpSus Healthcare Cloud, and public cloud services like Office 365 and Microsoft Azure. CloudWave’s focused portfolio of OpSus Healthcare Cloud services include hosting, disaster recovery, systems management, security, backup, and archiving services. CloudWave architects healthcare IT solutions with the goal of helping hospitals achieve operational sustainability. Visit us in booth 1060 to enjoy a cup of coffee and learn more about how our OpSus Healthcare Cloud can help you achieve your IT goals.


ConnectiveRx

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Booth 1117

Contact: Kim Marich, senior director of product marketing
kim.marich@connectiverx.com
201.358.7136

Visit us at booth 1117 to learn about all the new additions to our Prescriber Inform and ScriptGuide @EHR product lines, including prescriber support in the e-prescribing and immunization modules, and patient information delivered in the prescriber’s office, via SMS/MMS and patient portal. Get an interactive tour of ConnectiveRx, our extensive network, and our new capabilities! Learn more at ConnectiveRx.com, and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.


CSI Healthcare IT

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To arrange a meeting at the show, contact Kate Mays.

Contact: Kate Mays, president
kmays@thecsicompanies.com
904.716.1209


Culbert Healthcare Solutions

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To arrange a meeting at the show with Rob Culbert, Brad Boyd, Jim Murray, Michael Cleary, Wayne Thompson or Joel Szymanski, contact himss2018@culberthealth.com.

Contact: Brad Boyd, president
bboyd@culberthealth.com
617.797.2076

Culbert provides healthcare providers and vendors with unique and integrated solutions in the areas of management consulting, clinical operations advisory, and IT advisory.


Datica

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Booth 5077

Contact: Marcia Noyes, director of communications
marcia@datica.com
303.877.4846 or 888.377.3184

Winners will be walking the exhibit floor in style and powered up for a full day of learning courtesy of Datica. Visit booth 5077 to enter hourly drawings for Yeti limited edition Rambler Lowballs! You can also sip a can of Nitro Cold Brew coffee while you have your HIPAA compliance and security platform discussion. Discover how the HITRUST CSF-certified Datica Platform manages all ongoing compliance and security burdens not covered by AWS and Microsoft Azure. Stop by and learn how you can deploy cloud-native applications and integrate with EHRs. Schedule your HIMSS18 appointment with the Datica team here.


Definitive Healthcare

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Booth 12042

Definitive Healthcare is the leading provider of data and intelligence on hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare providers. The product suite provides the most comprehensive and highest quality data, updated in real time. This data provides clients with the analytics and insight needed to effectively segment and research the healthcare market.


Diameter Health

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Interoperability Showcase 39

Contact: Tom Gaither, VP of marketing
tgaither@diameterhealth.com
781.249.9475

Diameter Health enables clinical insight through the normalization, cleansing, de-duplication, and enrichment of clinical data from across the care continuum. This creates a single, unified source of longitudinal structured patient information for improved care and actionable analytics. For more information, visit www.diameterhealth.com. Stop by kiosk 39 in the Interoperability Showcase to learn more about Diameter Health’s new solutions and pick up a mobile phone wallet.


Dimensional Insight

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Booth 6232

Contact: Natalie Cantave, marketing manager
ncantave@dimins.com
781.419.2146

At Dimensional Insight, we specialize in developing powerful business intelligence software solutions. Our mission is to make organizational business analytics accessible and usable, so everyone from analysts to line-of-business users can get the information they need to make informed, data-driven decisions with the Diver Platform. Dimensional Insight has been recognized as a five-time “Best-in-KLAS” Winner for Business Intelligence/Analytics. Why should you stop by our booth? Learn more about our product offerings and enter a raffle! We will also be giving out playing cards.


Direct Consulting Associates

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To arrange a meeting during the show, contact Ranae Rousse.

Contact: Ranae Rousse, VP of Sales
rrousse@dc-associates.com
919.741.9454

Direct Consulting Associates is the relationship-focused executive search and contract staffing firm that assists top-tier organizations with recruiting and acquiring high-impact HIT talent for mission-critical technology initiatives. We are constantly in contact with hiring managers, candidates, and opportunities across the healthcare IT space.


Docent Health

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To arrange a meeting during the show, contact Bailee Walker.

Contact: Bailee Walker, commercial development manager
bailee.walker@docenthealth.com

Docent Health’s mission is to help health systems build and retain lasting patient relationships. We combine best practices from other industries to help health systems deliver the vision of customer-centric care by combining cutting-edge consumer technology, retail-based strategic marketing, and hospitality-inspired service excellence with deep provider experience to increase customer lifetime value and grow market share. For more information or to schedule a demo, please visit our website: www.docenthealth.com


EClinicalWorks

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Booth 145

Contact: Laura Bujnowski, sales
ecwhimss@eclinicalworks.com
508.836.2700

Visit booth 145 to see how EClinicalWorks combines innovation and technology to produce products and services that are helping transform healthcare IT, from the smallest independent practices to large hospital systems. See our latest developments, including V11, the latest version of our cloud-based ambulatory EHR, featuring thousands of improvements; Eva, the EClinicalWorks virtual assistant, a first in the EHR industry; how free interoperability through CommonWell and Carequality is developing a truly connected office; and our acute care EHR, a complete cloud-based solution for the needs of hospitals and healthcare systems, creating unified medical records across care communities and offering the advantages of a fixed, per-bed pricing model. Providers now have the ability to receive patient baseline genomic data in the EHR, along with alerts and updates to help guide more effective clinical decisions. The EClinicalWorks Open Interoperability (EOI) development platform supports third-party, patient-facing apps through FHIR. Also stop by to see the latest in telemedicine, including enhancements to TeleVisits and our new Healow Virtual Room, which allows remote specialists to join in a traditional office visit. And payers won’t want to miss Healow Insights, an innovative, cloud-based solution with service offerings designed to automate the bidirectional exchange of actionable data between health plans and providers. Through on-demand medical record retrieval, EHR data aggregation, and point-of-care alerts, health plans may reduce overhead costs, improve compliance, and boost ratings on key quality measures.


Ellkay

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Booth 7823

Contact: Ajay Kapare, VP of marketing
ajay.kapare@ellkay.com
480.620.5848

As a nationwide leader in healthcare connectivity, Ellkay has been committed to enabling interoperability for more than a decade. With connectivity to over 45,000 practices across over 600 EHR/PM systems, Ellkay builds the data pipeline for hospitals, health systems, EHR/PM systems, laboratories, payers, HIEs, ACOs, and other healthcare organizations. Specializing in extracting and converting clinical data from virtually any source EHR system, we are the healthcare industry’s "Data Plumbers." Visit us at HIMSS booth 7823 to learn more about how Ellkay is making interoperability happen with three innovative new solutions. LKClinicalDataExchange is a powerful data exchange platform that empowers hospitals, clinics, laboratories, payers, population health companies, and other healthcare organizations with real-time patient information. LKeMPI maintains consistent and accurate patient demographic data across multiple systems, assigning a unique identifier that links patients’ disparate records at an organizational level. LKTransferMonitoring enables you to track and monitor every interface with the Advanced Monitoring Dashboard, which allows users to monitor each interface endpoint connection. To learn more, visit www.ELLKAY.com, call 201.791.0606, or email himss@ellkay.com.


Elsevier

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Booth 2843

Contact: Chris Capot, director
C.Capot@elsevier.com
212.633.3164

Elsevier, a global information analytics business, leads the way in advancing science, technology, and health. We empower healthcare professionals and patients by integrating world-class, evidence-based content into the EHR and clinical workflow at the point of care. With a strong 135-year history of delivering trusted clinical information to providers, our solutions are used by the top hospitals in the US and over 20 million healthcare professionals worldwide. We combine our unique content with technology to turn information into actionable knowledge to help healthcare professionals and patients make better decisions, leading to improved outcomes and more cost-effective care. Our solutions support reference and decision support, patient engagement, order sets and care plans, clinical pathways, learning and competency management, and professional practice services.


Emids + Encore

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Booth 8232

Contact: Sara Moggio, manager of conferences and events
sara.moggio@emids.com
615.484.3453

In 2017, Emids technologies acquired Encore Health Resources. Emids+Encore is a global provider of healthcare technology expertise and consulting services and solutions that serve both payer and provider organizations. Headquartered in Nashville, Emids helps bridge the critical gaps in accessible, affordable, high-quality healthcare by providing advisory consulting services, custom application development, and data solutions. Services include EHR application deployment and management, analytics, data integration and governance, software development and testing, and business intelligence. This year at HIMSS, we are showing our CoreSuite software product, which lets you calculate regulatory measures across EHRs. We also have a group of CXOs participating in a CXO Challenge to log the most steps during HIMSS. The winner receives a $5,000 donation to his/her charity of choice, and HIMSS receives a $5,000 donation to their scholarship fund in the winner’s name.


Engage

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To arrange a meeting at the show, contact Brian Malone.

Contact: Brian Malone, general manager
brian.malone@thinkengage.com
509.218.0598

Engage provides complete IT solutions for your hospital. As a Meditech collaborative solutions provider and Ready-Certified partner, Engage can help you achieve the best EHR possible, and provide you with the peace of mind and freedom you need to focus on the business of providing the best care for your patients. Visit us at www.thinkengage.com.


EviCore healthcare/Qpid Health

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Booth 2871

Contact: Amy Krane, marketing lead
akrane1@evicore.com
617.982.5425

We will feature two solutions in our booth that address operational costs and drive ROI from your EHR. Automated Prior Authorization eliminates the pain of prior authorization and cuts operating costs by 50 percent in one simple EHR-integrated solution. The solution streamlines workflows and eliminates manual and disconnected processes, speeding provision of pre-approvals for medical benefits. It leverages EviCore’s integrations with over 100 payers and advanced Qpid technology for analysis of clinical information to inform and automate the review process. The Chronic Care Management Optimizer makes it easy to track and bill for non face-to-face services that are eligible for reimbursement by CMS under the CCM program. Many organizations are leavings millions of dollars on the table, but with CCM Optimizer, you get reimbursed appropriately, and fund provision of more services for chronically ill patients.


Experian Health

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Booth 7329

Contact: Cindy Dullea, CMO
Cindy.Dullea@experianhealth.com
615.661.5657

Is your system prepared for a value-based and technology-driven patient care approach? Stop by booth 7329 and let Experian Health demonstrate how our solutions can prepare your facility for a more holistic approach to patient care. Schedule a time to talk with an Experian Health representative and you will be entered to win a $350 American Express Gift Card. Conference activities include coffee and conversation with Sharlene Seidman from Yale New Haven Health on March 6 from 9:45 – 11 am. Sharlene will answer questions about her presentation at HIMSS, and how Yale New Haven Health implemented a patient engagement strategy that went beyond patient self-service tools and focused on empowering staff to be efficient and consistent in their interactions with patients. Join us for a session entitled “How to Create A World-Class Financial Service Center” on March 7 from 4:40 pm – 6pm in Palazzo B (ID 91).


FDB

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Booth 2121

Contact: Scott Ashworth, VP of sales
sashworth@fdbhealth.com
800.633.3453

FDB is the leading provider of drug and medical device knowledge that helps healthcare professionals make precise decisions. With thousands of customers worldwide, FDB enables our information system developer partners to deliver valuable, useful, and differentiated solutions. We offer more than three decades of experience in transforming medical knowledge into actionable, targeted, and effective solutions that help improve patient safety, operational efficiency, and healthcare outcomes.

HIMSS activities:   

  1. Product Launch: Patient-specific/targeted medication warnings decision support. 
  2. Product Launch: Opioid risk management decision support. 
  3. Product Launch: Specialty pharmacy decision support. 
  4. Product Technology: Meducation (simplified medication instructions) implementation through Epic, Meditech, Cerner, Allscripts, and other HIS vendors. 
  5. Presentation: Customer Case Study Session (ID IH26) –Improving Medication Adherence at Dignity Health, Terri Wilson, director of EHR enterprise standards; Tiffany Shields Tettamanti, clinical architect, Dignity Health.
  6. Presentation: Customer Case Study Session (ID 298) – Zeroing in on the Patient to Reduce Alert Fatigue, Charlie Hart, pharmacy informatics, MercyHealth. 
  7. Presentation: Customer Case Study Session (ID 207) – Point-of-Care Display of Relative Cost Information, Gregory Hall, inpatient CMIO, New Hanover Regional Medical Center.
  8. Serving coffee in the booth!

Formativ Health

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To arrange a meeting at the show, contact Michael Lovett.

Contact: Michael Lovett, chief commercial officer
michael.lovett@formativhealth.com
844.818.1020, Ext. 1808

Formativ Health is a tech-enabled health services company dedicated to helping hospitals and health systems improve the patient experience. We will have a meeting room at HIMSS18. If you’d like to schedule a meeting, please reach out to Chief Commercial Officer Michael Lovett. In addition to our meeting room, we’ll be demoing the new Patient Engagement Center solution we’re releasing in conjunction with Salesforce. Those demos will be happening Tuesday at 5:30 pm and Wednesday at 1pm. Reach out to Michael Lovett for more information.


FormFast

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Booth 4825

Contact: Aaron Vaught, director of marketing
avaught@formfast.com
314.603.9674

We encourage you to “Rethink Forms” this year at HIMSS18 as we showcase our latest industry-leading electronic forms, workflow, and eSignature technology for healthcare at booth 4825. With the spotlight on our eConsent solution, play our Sign & Win game where you will see FormFast’s mobile eConsent solution in action while getting a chance to win a trip to Europe! Featuring our new mobile app, guided forms view, dynamic pre-fill, patient wristband scanning, and other new capabilities – we invite you to see how we’re reinventing healthcare forms for the modern era.


Fortified Health Security

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Booth 3632 / Cybersecurity Pavilion

Contact: Gala Wilson, sales and marketing manager
gwilson@fortifiedhealthsecurity.com
813.966.1920

Come visit Fortified Health Security at booth 3632 or in the Cybersecurity Pavilion (Veronese Ballroom) 8500-33. We are a cybersecurity firm exclusively focused on healthcare, and that means that we understand the value of your data, the regulatory pressures you face, and the need to make it all work within a budget. With Fortified, you have a dedicated force keeping you ahead of the threats and the regulations. We look forward to meeting you and finding out how we can assist you to increase your security posture. Our services include connected medical device and IoT security program, HIPAA risk analysis, virtual info security program, security information and event management, penetration testing, data loss prevention, business associate lifecycle management, HITRUST assessment, and security point solutions. Presentations include “Challenges in Securing Connected Medical Devices” (ID CS11) on Tuesday, March 6 at 3 pm in the Cybersecurity Pavilion Veronese Ballroom 8500; and “Avoid the Threat of Ransomware” (Fortified Health Security & CloudWave joint presentation)  on Tuesday, March 6 at 11:30 am, Wednesday, March 7 at 2 pm, and Thursday, March 8 at 11:30 am in CloudWave’s booth, 1060.


Forward Health Group

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Booth 127

Contact: Jason Niosi, director of marketing operations
jason.niosi@forwardhealthgroup.com
608.658.4968

Top-rated for clinician engagement in the KLAS 2017 Population Health Management report, Forward Health Group drives clinical, financial, and network performance in the shift to value. See us in booth 127. Go directly to booth 127 if any of these problems apply to you – how to use claims data to support CINs and better manage high risk populations, network performance strategies for high risk populations, why getting attribution right is critical for managing high risk populations, and management of high risk populations in Medicare Advantage. See you at HIMSS18!


GetWellNetwork

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To arrange a meeting at the show, contact Leah Bruch.

Contact: Leah Bruch, director of marketing strategy
lbruch@getwellnetwork.com
240.482.4313

GetWellNetwork is the Precision Engagement healthcare company. Our solutions engage patients and families, empower clinicians, and deliver outcomes that matter. From inpatient to outpatient, to physician practices and urgent care clinics, to patients on the go, GetWellNetwork offers the only cross-continuum platform that performs across every care setting.


Glytec

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Contact us to arrange a demonstration of our SaaS solution for inpatient and outpatient diabetes therapy management.

Contact: Christine Lippincott, executive clinical solution director
clippincott@glytecsystems.com
816.509.6326

Glucose control is a fundamental tenet of high-reliability care, yet variation is pervasive and systemization is sorely lacking. Not unlike blood pressure, temperature, and other vital signs, when a patient’s blood glucose levels are outside the normal range, safety risks escalate and incidence of complications and sentinel events increase dramatically. The bottom line – greater resource utilization, prolonged lengths of stay, and higher 30-day readmission rates. Glytec’s SaaS eGlycemic Management System coupled with our clinical change management services help you achieve best practices in glucose control across the entire continuum – all settings and transitions of care – creating the standardization, personalization, and workflow efficiencies that drive costs down and ensure your clinical teams are equipped to provide the very best care to your patients.


HBI Solutions

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Booth 14022

Contact Laura Kanov, SVP of product strategy
lkanov@hbisolutions.com
615.392.5201

HBI Solutions gives organizations the power to predict and the power to act. We deliver actionable information that helps healthcare organizations identify population, quality, and cost risks to improve patient health and lower costs. Come by and see how we are tackling some of healthcare’s biggest challenges, like suicide and opioid abuse, using place-based risk and social determinants of health with next-generation predictive analytics and risk management solutions. Eric Widen, co-founder and CEO, will present "Social Determinants of Health: The Impact on Patient Risk" in the Population Health Solutions Lab Theater on Wednesday, March 7 at 3:30 pm. Visit us in the InterSystems booth, 4444, on Tuesday, March 6 from 1-4 pm. Widen will present, "Predicting Suicide and Opioid Abuse Using Clinical & Social Determinant Data" at 1 pm. And on Thursday, March 8 from 10- 11 am, Laura Kanov, SVP of product strategy, along with Theo Siagain, director of HIE and interoperability at Providence St. Joseph Health, and Matt Simon, director of connected health at Himformatics, will present "Leveraging the Connected Health Record for Clinically Integrated Network (CIN) Performance Improvement."


The HCI Group

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Booth 854

Contact: James Kjellman, global marketing manager
james.kjellman@thehcigroup.com
904.337.6316

Click here to schedule a time to meet. We are committed to improving healthcare globally through a combination of disruptive innovation and cost reduction. Meet with us to discuss any of the following = IT managed services, integration and interoperability (demos available), cybersecurity and compliance (demos available), advisory services/EMRAM consulting, EHR implementation, EHR training and go-live, EHR extension/community connect, revenue cycle and optimization, sustaining support/service desk, population health, automation, and artificial intelligence.


HCTec

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To arrange a meeting at the show, contact Rob Barella.

Contact Rob Barella, VP of marketing
rborella@hctec.com
615.577.4030

HCTec is a leading provider of healthcare workforce solutions across the full range of clinical and business applications including ERP, technical services, and revenue cycle initiatives to some of the largest healthcare networks in the US. HCTec provides the highly qualified, on-demand human capital, strategy, and innovative tools that hospitals need to thrive in an evolving landscape geared to support better patient outcomes. Based in Brentwood, TN, HCTec is privately owned and operated by healthcare industry leaders and technology veterans. HCTec is hosting two exciting receptions at HIMSS18 on the evening of Tuesday, March 6. Email Rob Borella at rborella@hctec.com to register.  March 6 from 6-8 pm at Gilley’s Saloon Las Vegas, Treasure Island 3300 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109.  March 6 from 7-9 pm at Sushisamba Las Vegas, The Palazzo 3327 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109.


Health Catalyst

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Booth 1332

Contact: Patty Burke, program manager
patty.burke@healthcatalyst.com
801.708.6800

Come have a cup of coffee with us at booth 1332 and learn more about DOS, a new data-first analytics and application platform. Click here to schedule a personalized demo with one of our solution experts.


Healthcare Growth Partners

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Booth 10450  VHQ 161

Contact: Christopher McCord, managing director
chris@hgp.com
713.955.7935

Healthcare Growth Partners is an exceptionally experienced investment bank and strategic advisor exclusively focused on the transformational health IT market. We unlock value for our clients through our Sell-Side Advisory, Buy-Side Advisory, Capital Advisory, and Pre-Transaction Growth Strategy services, functioning as the exclusive investment banking advisor to over 100 health IT transactions representing over $2 billion in value since 2007.


HealthCast

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Booth 10128

Contact: Mike O’Marra, national sales director
momarra@gohealthcast.com
510.338.0689

Ranked #1 Single Sign-On by KLAS Research for both 2017 and 2018, HealthCast’s Identity and Access Management solutions are designed to increase clinician productivity, strengthen security, and help organizations meet HIPAA regulations. Our solutions include award-winning SSO, fast proximity badge access to VDI, Secure Patient Identification, DEA-compliant EPCS, and SSO Auditing. To schedule a meeting or request a demo, please contact Mike O’Marra at momarra@gohealthcast.com or visit us at booth 10128. HealthCast will give away 500 free licenses for its award-winning single sign-on, eXactACCESS, to one lucky company during HIMSS18. Register at booth 10128, downstairs, for your chance to win.


Healthfinch

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Booth 12629

Contact: Dawn Burke, marketing manager
dawn@healthfinch.com
608.561.1844, Ext. 17

Healthfinch’s practice automation platform, Charlie, leverages EHR data to automate, delegate, and simplify routine, repeatable tasks like prescription refill requests and visit planning. Used by major health systems across the country, it improves workflows and enables providers to work top-of-license by reducing their inbox volume. Learn more at healthfinch.com. Join us for a Healthfinch happy hour at our booth, 12629, on Wednesday, March 7 from 4-6 pm. Meet the team, enjoy some refreshments, and take home a plush Charlie! Listen to Healthfinch CEO Jonathan Baran give a fireside chat about Healthfinch being an Innovation Award recipient at the Athenahealth booth on March 7 at 3 pm. Email sales@healthfinch.com to set up a dedicated time to meet our team and view a demo while at HIMSS.


Healthgrades

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Booth 11111

Contact: Steve Leibforth, VP, solution consulting
sleibforth@healthgrades.com
630.229.2843

Healthgrades is the leading digital healthcare brand connecting consumers, physicians, and hospitals to make the right data-driven care decisions. We provide health marketing and technology solutions that enable customer acquisition, patient engagement, and lifetime value. Learn more about our solutions at www.healthgrades.com/hospitals.


HealthLoop

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Booth 10607

Contact: Phoebe Byers, associate director of marketing
pbyers@healthloop.com
408.418.0280

HealthLoop’s software solution enables care teams to engage all patients before and after admission through automated daily check-ins. By sending the right information at the right time, HealthLoop identifies those patients that need help in real-time, allowing care teams to reach more patients and proactively intervene before costs and complications escalate. HealthLoop facilitates over 70,000 non-face-to-face visits every month. To learn more, please visit www.healthloop.com.


Healthwise

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Booth 4228

Contact: Michael Lauber, business development director
mlauber@healthwise.org
208.331.6940

Since 1975, our singular mission has been to help people make better health decisions. The Healthwise mission, combined with our innovative spirit, leads to patient education, technology, and services that power patient relationships. From point of care to coordinating patients beyond the clinical setting, Healthwise easily embeds within existing workflows to deliver enterprise-wide solutions. Patients access relevant education wherever they are, on any device.


Iatric Systems

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Booth 7505

Contact: Judy Volker, marketing director
judy.volker@iatric.com
978.805.3191

Booth 7505 is going to be entertaining as well as educational, with Chef Anton — the two-time National Pool Trick-Shot Champion and star on Penn & Teller’s "Fool Us" — lining up one amazing shot after another, and giving out Visa gift cards after each show. Make sure to attend our Lightning Session, "Interoperability within the EHR Workflow," Wednesday, March 7 at 10 am in Hall G.


Imprivata

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Booth 2854

Contact: Ron Piccioli, VP of inside sales
rpiccioli@imprivata.com
781.761.1916

Imprivata, the healthcare IT security company, provides healthcare organizations globally with a security and identity platform that delivers authentication management, fast access to patient information, secure communications, and positive patient identification. Imprivata enables care providers to securely and efficiently access, communicate, and transact patient health information to address critical compliance and security challenges while improving productivity and the patient experience. Meet with Imprivata at HIMSS and learn more about positive patient identification, governance, risk-management and compliance,  single sign-on and virtual desktop access, secure communications, multifactor authentication for EPCS and other clinical workflows, and medical device authentication management. Book your meeting before the end of February and you’ll be eligible to win luxury accommodations during your HIMSS stay. Don’t wait – book your meeting now!


InstaMed

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Booth 5062

Contact: Meg McDonald, marketing manager
events@instamed.com
215.360.0823

InstaMed is healthcare’s most trusted payments network, connecting providers, payers, and consumers on one platform. HIMSS conferences can get a little crazy. They don’t call it HIMSSanity for nothing! Take a break from it all with InstaMed. On Wednesday, March 7 at 4 pm, don’t forget to catch Anthem’s Dave Krause present "Create a Frictionless Healthcare Payments Experience." In the session, Dave will discuss how Anthem is working with InstaMed to make healthcare payments better for everyone. Stop by booth 5062 all week to speak with our industry experts about opportunities to improve your healthcare payments experience. Plus, we’ll have treats from our hometown of Philadelphia, including warm, soft pretzels and Tastykakes!


Intelligent Medical Objects

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Booth 1821

Contact: Dennis Carson, director of marketing and tradeshows
dcarson@e-imo.com
847.728.4997

IMO is the developer of the most widely-accepted medical terminology solution for the management of medical vocabularies and software applications at healthcare organizations worldwide. IMO terminology is used by more than 3,800 hospitals and 500,000 physicians daily, and this trusted terminology platform supports innovations by provider systems. IMO medical vocabulary and mapping products effectively capture clinical intent and help EHRs preserve and communicate this across the entire spectrum of care. IMO clinical terms are mapped to all standard coding systems including ICD-9, ICD-10, and SNOMED. The accuracy of IMO’s interface terminology was found to be “nearly perfect” in an independent study published by the CDC. Visit us at HIMSS18 to see how our new IMO 2.0 platform provides terminology solutions for a wide range of enterprise needs, leading to better healthcare delivery. Our terminology services are the foundational platform for analytics, clinical documentation and problem list management, clinical decisions support, RCM, machine learning and AI, patient care management, and population health management. Stop by booth 1821 on Tuesday and Wednesday after 4 pm to enjoy a glass of wine and receive a cool wine tumbler, while they last. Listen to our Lightning Round Sessions on Tuesday at 3 pm and Wednesday at 3:30pm in Hall G, booth 9947 and receive an insulated metal water bottle, while supplies last. Take a short survey in the booth to get an IMO performance T-shirt, while they last. Learn more at www.e-imo.com.


Ivenix

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Interoperability Showcase

Contact: Julie Kuhlken, director of marketing
jkuhlken@ivenix.com
978.775.8050

Ivenix is a medical technology company with a vision to eliminate infusion-related patient harm. Ivenix designed an infusion system from the ground up to streamline medication delivery and bring legacy technology into the digital age. The Ivenix Infusion System includes a large volume infusion pump supported by a robust infusion management system designed to set new standards in usability, medication precision, and interoperability. The Ivenix Infusion System is currently under 510(k) review by the FDA. See Ivenix’s system at the Interoperability Showcase as part of the Transplant Care Use Case, and in the Discovery Center for a hands-on demonstration Wednesday, March 7, from 10:30 am – 1:30 pm.


Kyruus

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Booth 12128

Contact: Lindsey Cohen, senior event marketing manager
events@kyruus.com
617.419.2060

Kyruus delivers proven provider search and scheduling solutions that help hospitals and health systems match patients with the providers best suited to care for them. The ProviderMatch suite of solutions — for consumers, access centers, and referral networks — enables a consistent patient experience across multiple points of access, while aligning provider supply with patient demand. The company’s proprietary provider data management platform forms the foundation of its solutions, powering them with accurate data by coupling data processing with administrative applications. To find out why a Better Match Means Better Care, please visit www.kyruus.com or come see us in booth 12128 at HIMSS! We’ll be demoing our solutions in the booth and handing out our custom Kyruus socks!


Legacy Data Access

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Booth 4265

Contact: John Hanggi, director of business development
jhanggi@legacydataaccess.com
678.701.5589

Running old applications just to get to the data? Stop – we need to talk! For organizations retiring or replacing healthcare systems, Legacy Data Access offers the industry’s most comprehensive set of software tools and solutions for working with data from retired systems. Our LegacySuite products provide comprehensive functionality for the storage, access, management, and reporting of the retired healthcare data. No time-consuming, labor intensive, and risk-filled data conversions are required. The data is seamlessly accessible in its original format, with no loss of detail or integrity. Please visit us to discuss how we have successfully retired 249 different healthcare applications – a total of 621 applications. Giveaways include key chains, tote bags, and the best dark chocolate in the exhibit hall. Drop a card for a chance to win a Fitbit Ionic or one of two Amazon Echoes.


Liaison Technologies

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Booth 2270

Contact: Janet Russell, healthcare solutions
jrussell@liaison.com
770.442.4039

Visit Liaison Technologies at booth 2270 to learn about achieving true interoperability, collaboration, and insights. Liaison’s Alloy platform for healthcare provides intelligent integration, simplified data management, and continuous compliance enabling health systems to break down data silos and exchange data when and where needed. Pick up our “7 Steps for the Interoperability Journey” data sheet, join us for a cookie break, grab our 2018 badge ribbons (always fun), and enter to win Apple AirPods.


LifeImage

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Booth 2465

Contact: Emily Citrone, senior marketing manager
ecitrone@lifeimage.com
781.864.9537

LifeImage is putting the spotlight on interoperability at HIMSS18. We are hosting a series of in-booth sessions on how we are helping the industry mature and move beyond access to data to the real stuff that matters – better care coordination, patient engagement, better (and faster) informed decision-making, and accelerating innovation. Learn more and register for sessions here. We’ll also host a drawing for a Google Home.


Lightbeam Health Solutions

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Booth 11447

Contact: Eric Rosenberger, director of marketing
erosenberger@lightbeamhealth.com
972.831.7270

Lightbeam Health Solutions delivers a revolutionary model for managing patient populations and associated risk. Lightbeam’s vision is to bring health data into the light through the use of analytics and to provide the insight and capabilities healthcare clients need to ensure patients receive the right care at the right time. Lightbeam’s platform facilitates end-to-end population health management for ACOs, payers, provider groups, health systems, and other healthcare organizations aspiring to provide superior care at a lower cost. Our solutions help you move the needle on admissions, readmissions, number of preventative visits, care gaps, cost of drug utilization, and total cost of care to name a few areas. Case studies can be found here. We have helped MSSP ACO clients generate more than $300 million in savings while achieving an average quality score of 99 percent in the most recent year.


LogicStream Health

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Booth 1473

Contact: Nicole Nash, marketing manager
nicole@logic-stream.net
651.269.2454

LogicStream Health software is trusted by high-performing healthcare systems across the United States. Our clinical process improvement and control software platform is the first and only technology capable of helping clinicians gain highly actionable, instant insights into improving vital clinical processes, and automating and achieving better control over the care they deliver to patients. Visit us at HIMSS18, booth 1473, to learn how our customers have improved outcomes and increased clinician satisfaction by eliminating 12M annual alert firings, reducing C. diff rates by 50 percent, saving $4M on high-cost medications per year, and increasing VTE protocol compliance by 95 percent. Our software is rapidly implemented and easily adopted by clinicians, informaticists, and executives striving to improve, automate, and better control vital clinical processes. Our mission is clear – helping clinicians improve and better control the care they deliver to every patient, every day. HIMSS18 attendees who come see a demonstration will be entered in a drawing for an iPhone X. We’ll have on display our clinical process modules targeting some of healthcare’s highest priorities, including sepsis, VTE, CAUTI, medication utilization, and C. diff. Contact Nicole Nash (nicole@logic-stream.net) to schedule your demo today!


Loopback Analytics

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To arrange a meeting at the show, contact CEO Neil Smiley (nsmiley@loopbackanalytics.com).

Contact: John McGhee, VP of sales
jmchgee@loopbackanalytics.com
972.998.0071

Loopback Analytics provides a cloud-based platform that enables health systems to proactively identify at-risk populations, match patients to appropriate services, and evaluate the impact of interventions on outcomes. The platform allows provider organizations to selectively and securely share data with network partners across care settings to coordinate care beyond the walls of their owned facilities, while protecting data that should not be shared. Real-time data analytics monitor patients as they move across the care continuum, and predictive analytics flag patients of rising risk for early intervention. Data collected from patient engagement loops back into machine learning models to provide timely visibility into what is working and what is not, to enable continuous improvement. Areas of significant focus include specialty pharmacy, behavioral health, and bundled payments.


Loyale Healthcare

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Booth 13131

Contact: Shirley Straka, EVP of sales and account management
ShirleyStraka@loyale.us
608.770.9504

Better revenues, lower costs, higher patient satisfaction, and first-year ROI – that’s what Loyale Healthcare’s Patient Financial Manager delivers. PFM is the industry’s most robust patient financial engagement platform. Built from the ground up for virtually limitless interoperability in any healthcare setting, Loyale’s suite of fully integrated solutions applies predictive analytics, intelligent workflows, automated administration, and the industry’s most engaging patient self-service experience. Loyale is offering free Patient Revenue Cycle assessments to providers who are interested in implementing their own patient financial engagement initiatives. Make an appointment or stop by our booth to pick up a free cell phone wallet and set up your assessment. Healthcare providers interested in improving patient collections, reducing costs, and driving higher patient satisfaction are invited to contact Shirley Straka at ShirleyStraka@loyale.us. Partners in healthcare finance, revenue cycle solutions, and revenue cycle services who are looking to expand their product portfolio, reduce operating costs, and grow their top and bottom lines should contact Channel Strategy EVP Grattan Smith at Grattan@loyale.us.


MedData

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Booth 1465

Contact: Chris Farrell, VP of marketing
chris.farrell@meddata.com
800.835.7474

MedData offers a single platform to increase hospital revenue, patient satisfaction, and compliance while decreasing the number of vendor interactions. Our technology-enabled solution combined with our proven expertise enhances the patient financial experience so hospitals can focus on the clinical experience.


Medecision

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Booth 4269

Contact: Michelle Malgesini, director of demand generation and strategic events
michelle.malgesini@medecision.com
610.540.0202

Leading health plans and risk-bearing providers depend on Medecision’s cloud-based Aerial platform to deliver personalized, predictive and prescriptive decision support for their clinicians, physicians, consumers and their caregivers. Our next-generation care management applications leverage powerful insights and interoperability to connect and inform consumers and their care teams. The Aerial platform is generations ahead of EHR and traditional care management systems incorporating workflow-embedded analytics, evidence-based medical protocols, prescriptive care plans, and a comprehensive EHR – all in a single view for care managers, consumers, and their extended care team. Visit Medecision at HIMSS booth 4629 as we showcase how our clients use our innovative and powerful Aerial solution to modernize their care management programs and realize significant operational efficiencies and cost savings. See for yourself how Aerial simplifies care management by delivering advanced analytics, smart utilization management, mobile care planning, summarized member data sharing, and tools that drive real engagement. Come and talk with us at booth 4629 and make the future of care management your reality! And, while you’re there, enter to win one of the many Amazon Echoes that we will give away. We’re liberating healthcare one cool app at a time! Learn more at www.medecision.com.


Medhost

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Booth 2514

Contact: Samra Khan, enterprise brand manager
samra.khan@medhost.com
615.761.2119

For over 30 years, more than 1,000 healthcare facilities have partnered with Medhost and enhanced their patient care and operational excellence with our fully integrated clinical and financial solutions. Our Enterprise EHR solution can also be hosted and managed by our highly qualified IT teams. Medhost solutions can help you be even more efficient in what you do best — providing excellent care to your patients. Our solutions, supported by market-leading support and implementation, include a fully integrated EHR, enterprise clinical and financial system, emergency department information system, IT hosting and management solutions, and consumer engagement platform. Come to the Medhost’s booth, 2514, for a custom playing card deck and to speak with an expert to discover why over 1,000 healthcare facilities have the perfect hand with Medhost, and how to be a part of that winning team. Also, let’s chat in the Medhost’s Live Podcast Lounge. Stop by our live podcast lounge in booth 2514 for a quick 20 minute guided interview about the trends and challenges in healthcare IT. Space is limited, so sign up now!


Medicity

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Booth 2449

Contact: Lauren Tilelli, VP of marketing
ltilelli@medicity.com
858.414.4117

Leveraging 20 years of experience aggregating clinical data, Medicity is ushering in the next generation of interoperability. Medicity transforms data into a single, comprehensive clinical document, which streamlines clinical workflows. Providers now have usable clinical intelligence at the right time and place to provide the best care; organizations can create a consolidated data asset required for population health and care quality initiatives. By aggregating and normalizing multiple, diverse data streams, Medicity enables analytic interoperability and creates a valuable strategic asset for the entire community. As the industry unites in the pursuit of integrated, actionable data, Medicity is uniquely qualified to unlock the benefits of Interoperability 2.0, which include providing one-click access to a de-duplicated, comprehensive clinical document; optimizing decision-making at the point of care; revolutionizing provider workflow to improve outcomes and reduce costs; and aggregating and sharing meaningful data for population health. Medicity will be raffling off two iPhone Xs for eligible attendees who demo Interoperability 2.0.


Medicomp Systems

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Booth 3616

Contact: James Aita, director of business development
jaita@medicomp.com

Medicomp’s Quippe Clinical Solutions resolve clinicians’ toughest challenges through intelligent interoperability, seamless MACRA compliance and increasing provider productivity. To learn more, visit the Medicomp booth, 3616, to play our Quippe Virtual Experience game. The Quippe Virtual Experience is a real-world EHR exercise that gives attendees the chance to think and work like a physician using Medicomp solutions. Plus, we’re giving away $100 every 30 minutes to a lucky winner. Learn more at www.medicomp.com.


Meditech

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Booth 1360

Contact: Paul Berthiaume, senior manager of marketing communications
pberthiaume@meditech.com
781.774.5742

The next digital transformation of healthcare is underway, and Meditech is leading the charge with the only full-scale EHR designed specifically for the post-Meaningful Use era. As a leading EHR vendor for over 45 years, Meditech’s solutions have empowered over 2,350 customers across 22 different countries to provide higher quality care, with greater efficiency, to more people, at a lower cost. Today, our cutting-edge solutions are helping organizations to see healthcare through a new lens and navigate this virtual landscape with unparalleled vision and clarity. Whether your destination is clinical efficiency, analytical prowess, or financial success, Meditech’s bold innovation, passion, and expertise will get you where you want to go. Visit booth 1360 to learn more about the first full-scale Web-based EHR designed for the post-Meaningful Use era. Initiatives like MaaS, population health, and patient engagement will be front and center. Hear from peers who have gone all-in with Meditech. Physicians, nurses, and healthcare executives are here to share their story. In addition, Meditech will offer a number of demos in our booth focused on population health, care coordination, managing sepsis, physician experience, revenue cycle, patient experience, and more. Don’t forget to check us out at the HIMSS Interoperability Showcase, as we participate in the Nationwide Care Transitions use case with Commonwell Health Alliance. Stop by booth 11955 and discover how Meditech not only advocates for interoperability, but also practices it every day. For more information, visit our HIMSS18 event page. Stop by booth 1360 for our Executive Booklet and Meditech freebies.


MModal

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Booth 4416

Contact: Lisa Martin, senior manager of marketing
lisa.martin@mmodal.com
267.535.7222

Our cloud-based clinical documentation solutions connect workflows for efficient and accurate medical speech recognition, medical transcription, CDI, and coding. We facilitate physician-patient relationships by making it easy for doctors to capture the patient story, and by delivering information when it is needed most – at the point of care.


Mobile Heartbeat

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Booth 2461

Contact: Jamie Brasseal, VP of sales and marketing
jamie.brasseal@mobileheartbeat.com
781.238.0000

Mobile Heartbeat will demonstrate the latest version of the MH-CURE Unified Clinical Communications and Collaboration Platform at HIMSS18 in booth 2461. MH-CURE is a secure clinical communications and collaboration platform enabling unified communications and improved patient-specific workflows featuring a real-time clinical team directory connecting all members of a patient’s care team. New features announced in the latest version of MH-CURE will be showcased, including advanced application integration configuration, video chat, text-to-speech, and lock screen viewing of notifications received via broadcasts and other systems, as well as other features optimizing clinical workflows and benefiting the healthcare enterprise. Mobile Heartbeat customer Rosemary Ventura, CNIO at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, will provide a user’s perspective on MH-CURE at the HIMSS Digital and Personal Connected Health Forum March 5 at the Wynn Las Vegas. Ventura’s session, scheduled for 10:40 am, is entitled, "Go Mobile and Modernize Clinical Communication and Collaboration," and will present a case study on NYP’s enterprise-wide roll out of MH-CURE to 11,000 users.


National Decision Support Co.

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Booth 2265

Contact: Bob Cooke, VP of marketing and strategy
rcooke@nationaldecisionsupport.com
855-475-2500

National Decision Support Co. is the leading provider of enterprise-wide clinical decision support solutions worldwide. The company’s CareSelect Platform simplifies the delivery of point-of-order clinical guidance. Seamless EHR integrations combine with Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC) from standard-bearing medical specialty societies to provide comprehensive coverage for imaging, lab, blood management, and pharmacy. National Decision Support Co. enables stakeholders in the healthcare process to deliver more efficient and appropriate care, improve population health, and save money. Variations and gaps in care delivery cost providers and patients billions of dollars annually and result in life-threatening medical errors. NDSC’s CareSelect decision support platform enables the transition to value-based care and payment models and risk-sharing payment models while reducing inconsistencies in patient care.


Netsmart

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Booth 1917

Contact: Cory Harden, lead business representative
info@ntst.com
800.472.5509

Netsmart is connecting the MISSING PIECES of healthcare – addiction treatment, behavioral health, home care, and senior living. Stop by booth 1917 to learn more and enter to win a Canary View.


Nordic

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Booth 5154

Contact: John Pollard, VP of marketing
john.pollard@nordicwi.com
608.358.6600

Nordic is a consulting firm that helps healthcare organizations improve the health of their patients and business through EHR expertise, strategy, and managed services. Nordic offers advisory services, Epic implementation, optimization, population health, data and analytics, managed services, revenue cycle, and affiliate extensions. In 2017, KLAS rated Nordic as the only firm to be a top performer in both Clinical and Revenue Cycle Optimization. In 2016, KLAS rated Nordic a top performer in Epic IT Advisory Services, Comprehensive Healthcare IT Advisory Services, and Optimization Services.


Nuance Communications

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Booth 1143

Contact: Larissa Falzone, director of marketing
larissa.falzone@nuance.com
781.565.5000

Nuance provides a more natural and insightful approach to clinical documentation, freeing clinicians to spend more time caring for patients. Nuance healthcare solutions capture and communicate more than 300 million patient stories each year helping more than 500,000 clinicians in 10,000 healthcare organizations globally. Nuance’s award-winning clinical speech recognition, medical transcription, CDI, coding, quality, and medical imaging solutions provide a more complete and accurate view of patient care, which drives meaningful clinical and financial outcomes. For more information, visit www.nuance.com/healthcare or call 1-877-805-5902. Connect with us through the healthcare blog, What’s next, Twitter, and Facebook.


NVoq

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To arrange a meeting at the show, contact Kristen Ayers.

Contact: Kristen Ayers, director of marketing
kristen.ayers@nvoq.com
303.304.7021

NVoq provides a HIPAA-compliant, cloud-based speech recognition and workflow automation platform for healthcare. NVoq’s SayIt dictation solution converts speech to text in seconds, while its powerful Shortcuts make short work of template reports through voice or touch. SayIt is available as a standalone client application that works seamlessly with any EHR or clinical documentation system, without the need for integration. SayIt works on either a PC or a Mac, and includes a free wireless mic application. Save 25 percent or more charting time daily while minimizing errors. SayIt gives you productivity that’s off the charts! Contact us today to find out more.


OmniSys

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To arrange a meeting at the show, contact Dean Braun.

Contact: Dean Braun, SVP of business development and marketing
dean_braun@omnisys.com
214.459.2574, Ext. 2579

OmniSys is a technology company that helps pharmacies drive profitable growth through unique insights derived from our market share and the ability to build valuable workflow solutions. With over 25 years of domain expertise, OmniSys is the market leader in medical, immunization and DME claim billing, patient communication and adherence, as well as consumer engagement workflow. We are integrated into the pharmacy management systems of more than 25,000 pharmacies and provide connectivity to more than 200 medical payers. OmniSys core SaaS platforms are designed to help pharmacies engage patients, compete on value, and distinguish their brands.


Optimum Healthcare IT

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Booth 1655

Contact: Larry Kaiser, VP of marketing
lkaiser@optimumhit.com
516.978.5487

Visit the Optimum Healthcare IT booth to learn how we develop true business partnerships with our high-touch, customer-service focus. We would love to talk with you about your healthcare IT needs and how one of our nine mature service lines can assist you in meeting those needs. Be sure to inquire how you can register for our raffles when you are in the booth. Click here to schedule a meeting in our booth with one our subject matter experts.


Parallon Technology Solutions

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To arrange a meeting at the show, contact Phil Sobol (phil.sobol@parallontechnology.com) or Taylor White (taylor.white@parallontechnology.com).

Contact: Chelsea Lankes, marketing
chelsea.lankes@parallontechnology.com
615.618.7844

Parallon Technology Solutions provides EHR implementations, IT help desk, application support, IT managed services, hosting, technical staffing, and strategic IT consulting services to hospitals, outpatient facilities, and large physician groups nationwide. With a team of over 400 clinical, financial, and technical professionals, PTS has implemented EHR systems in more than 300 facilities. PTS offers staffing and remote support services for all major EHR acute and ambulatory platforms, as well as their ancillary applications.


Patientco

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To arrange a meeting at the show, contact Josh Byrd.

Contact: Josh Byrd, director of marketing
josh.byrd@patientco.com

Patientco is reimagining the patient financial experience by bringing health-specific payment infrastructure together with consumer-focused tools backed by industrial-strength analytics to create a superior payment experience that predictably yields more dollars.


PatientKeeper

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Booth 4616

Contact: Cristina Christy, senior events manager
cchristy@patientkeeper.com
781.373.6378

At HIMSS18, PatientKeeper will showcase its applications that deliver the next-generation physician experience. With an intuitive interface tailored to physician specialties and patient situations, PatientKeeper removes the obstacles that have hindered EHR usability and transforms the computer into an indispensable tool for care delivery. Available as a comprehensive suite or as targeted workflow solutions, PatientKeeper delivers a single electronic environment that streamlines workflow — enabling physicians to maximize time with patients and access actionable information wherever they are, whenever they need to.  And PatientKeeper works with existing transactional and clinical information systems, enabling provider organizations to preserve current IT investments and avoid costly, time-consuming, and highly disruptive EHR replacement projects. Visit PatientKeeper at booth 4616 to enter for a chance to win a Concept2 Model E indoor rower.


PatientPing

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To arrange a meeting at the show, contact Brian Manning.

Contact: Brian Manning, head of growth
BManning@patientping.com
617.701.7816

PatientPing is a health technology company that is building a national community of engaged providers who are sharing information, coordinating care, and working together to get patients healthier faster. Through Pings, real-time notifications, and Stories, critical patient data accessed at the point of care, PatientPing connects disparate providers who share patients across the entire continuum. PatientPing’s national care coordination community includes physicians, nurses, case managers, and care coordinators across hospitals, emergency departments, ACOs, physician practices, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, inpatient rehabilitation centers, payers, and other healthcare providers. By connecting care teams through real-time information sharing, PatientPing enables providers to deliver higher quality and more cost-effective care, ultimately improving patient outcomes and experiences. Visit www.patientping.com to learn more.


PatientSafe Solutions

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Booth 229

Contact: Kim Tucker, VP of marketing
ktucker@patientsafesolutions.com
858.746.3318

PatientTouch unifies clinical communication and workflow in on app on one smartphone device.  It’s the only platform that provides a unified inbox for quick message triage and response. One inbox prioritizes all texts, voice calls, critical results, alerts, and pages. Reminders, notifications, and acknowledgements too. Deeply integrated with your EHR and clinical systems, PatientTouch provides one-touch access to up-to-date clinical and patient information for more efficient, safer decision making. And you can access the entire care team – on call, assigned care team members, and providers across your health system network. Join us in booth 229. Experience our new physician communication features. Pick up your copy of our new HIMSS Analytics study on “The State of Clinical Communication and Workflow” to find out how your peer organizations are managing their clinical mobility journey. Get a free clinical communications assessment and roadmap to improving care collaboration efficiency. View a demo and be entered to win an Apple Watch 3 or an iPad Pro – drawings daily!


PerfectServe

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Booth 8023

Contact: Lavonta McVicker, event manager
lmcvicker@perfectserve.net
704.608.6804

Stop by PerfectServe for a candy pick-me-up and device PopSocket.


PMD

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To arrange a meeting at the show, contact sales@pmd.com or 800.587.4989, Ext. 2.

Contact: Tracy Hensley, marketing communications specialist
thensley@pmd.com
800.587.4989

PMD gives doctors and staff powerful, intuitive mobile software that improves patient care. With PMD’s mobile communication and data capture platform, healthcare teams finally have an elegant and simple technology to maximize efficiency and collaboration. PMD provides free interfaces with most major EHRs, hospital information, and medical billing systems. The PMD team is committed to developing the best solution and providing superior customer service. For more information, contact PMD.


PokitDok

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Booth 12306

Contact: Vivian Li, senior product marketing manager
vivian.li@pokitdok.com

PokitDok’s platform-as-a-service enables hospitals, digital health, and telehealth companies to quickly build modern commerce experiences across the healthcare value chain. Its modular marketplace platform includes benefits verification, claims submission, appointment scheduling, and RCM. DokChain, an evolution of PokitDok’s platform utilizing distributed technologies such as blockchain, enables the patient experiences, business models, and security that healthcare deserves.


QuadraMed

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To arrange a meeting at the show, contact Miranda Hahn.

Contact: Miranda Hahn, director of marketing
mhahn@quadramed.com
231.360.7063

QuadraMed will host a premier dining event for clients and prospects on Wednesday, March 7. Hospitals and providers are invited to attend "Who is the REAL Elvis?" -  a session on preventing patient identity errors with Lorraine Pozzanza, MD ECRI Institute’s program director for health IT patient safety. The session includes lunch at Delmonico’s Steakhouse, a short walk from the HIMSS18 Expo floor. Sign up here. [No vendors please.]


Qventus

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Booth 9900

Contact: Venkat Mocherla, business development
venkat@qventus.com
925.699.7496

The Qventus mission is to simplify how healthcare operates so that hospitals and caregivers can focus on providing the best possible care to patients. The company offers an AI-based software platform that helps hospital teams make better operational decisions in real-time, making sense out of the terabytes of data they generate every day. Qventus addresses operational challenges across the hospital including emergency departments, perioperative areas, patient safety, inpatient, and outpatient. Visit the Qventus kiosk in the Innovations Live Pavilion to learn how hospitals across the country are extracting real-time insights from existing data sources. And, enter to win a FItBit Ionic watch.


Reaction Data

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Booth 8123

Contact: Taylor Madsen, director of marketing
tmadsen@reactiondata.com
801.358.7106

Come see if you can navigate our mountain bike obstacle course, and enter to win a new, full-suspension bike. While you’re here, learn how you can use Reaction for all your customer, market, and employee research needs.


Redox

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Booth 1275 / Interoperability Showcase 30

Contact: Paige Goodhew, marketing
paige@redoxengine.com
574.850.6914

Come by one of our booths or schedule a meeting ahead of time here. You’ll definitely want to visit Redox’s booth (1275) this year. Beyond talking integration and getting some sweet swag, enter a raffle to win a 5lb bag of gummy bears or Wisconsin Cheese Basket. Find all things Redox HIMSS18 here. Redox Party!


Santa Rosa Consulting

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Booth 3632

Contact: Gala Wilson, sales and marketing manager
galawilson@santarosaconsulting.com
813.966.1920

Come visit Santa Rosa Consulting at booth 3632. At Santa Rosa Consulting, we combine strategic insight with unmatched execution to simply do one thing for healthcare providers – deliver results. We focus on developing practical and actionable solutions that specifically address the problems facing healthcare providers today. We provide a foundation for better healthcare by designing, creating, staffing, and sustaining value through outcomes-based results that improve performance as well as patient experience and care. Advisory solutions include BI and analytics, PMO as a Service, interoperability integration, system evaluation/selection, and CIO partnerships. EHR solutions include Meditech, Epic, and Cerner. E2E activation services include Activation as a Service, training, go-live support, and optimization. Payer solutions are coming soon. Talent On Demand gives you the right resources when you need them most – interim, temporary, or permanent. Meet with the Santa Rosa team at HIMSS18 and complete a brief survey to be registered to win a free Executive Workshop of your choice for your organization! (Example Executive Workshops include BI & Analytics Success, PMO Performance, and EHR Transition Lessons Learned.)


Softek Solutions

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Booth 7801

Contact: Jason Hungate, VP of marketing
jason.hungate@softekinc.com
913.649.1024

Softek is your Cerner expert, whether you’re a longtime Cerner user or just implementing the EHR. Softek delivers a full suite of software and consulting services to assess and optimize EHR performance and revenue integrity at Cerner hospitals. We provide independent, objective measurement of the issues others miss or can’t even detect. Only Softek offers Panther technology for visibility into the source of performance and charging issues, plus easy access to patient accounting data; and consultants who have specialized in Cerner’s unique architecture since 2000. We will give a $25 Amazon gift card to any Cerner client just for stopping by our booth.


Spok

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Booth 7607

Contact: Derek Kiecker, business solutions adviser
Derek.Kiecker@spok.com
800.231.2556

We know you’re on a quest to deliver the highest standards of care. To do so, your communication technology needs to integrate with existing workflows in your hospital and enable you to deliver information to clinicians who need to take action. Stop by the Spok booth, 7607, to see a demo of Spok Care Connect, the industry’s most comprehensive suite of enterprise critical communication solutions; hear the latest enhancements to Spok Care Connect, including more robust EHR and real-time location system integrations; and scan your badge to enter our daily drawing for an Apple Watch 3!


Stanson Health

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Booth 465

Contact: Ryan Nellis, chief commercial operations officer
ryan.nellis@stansonhealth.com
612.865.7742

Stanson Health helps clinicians align to health system strategy. We create and integrate sophisticated, real-time clinical decision support, and provide rich analytics to guide and influence clinician behavior. During HIMSS 2018, Stanson will unveil its digital prior authorization solution.


Strata Decision Technology

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Booth 8225

Contact: Dan Michelson, CEO
dmichelson@stratadecision.com

Strata #1 Ranked in KLAS financial analytics and performance platform, StrataJazz, marries clinical, operational, and financial data to deliver accurate and actionable cost data across the entire continuum of care.  With an advanced cost accounting engine that integrates with EDW, ERP, and EHR solutions including Epic, you can see what is driving up costs at a patient, service, and entity level. As a result, you can determine where to focus your energy to improve margins and quality. We wrote the book on cost … and you get a free copy! Strata just released the second edition of Margin + Mission: A Prescription for Curing Healthcare’s Cost Crisis, which was​ published in hopes to fuel a conversation and drive action to make a meaningful difference in bending the cost curve. Click here to learn more. The first 50 get a free book!


Sunquest Information Systems

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Booth 1326

Contact: Trish Moxam, VP of corporate marketing (trish.moxam@sunquestinfo.com); or Roberto Madrazo-Estrada, digital and content marketing (roberto.madrazo-estrada@sunquestinfo.com)

Sunquest Information Systems, booth 1326, provides enterprise laboratory information solutions for clinical, anatomic, and molecular pathology, enabling interoperability for world-class labs, including multi-site, multi-disciplinary support for complex anatomic, molecular, and genetic testing. Since 1979, Sunquest has helped over 1,700 labs and healthcare organizations across the world enhance efficiency, patient care, and financial results. For more information, go to www.sunquestinfo.com.


Surescripts

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Booth 632

Contact: Kelly Jeffers, VP of corporate communications
kelly.jeffers@surescripts.com
571.384.4776

Since 2001, Surescripts has led the movement to turn data into actionable intelligence, and convened its network allies to enhance e-prescribing, inform care decisions, and advance the healthcare industry. Come see us at HIMSS in booth 632, or visit us at www.surescripts.com.


Sutherland Healthcare

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To arrange a meeting at the show, contact healthcare@sutherlandglobal.com.

Contact: Tom McCormick, chief commercial officer
Thomas.mccormick@sutherlandglobal.com
973.986.0804

Headquartered in Clifton, NJ, Sutherland Healthcare is a leading provider of process transformation solutions to the entire healthcare ecosystem. Sutherland brings a different approach to the healthcare industry by leveraging digital and design thinking methodologies to understand every aspect of a client’s unique situation to transform the services, tools, and experiences of their patients and employees. Our process transformation solutions bring a new way of thinking while delivering traditional services that adapt to the consistently changing expectations of customers in the digital era.


SymphonyRM

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To arrange a meeting at the show, contact Sheetal Shah.

Contact: Sheetal Shah, VP of market development
310.916.7379

We think today’s world of CRM in healthcare has been dismal for health systems. Cost over-runs, weak industry flavor that doesn’t match workflow, little value for patients or providers. If the goal is to drive patient acquisition and retention, provider loyalty, and make it financially viable, we’d love to demo our HealthOS as it combines CRM and analytics, and is delivered as a flat monthly subscription (already live and supporting over 4M patient lives). Give us a ring or catch us on stage as we compete for most disruptive startup at HIMSSVentureConnect – our journey to make health systems less reactive, and more proactive with their consumers.


T-System

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To arrange a meeting, contact Roger Davis.

Contact: Roger Davis, president and CEO
efeid@tsystem.com
469.426.7746

T-System is a healthcare IT company that advances care delivery and financial outcomes for episodic care. Specializing in emergency department documentation since 1996, T-System has since expanded its focus to include the development of innovative solutions for the rapidly expanding episode-based care market, including hospital-based emergency departments, freestanding emergency centers, and urgent care centers. Today, our company continues to innovate by leveraging a strong team of industry experts who lead our clinically-driven services and documentation solutions, as well as charge capture and coding solutions that serve 40 percent of the nation’s hospital-based emergency departments, freestanding emergency centers, and urgent care centers.


Versus-Midmark

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Booth 5850

Contact: Stephanie Bertschy, senior marketing manager
skb@versustech.com
231.577.4094

It’s time to RETHINK the status quo of health system operations. Versus, a member of the Midmark family, uses both precise and WiFi real-time locating system technology to effectively manage mobile assets, enhance safety, and improve patient flow. Let our lean workflow consulting, implementation services, and industry-leading location accuracy help you improve the delivery of quality care and enhance the patient experience. We combine location data with powerful workflow intelligence to drive efficiency in the moment while automatically documenting key performance indicators – helping you measure and manage your operations. Visit the Versus-Midmark booth, 5850, for live demonstrations featuring a fully operational Versus patient flow and asset tracking system. Want to know more? Don’t miss the following sessions by clients who have experienced first-hand some of the benefits. Real ROI: Using RTLS to Improve Pump Utilization & Save $1M  Presenter: Dave Dickey Tuesday, March 6 from  4-5pm in Galileo 901. Use of RTLS to Support a Model of Patient Centered Care Presenter: Kevin Hoover, MD  on Thursday, March 8 from 4-5pm in Galileo 901.


Voalte

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Booth 7131

Contact: Naila Maroon, marketing communications director
nmaroon@voalte.com
305.975.3327

Check us out at HIMSS18 to see how Voalte Platform connects care teams inside and outside the hospital, integrates with the EHR, and makes it easy for health IT professionals to deploy HIPAA-compliant smartphones. Our booth isn’t the only place at HIMSS where you’ll hear about how Voalte Platform is improving care team communication and collaboration. Voalte will be highlighted at the Avera Health Lightning Session Wednesday, March 7 at 5 pm, where Candice Friestad, RN, director of clinical informatics at Avera Health, will discuss how the health system integrated its communication platform with nurse call, patient monitoring, EHR and ADT data to give care teams access to up-to-date patient information. We also encourage you to attend an education session Thursday, March 8 at 10 am presented by James Jones, VP of patient care services and nursing operations at UW Medicine’s Valley Medical Center. He will discuss how they improved patient outcomes after moving to a smartphone-based platform for clinical communication and alarm and alert notification. Voalte also will be featured in the HIMSS Interoperability Showcase in the Labor and Delivery use case, which demonstrates the need for strong care coordination and communication when managing high-risk pregnancies. Visit the showcase to witness the impact of collaborative systems on clinical outcomes, quality, and the patient experience.


Vocera Communications

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Booth 2824

Contact: Shanna Hearon, manager of PR and communication
shearon@vocera.com
865.769.2028

The mission of Vocera Communications is to simplify and improve the lives of healthcare professionals and patients, while enabling hospitals to enhance quality of care and operational efficiency. More than 1,400 hospitals and health systems around the world have selected Vocera solutions for care teams to text securely using smartphones or make calls with our hands-free, wearable Vocera Badge. Interoperability between Vocera and more than 120 clinical systems helps reduce alarm fatigue; speed up staff response times; and improve patient care, safety, and experience. HIMSS18 attendees are invited to visit the Vocera booth, 2824, to get a sneak peek at the latest version of the Vocera Collaboration Suite mobile application, which enables real-time situational awareness. Learn more at www.vocera.com, and follow @VoceraComm on Twitter.


Waystar

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Booth 1665

Contact: Tina Newman, director of events
tnewman@navicure.com
678.955.4080

Waystar simplifies and unifies the healthcare revenue cycle with innovative technology that allows clients to collect more with less cost and less stress, so they can focus on their goals, patients, and communities. The combination of Navicure and ZirMed uniquely positions Waystar to provide an end-to-end, cloud-based revenue cycle technology platform across all care settings – empowering healthcare organizations to improve the overall financial health of their business by preventing problems, streamlining processes, and removing friction in the revenue cycle process. In addition to enjoying in-booth snacks each afternoon during HIMSS, join Waystar in booth 1665 for you opportunity to win a stress-less weekend at The Meritage Resort & Spa. Waystar will also be hosting an invite-only Premier Party Wednesday, March 7. Request your invitation at marketing@navicure.com.


WebPT

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To arrange a meeting at the show, contact Shawn McKee.

Contact: Shawn McKee, VP of marketing
shawn.mckee@webpt.com

With 30-percent market share, WebPT is the leading rehab therapy platform for enhancing patient care and fueling business growth. Offering scheduling, documentation, billing, outcomes tracking, business reporting, patient engagement tools, and system integrations, WebPT’s robust, Web-based solution is ideal for every outpatient setting — regardless of staff size, facility type, or the number of specialties. WebPT has a 99-percent retention rate and a 99.99-percent uptime rate, making it the most trusted and reliable platform in the industry. Launched in 2008 and headquartered in Phoenix, AZ, the company has ranked on the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing companies five years in a row. Let’s meet at HIMSS to discuss ways to improve revenue and enhance patient care within your outpatient rehab therapy business. You can also visit webpt.com to learn about our company, products, and services.


Wolters Kluwer Health

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Booth 3232

Contact Ann Joyal, VP of global communications and brand
Ann.Joyal@wolterskluwer.com
781.392.2000

Stop by booth 3232 to see how Wolters Kluwer Health is tackling variability in healthcare by helping you efficiently deliver the best outcomes and provide the best care for patients. Our trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions engage clinicians, patients, researchers, and the next generation of healthcare through advanced clinical decision support, learning, and research and clinical intelligence. Every day around the world, more than 2.5 million clinicians use our trusted solutions, such as Lippincott, Ovid, UpToDate, Medi-Span, Health Language, Sentri 7, and Emmi. Learn more here: Leadership panel at the Patient Engagement & Experience Summit, Monday, March 5; Educational session by Tom Stafford, CIO of Halifax Health, “Transforming IT: The Journey to Clinical Innovation,” Thursday, March 8. In booth 3232, explore UpToDate Advanced and next-generation advanced clinical decision support, AI, and sepsis surveillance with Point of Care Advisor, interoperability and harmonizing data and terminologies with Health Language, and how compounding pharmacies are tackling compliance using Simplifi 797. Visit healthclarity.wolterskluwer.com.


ZappRx

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To arrange a meeting at the show, contact Karen Tirozzi.

Contact: Karen Tirozzi, VP of solutions
karen.tirozzi@zapprx.com
617.470.7679

For anyone looking to ease to the process of prescribing specialty medications, please reach out to KT, who will be attending HIMSS and actively engaged in customer and partnership opportunities. Have a great conference!

Comments Off on HIStalk’s Guide to HIMSS18

Monday Morning Update 2/26/18

February 25, 2018 News 3 Comments

Top News

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Researchers looking at how hospital bond ratings fared after implementing a new EHR find that of the 32 health systems studied (with a focus on Epic), seven had their bonds downgraded, seven had them upgraded, and 18 had no changes. They concluded that it’s tough to prove any relationship between EHR implementation and the macro financial picture provided by bond ratings, even though ratings announcements often reference either the cost or the financial benefit of a new EHR.

As is nearly always the case, it’s not what you buy, but how you implement it and what you do with it afterward that counts.

Epic’s touting of post-implementation hospital financial improvement was likely the genesis of the article since it focused on Epic.


Reader Comments

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From Brian: “Re: vendor clueless marketing. So the HIMSS conference has been around for only 18 years? Didn’t anyone edit this press release before editing it?” I’m omitting the vendor’s name because the marketing person who wrote the release has a long health IT background, so I’m sure it was just one of those embarrassing synapse-jumps that we all have rather than a lack of knowledge. While the conference is indeed HIMSS18, this is the 57th iteration since HIMSS62 in Baltimore, when there was no such thing as healthcare IT, no exhibit hall, and just two dozen skinny-tied hospital management engineers having about as much crazy convention fun as you would expect.

From Go-Live Concerned: “Re: Epic. Has at least eight go-lives in March, some of which are multi-facility big bang. Epic has to support them and most customers also share the same third-party vendors, who are stretched to the max. Document imaging and coding vendors, for example, have to staff up to deal with the increased support volume. Epic’s remote-hosted data center will see a 4-5x increase in live systems in just a few days. If the lights dim in Madison, we’ll know why.”


HIStalk Announcements and Requests

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Dr. Jayne’s HIMSS18 Buzzword Bingo inspired me to create my own version. See if you can you call bingo (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) during the opening session, during the first 30 minutes in the exhibit hall, or in a single vendor’s quick pitch. If you need an added difficulty factor – which you probably will since it will be a target-rich environment – then see if you can get bingo purely using only overhead-dangling booth signage. Or, see if you can fill out the whole card from a single vendor. I arranged the options randomly, but I’d bet money that the easiest bingo would be from the lower left corner diagonally up. Regardless, you’re gonna need a bigger stack of cards.

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Poll respondents say their hiring decisions wouldn’t be swayed much by a candidate’s CPHIMS credential. My conclusion has always been that if two candidates were exactly equally desirable (which basically never happens if you’ve done due diligence), then maybe it would offer a tiny edge as evidence of personal drive. A lot of the folks I know with CPHIMS hoped that earning it would offset their lack of experience or get them into the field as newcomers, neither of which seems likely.

New poll to your right or here, repeating one I ran awhile back: Have you experienced unwanted sexual overtures or comments during a HIMSS conference that made you uncomfortable?

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Responses to “What I Wish I’d Known Before … Taking a Travel-Heavy Job” range from the practical to the heart-wrenching. When I worked for a vendor for a short time, business travel seemed exotic and carefree to those of us shoehorning like astronauts into our cubicles every day under management’s clueless but ever-watchful eye. Still, I noticed that the road warriors who I was occasionally sent out to support seemed unusually world-weary, cynical, and quick to hit the hotel bar. They avoided the sometimes miserable office conditions, but also didn’t really even seem part of the same company (except to our customers) since most of us hardly every saw them. They also rarely got promoted or taken off the road since replacement roadies were hard to find. Reading the responses makes me glad that I only traveled heavily for a few months when I worked for a large, regional health system, where I had it pretty easy in visiting the same handful of rural hospitals for just a few days at a time as a colleague instead of a vendor. Remember these comments the next time someone from several states away shows up bright and and outwardly cheery on Monday.

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Next up and anxiously awaiting your response:  What I Wish I’d Known Before I Quit My Job to Go to Work for Myself. I’m interested in what you have to say even if you eventually ended back up as someone else’s employee. People always fantasize about becoming part of the gig economy, so help them out with good or bad firsthand experience.

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Iatric invited me to get on a short conference call with their HIMSS booth staff to review some of my “Tips for HIMSS Exhibitors,” something I don’t ever do except Iatric was smart in offering up front to make a significant donation to DonorsChoose in return for a few minutes of my time. Their donation, paired with matching funds from my anonymous vendor executive and other matching sources, funded every penny of these teacher grant requests:

  • Supplies for creating posters for Women’s History Month for Ms. F’s middle school class in Greensboro, AL
  • Hear Myself sound phones and reading highlighting strips for Mrs. M’s first grade class in Durham, NC
  • Action cameras and photo storage for Ms. F’s STEM charter school class in Naples, FL
  • Floor seats and craft materials for the Winter Olympics after-school STEM club project of Mrs. M in Robbinsville, NC
  • Programmable robots for Mrs. J’s second grade class in Springdale, AR
  • Simple machines building kits for Mrs. H’s fifth grade class in Loachapoka, AL
  • An Amazon Echo for Mrs. M’s kindergarten class in Benton, LA
  • STEM creative building materials for the “I’ve been in America for less than a year” elementary school class of Ms. J in Kansas City, MO
  • Math games for Mrs. J’s elementary school class in West Newbury, MA

Several of the teachers emailed me within a couple of hours, one of them Ms. F, who said, “Thank you so much for funding my students in their efforts to learn more about the women who changed history. This package was funded in such a timely manner in that Women’s History Month is in a few days. We are so grateful for your support. It is because of donors like you that we can take learning to a whole new level.”

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Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Loopback Analytics. The Dallas-based company is a leader in population health analytics with its EpisideInsights, a cloud-based platform that allows health systems to identify at-risk populations, match those patients with appropriate resources, and evaluate how interventions affected outcomes. It allows provider organizations to selectively share data with network partners across all care settings in participating in value-based care initiatives. Specific focus areas include specialty pharmacy, behavioral health high utilizers, and bundled payments. Organizations use EpisodeInsights to assess bundled payment opportunities, reduce clinical variation, drive change management with physician-level benchmarking, benchmark against market competitors, identify network partners, and support real-time data exchange including patient alerting. I interviewed Founder and CEO Neil Smiley – who also founded Phytel and sold it to IBM Watson Health – last week. Thanks to Loopback Analytics for supporting HIStalk.

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Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor SymphonyRM. The Palo Alto, CA-based company offers HealthOS, healthcare’s only customer relationship management platform that identifies and orchestrates “next best actions” for consumer and provider engagement, helping to increase patient acquisition, close care gaps, increase provider utilization, and improve referral capture. HealthOS – whose tagline is “orchestrating the workforce to drive metrics” — is used by call centers to conduct outreach; marketing departments to generate and manage prospect marketing; provider outreach teams to manage activities; and front office teams to guide real-time intervention opportunities for clinical, population health, and marketing opportunities. The company’s goal is to transform healthcare providers into member-focused enterprises, using the experience of its executive team in building three data science and CRM companies that generated $5 billion of value for leading consumer service brands. Thanks to SymphonyRM for supporting HIStalk.


Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for information.


Sales

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Major Health Partners Medical Center (IN) chooses CloudWave’s OpSus Healthcare Cloud to host its Meditech EHR.


Decisions

  • Winchester Hospital (MA) will go live on Epic in 2018.
  • Amita Health St. Alexius Medical Center (IL) will go live on Cerner next month.
  • Amita Health Alexian Brothers Medical Center (IL) went live on Cerner this month.
  • Weston County Health Services (WY) will switch from Cerner to Epic.

These provider-reported updates are supplied by Definitive Healthcare, which offers a free trial of its powerful intelligence on hospitals, physicians, and healthcare providers.


Announcements and Implementations

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A new Reaction Data survey of health system leaders finds that the most-named health systems for innovation, thought leadership, and providing quality care at a sustainable cost are Kaiser Permanente, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Intermountain Healthcare, and Geisinger Health. KP led by far in recognition for providing high-quality, cost-effective services. It’s interesting that other than KP, those highly regarded systems haven’t shown a lot of interest in expanding beyond their own regions as opposed to less-regarded but ambitious players such as Ascension, Trinity, and Adventist. I think most of us would love to have one of the top three systems add a hospital near where we live.

Dolbey launches Fusion Narrate, a cloud-based speech recognition product that allows providers to dictate into any application without integration. The underlying technology was provided by NVoq and its SayIt speech recognition platform.

V3 Health Strategy launches its blockchain private placement Initial Coin Offering solution.


Government and Politics

Politico reports that the VA could sign its Cerner mega-deal as early as this week. Both parties have agreed to 50 minor contract changes that were recommended in Mitre’s interoperability evaluation.


Technology

For Bitcoin fans: analysts speculate that a single low-profile startup in China that sells bitcoin creation hardware is raking in up to $4 billion per year in profit.

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Indiana-based VoCare develops a self-contained home care device that measures blood pressure, blood glucose, pulse, oximetry, temperature, and ECG, running on Android to connect via WiFi, Bluetooth, and 4G LTE in uploading readings automatically to a cloud storage system. The only peripheral needed is the supplied blood pressure cuff. It has a provider mode and also an option to be used for remote patient monitoring.


Other

A JAMA opinion piece observes the stress that opioid reduction programs have had on PCPs: having to confront patients to reduce their opioid use; kicking them out of their practice after implementing a no-opioids policy; trying to migrate patients to alternative pain drugs without a lot of knowledge or patient enthusiasm; trying to stay on top of increasingly complicated drug plan prescribing rules; and dealing with insurers that are willing to pay only for more addictive opioids because they are older and therefore cheaper. The article says the opioid crisis is due to inadequate chronic pain control and recommends further education, including telementoring clinics offered by Project ECHO (where two of the authors work).

Martin Shkreli must be rolling over in his cell. Rare-disease patients treated with a 1960s drug whose price was jacked up from $650 to $21,000 in just eight years became excited that a generic was coming out, but only until they saw the price: $18,000, still 28 times what it cost in 2010. Experts note that despite FDA’s call for competition, it’s tough to bring a drug’s price down from stratospheric levels when the Wall Street-pandering newcomer recognizes that the market will bear a slight-lower price, especially when the manufacturer covers the co-pay of patients and leaves insurers stuck with most of the tab. To make it even weirder, the original manufacturer, faced with this slight competition, rolled out its own generic priced at $19,000.

In other pharma news, states are acting to restrict pharmacy benefit management companies from inserting gag clauses in their contracts with pharmacies that prohibit pharmacists from telling customers that paying cash for their prescription would be cheaper than using their insurance. Pharmacists complained that PBMs pocket the difference from the patient’s overpayment. The drug lobby has filed suit to block a North Dakota law that bans such gag orders, saying it requires PBMs to disclose “proprietary trade secrets.”

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A academic medical center study published in JAMA finds that it costs $20 to perform the billing and insurance activities required for a primary care visit and $215 for an inpatient surgical procedure, representing 3-25 percent of professional revenue. Eric Topol’s tweet says it all.

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A medical resident’s New York Times op-ed piece describes treating the eminently influential 96-year-old doctor and Nobel Peace Prize winner who in 1996 wrote a book that not only warned against overuse of technology and excessive drug prescribing, but also observed that “healing is replaced with treating, caring is supplanted by managing, and the art of listening is taken over by technical procedures.” Hospitalized in a system even more impersonal than he could have imagined 22 years ago, he wasn’t happy with the lack of progress:

Each day, one person on the medical team would say one thing in the morning, and by the afternoon the plan had changed. I always was the last to know what exactly was going on, and my opinion hardly mattered … Doctors of conscience have to resist the industrialization of their profession.


Sponsor Updates

  • ACOs using population health management software and services from Lightbeam Health Solutions have generated $300 million in savings.
  • National Decision Support Co. and Mayo Clinic will expand clinical guidance for NDSC’s CareSelect Lab solution.
  • Obix Perinatal Data System of Clinical Computer Systems will exhibit at Kaleidoscope 2018 February 26-27 in Stafford, TX.
  • The SSI Group and PatientPay partner to offer end-to-end payment services.
  • Huron and The Joint Commission will host the first in a new series of hospital-focused safety and quality care workshops April 11 in Minneapolis.

Blog Posts


Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates. Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

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What I Wish I’d Known Before … Taking a Travel-Heavy Job

I wish I’d been aware of the social isolation and pressure to get things done in my limited time at home. There are friends I used to see regularly that I haven’t been in touch with for years now. With weekends really being my only time at home, I spend the majority of that time doing things that need to get done around the house, running errands, going to the doctor. It doesn’t leave much time for a social life or even seeing family.


Whatever your lifestyle health-wise, it will just be amplified by the travel. Work out regularly now? You’ll have an even better schedule to accommodate it. Not great about getting to the gym? Don’t romanticize that travel is going to help with a gym in every hotel. It only makes it harder and you’re eating restaurant food more than ever.


Choose your credit cards wisely to maximize perks.


The importance of inflatable lumbar support pillows. And how difficult it is to do any meaningful work on flights — neither the environment nor the ergonomics are conducive to productivity.


How much I would miss my family.


I wish I’d known I wasn’t as adventurous as I thought I was. Turns out I don’t like exploring new cities by myself.


I wish I’d known how much of my weekend time would be spent playing catch-up: dry-cleaning, laundry, cleaning, friends, family. All the little stuff that gets spread out through a normal week is condensed into two far-too-brief days.


I wish I’d bought shoes that were more comfortable.


How much I would miss my son. I originally thought that early mornings to the airport, overnight stays, and getting home late at night would impact my ability to get things done, find time to exercise, eat well, etc. However, I was quickly able to adapt and those areas of my life were not impacted. The hours from my son was the toughest part. I no longer weighed the time traveling with the time or more productive time in the office. I now weighed that time with the time a way from him. I’ve since left that job and started my own company where I can control my time based on its REAL value.


How it can strain a marriage. After doing it for 5+ years, we had not much in common. Weekends were spent catching up on chores and then getting ready to leave on Sunday or early Monday. We have no children, so we made the decision for him to spend several weekends with me at my long-term location to give us a common talking point, which did help. I gave the job up after six years and the marriage is still going strong at 41 years. The good part about the travel was the friends I met and have kept across the country and the experiences I would have never otherwise have had. I’ve been sailing in Long Island Sound and also experienced Fleet Week on a house boat in San Francisco Bay.


That the clients were actually interested in applying best practices vs. creating more layers of status quo.


Always bring workout clothing on a trip. You never know if you’ll get the chance to hit a great gym or run even if you’re not in the mood while packing. Always keep a charger, a pair of socks, and some cash in your briefcase or backpack.


You have to live on the road the same way you do at home, meaning that you must have the discipline to maintain your diet and exercise routines and not succumb to overeating and drinking.


That my employer mandates carry-ons (won’t pay for checked bags), requires adults who have never met to share rooms, believes that $45 per day will cover three square meals in major cities, and refuses to reimburse tipping of any kind.


Working a 12+ hour day. You pretty much need to be available to meet with the customers during THEIR 8-5 day job, but you also have to prepare for those meetings, etc. after the normal workday is over. I’ve seen this in both sales and implementation roles. Some companies are cheap and insist that you stay at low-end hotels (think Ramada Inn with outside doors) and have all kinds of budgetary constraints. It’s kind of hard to ask for the travel expenses policy during the interview, but somehow try to find those things out. 


Buy a second set of makeup and leave it in the suitcase for travel days. Get the back-office phone numbers for airlines and rental cars and call them as soon as you realize your plane is delayed and you need to book a hotel or car before the rest of the herd. I realized that there is an entirely other population of people on this earth who are “travel people” and they know a LOT of stuff. Talk to them as you wait to board your plane. They can save your hide some days.


When you do the math after you divide the number of real hours worked into the salary you accepted, you really only earn $2.50 an hour.


If I had one thing to do over, it would be to somehow add a day (on my own dime) and explore the city I had traveled to. Easier said than done, as most days I just wanted to get home, but sounds good anyway.


That regardless of travel schedules, colleagues still expect you to respond in a timely manner, which means working at night to catch up on all the day’s missed emails and phone calls.


How I would always be tired and spend my weekends doing expense reports, laundry, and sleeping.


While during my interview process I was asked if I would be willing to travel for my job, I didn’t think much of it, given the position description stated 5-15 percent of my time would be on the road. That’s not much, right? I should have known something was up when, on my first day, I was asked if I had a valid passport. Nineteen months later and more than 300K air miles logged from monthly trips to Europe, Asia, and plenty of domestic trips, I left after I couldn’t sleep for more than 90 minutes at a time. I could never get my body clock adjusted to all those changing time zones. Some people are cut out for it, but I learned I definitely was not one of those people.


Wish I’d known how agreeable it would be to the way I like to work. Depart, immerse, get it done, then go home. Rinse, repeat. And when I am home, I mean I am HOME.


Get a credit card that offers lounge access. Sure, it’s good to have a quiet place to work, but I also really need a place to get drunk after a flight delay at the end of a long work week.


You will lose all track of time and the seasons of life. I remember once sitting in a boarding lounge and a family was sitting in the row behind me and they were taking their son or daughter to college and it was an emotional discussion. I was touched by it, but was so consumed by my conference schedule that I didn’t even realize that the seasons of life was going on all around me while I was going from the Javits Center to the McCormick Place to Moscone Center and so on.


If you are single, your friends will stop inviting you to events because, well, you are just never home.


Flying sucks. It is exhausting for your wife who has to keep the family ship and the sailors (the kids) on course while you are gone. Eating out all the time is tough on trying to stay in good shape. As I have gotten older, the three-hour time change from West to East Coast has become a bigger impact on the sleep pattern. At least there is Uber and Lyft now so I don’t have to hassle with rental cars as often (those guys must be having a major negative impact in the revenues of Hertz, Avis, etc.)


How much weight I’d gain if I did anything other than maintaining a disciplined diet and exercise regimen.


That there is no benefit to letting the corporate office handle travel plans. Make sure to negotiate the ability to control your own travel, get a good travel-specific credit card, invoice for your expenses, and then reap the rewards. It took me a full year on a job (three weeks of travel a month) before someone let me know they asked and corporate agreed. Within the next six months of travel, I had upgraded status on all of my flights and hotels and had enough points to take my entire family on a vacation we’d normally never afford.


Unless you are going to or coming from a meeting in which specific attire is required, always fly in specific travel clothes. When you get to your destination, put all of the clothes in a bag (they are covered in whatever grossness wasn’t cleaned on your flight) and don’t touch them until it is time to fly home. This way you limit your (and your clothes’) exposure to travel-related disgustingness to just one outfit. I have sat on broken airplane seats and ruined suit pants, I have had people miss the emesis bag and get it all over a nice dress shirt, I have seen and smelt unthinkable things. But luckily I am now forever wearing clothes that I don’t worry about when it all happens. When you get home, toss them in the wash on “kill everything” cycle of the washer by themselves and you’ll feel like you are keeping germs and stink (relatively) at bay.


Try not to take travel-heavy jobs. Honestly, they are just not worth it. The novelty wears off, the lack of life balance is endemic to those you’ll meet, and in the end, you’ll be grateful you decided to find something closer to home. Unless it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, keep looking instead of being a road warrior. Very few people who have retired from travel-heavy jobs have ever told me they really enjoyed it. If you can, try NOT to take the position.


Clinical depression is highly likely. You’ll become almost obsessed with maxing out loyalty programs. Wal-Mart becomes a source of “healthy” food in rural areas. Too many people have pre-check. Too few airports have dedicated pre-check lanes. Getting squishy/soft/fat is almost inevitable. Vented car seats are heavenly. Podcasts are your best friend.


How much time would be wasted from flight connections when your home airport isn’t a major one.


The impact to your family is huge. You have to have a good support structure, and if you have kids, you have to have backup plans in place for the inevitable sickness or childcare issue. You also need to really understand your company’s policy up front about scheduling your travel and the ability to dictate some home weeks when needed.


That US companies do not consider travel time as work (contrary to labour laws where I live).


The importance of willpower and honoring your commitments. It’s too easy to cheat, in every aspect, when you’re on the road.


I wish I’d  had access to a company handbook to verify printed policies. The manager I was hired under explained that we travel Monday and Friday and are on site with clients the rest of the week. If we needed to travel on a weekend, we’d receive comp time. He retired and was replaced by a manager who felt that as salaried employees, we didn’t deserve comp time, so there were many go-live weeks where we worked seven days or even back-to-back weeks that formed 14-day hits without a break and with no comp time. When we investigated, it turns out the company handbook is mute on the subject and it’s up to manager discretion. This would have been different if we were consultants or if we were bonused on billable hours, but we weren’t. Needless to say, there was a fair amount of turnover under the new manager (me included).


The negative impact it would have on my health. Too much airport food and booze and not enough sleep or exercise.


How a travel-heavy job would negatively impact my health. The inability to exercise on a sustained and regular basis, sleep deprivation, constant exposure to sick people on airplanes and buses, and constantly being expected to lavishly entertain clients with lots of alcohol all contributed to a pretty rapid decline in overall health and fitness.


Join an airlines club like American Admiral. if your employer won’t pay for it, you can usually use miles. When your flights get scrambled, the club staff will get you re-routed faster and with preference.


It makes it very hard to have a normal social life in your home town. When you travel all week, you tend to want to stay home on the weekends. If you don’t have a strong local social circle, this can make it tough to meet local friends. It also makes it hard to participate in community events or take weeknight classes (i.e. personal enrichment classes). I left a strong social circle in my 30s and moved to a new town on the opposite coast just when I started traveling full time for work, and 10 years later, I have thousands of frequent flyer points (and some fabulous global travels) but not one new friend in my new town. Something to think about.


As a business traveler, the last thing I want to do on weekends is travel some more. It has affected my desire to do weekend getaways, camping trips, and weekends away with the guys way more than I would have ever expected.


A travel-heavy job really reduces your ability to be involved in the community, be it board involvement, local government, or coaching a kids’ sports team. Getting involved is a lot easier if you are home every night of the week.


Sometimes an existing job you took without much travel can later turn into a job with heavy travel expectations, so apparently flexibility is just expected if you want to keep your job.


The travel T&E policy, in detail. Preferred vendors. Expectations about traveling on Sundays and holidays. Coverage for airplane WiFi. Will I be carting executives around with me all the time? Can I get executives or experts to come with me when I need them?


How tough it is on your body as you age. Back problems waiting to happen.


When I was in my 20s and fresh out of graduate school, I took a travel-heavy IT healthcare job that was exciting, challenging, and fulfilling. It was at the inception of the healthcare IT industry in the 1970s and everything we did was new. This lifestyle did not promote the ability to carry out personal relationships in an ideal manner. I was focused on my career and did not consider the long-term ramifications of not having met “Mr. Right.” Eventually I did meet and marry the right person, but by this time I was in my 40s and not able to start a family. We have been happily together now for 25 years and I recently retired from the healthcare IT industry. During this entire time, I continued weekly travel with the exception of a few positions I held as a direct employee of a healthcare system. The travel takes its toll, but the chance to work with many different organizations and people throughout the USA and Canada was very rewarding. My husband used my weekly Monday through Thursday absences as an opportunity to complete his PhD and he continues to work as a professor for a well-known online university.


Weekender 2/23/18

February 23, 2018 Weekender Comments Off on Weekender 2/23/18

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Weekly News Recap

  • Duke Health earns the first Stage 7 analytics recognition from HIMSS Analytics.
  • Practice Fusion, which is being acquired by Allscripts, abandons its ad-supported free EHR program, announcing that it will start charging each physician user $100 per month.
  • A leaked Nokia memo says that the company sees no way for its digital health business to become significant, less than two years after creating the business by acquiring France-based Withings for $190 million.
  • A JAMA editorial calls for CMS to release Medicare Advantage encounter data.
  • Google researchers publish their work in which they applied deep learning to eye photos to accurately identify cardiac risk factors such as age, gender, smoking status, blood pressure, and likelihood of having a heart attack.
  • Siemens announces that it will take its Siemens Healthineers medical technology business public in the next few months.
  • The House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs grills VA Secretary David Shulkin on the VA’s FY2019 budget request, questioning the project cost and interoperability capabilities of the Cerner system the VA wants to buy.

Best Reader Comments

I’ve been able to really get in and do more work as the CMIO once I understood the company’s mission, vision, and yearly metrics, i.e. executive dashboard. Are they focusing on telehealth this year, pop health, decrease CAUTI, CLABSI, readmissions, etc.? Which one is the darkest red? Be sure to focus some time there. This gets you immediate cred with the execs and the docs if you can deliver something to them into their live environment sooner than later that is easy to use, intuitive, and aligns to the execs’ dashboard. (David Butler)

I’d like to hear more from Ed about his perspective on the current state of professional organizations in terms of their true value and the ability for execs to truly benefit from participating. Beyond local chapters – which by their very nature are limited in breadth of participants – there aren’t many intimate opportunities available. Everything seems to be centered around and in bed with HIMSS. It’s just getting too big and too overtly commercial. Do execs really benefit from these mammoth organizations and infrequent – sometimes only once a year – opportunities for networking and thought leadership development? (SteveS)

Partners will find the savings from their cuts of coders as fool’s gold. There are a lot of hidden costs running an outsourcing development organization. (BeenThere)


Watercooler Talk Tidbits

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Readers funded the DonorsChoose teacher grant request of Ms. M in Florida, who asked for programmable Bee-Bots and a robot mouse for her K-5 STEM classes. She reports, “My kids love these little bees and mouse. Bee-Bot is fun for all ages, but it’s a great introduction to younger kids for learning how to code. That is what the coding mouse does as well. Both of them are very similar but have the same effect and are a lot of fun for the kids to play with and learn from. Thank you so much for supporting our classroom, believing in STEM education, helping us teachers, and giving the students a hands-on education.”

CNBC notes that Amazon has launched a lineup of 50 private labeled over-the-counter drugs that it calls Basic Care, potentially drawing foot traffic away from drug chains that make most of their money from walk-ins. Amazon sells a 500-table bottle of ibuprofen 200 mg for $7, about the same as Walmart but nearly half off the price charged by CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid. Costco’s Kirkland brand – also sold via Amazon as well as in its stores – has the best price I’ve seen at just $10 for 1,000 tablets.

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A review of “Grey’s Anatomy” by trauma surgeons finds that it gives trauma patients an unrealistic expectation of what their stay might look like. TV trauma patients died three times more often than in real life, most went straight from the ED to the OR vs. 25 percent of actual cases, and only a small number of patients transferred to a long-term care facility vs. the real 22 percent. Half of patients left the hospital within a week of serious injury vs. the real-life 20 percent and OR surgeons are often shown not wearing masks and protective eyewear to allow the audience to recognize them. The authors worry that unrealistic patient expectations, fueled by the listing of a medical advisor in the credits, may affect hospital satisfaction scores.They summarize,

American television medical dramas tend to rely on storylines that feature rare diseases, odd presentations of common diseases, fantastic and/or quirky injuries, and mass casualty events, all framed within a ‘realistic’ representation of a typical US hospital. In addition, the dramatic construct of a television serial lend to deviations from reality or accuracy in an effort to preserve the ability to communicate a story within the constraints of a one-hour show.

Maine debates whether veterinarians should be exempt from the state’s prescription monitoring program.

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A reader forwarded this mail-merged bulk email from the marketing person at a cloud services company who forgot to the add personalization to her HIMSS pitch. Not only did she recover brilliantly with a witty follow-up email, I’m impressed with her credentials – she has a PhD in neuroscience and co-founded a company that makes a line of bold-flavored organic sauerkraut (Lemon Ginger, Moroccan Fusion, Vindaloo Curry, and Green Chile). They’re offering Colorado beer (hopefully not Coors) at their HIMSS booth happy hour, although the sauerkraut sounds a lot more interesting.

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The HIMSS conference is just over a week away. The weather in Las Vegas should be OK, with daytime highs in the mid-60s and nighttime lows in the mid-40s with some clouds and little chance of rain. I was happy to find that even though MGM-owned hotels all charge for parking now, the Venetian-Palazzo complex still doesn’t and that even includes valet (which I used every day last time). Lyft is a good alternative – I’ve had better luck with it in Las Vegas than Uber.

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You may recall that after HIMSS18, it’s two straight years in Orlando since HIMSS moved HIMSS19 from Chicago to there, the second time it cancelled McCormick Place (the first time over expensive but indifferent union labor, the second over hotel room rates).

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Since there’s no HIStalkapalooza this year, here’s a nostalgia-inducing video from what’s probably my favorite one of all time, the 2012 version in Las Vegas that was sponsored by ESD. I recognize a bunch of folks in the video. The Palazzo restaurant we held it in closed a year later. What you probably don’t know (I just now remembered myself) is that it was originally booked for a Mexican restaurant also in the Palazzo called Dos Caminos that closed without warning on November 15, 2011 following a rent dispute, but the amazing ESD folks had First Food & Bar locked down just a few days later. I seem to recall that their pear-ginger martini was a hit.


In Case You Missed It


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Comments Off on Weekender 2/23/18

Morning Headlines 2/23/18

February 22, 2018 Headlines Comments Off on Morning Headlines 2/23/18

Duke Health First in the US to be Recognized by HIMSS Analytics for its Advanced Analytical Capabilities

Duke Health (NC) becomes the first health system to earn all three HIMSS Analytics Stage 7 capability and maturity honors – ambulatory EHR, acute care EHR, and the new AMAM analytics model of which Duke is the first Stage 7 winner.

VA Partners With DeepMind to Build Machine Learning Tools to Identify Health Risks for Veterans 

Google’s DeepMind Health subsidiary will use de-identified veteran health records to help the VA develop machine learning algorithms that can predict patient deterioration, initially focusing on acute kidney injury.

Bon Secours Health System to merge with Mercy Health of Ohio

Bon Secours Health System and Mercy Health – both Epic shops – will merge to create an $8 billion health system serving seven states across 1,000 facilities.

Comments Off on Morning Headlines 2/23/18

News 2/23/18

February 22, 2018 News 4 Comments

Top News

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Duke Health (NC) becomes the first health system to earn all three HIMSS Analytics Stage 7 capability and maturity honors – ambulatory EHR, acute care EHR, and the new AMAM analytics model of which Duke is the first Stage 7 winner.

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Reader Comments

From Early-Career Epic: “Re: education. My 20-year-goal is to be a C-suite hospital system exec. In researching advanced education, the most-recommended choice is a Master’s of Healthcare Management instead of the MPH I was planning. My undergrad is in management. What path would you suggest I take?” I’ll invite readers to comment, but I would recommend an MBA because: (a) it’s more generalized; (b) it’s more recognized should your healthcare plans not work out; and (c) my impression of the MS in Healthcare Management is that it covers general material that you could learn on the job. Also consider where in the C-suite you’d like to land – the MBA is fine for almost everything except CFO and a clinical position. I love the MPH degree for those who already hold a clinical degree (or plan to get one), but I don’t know that it has as much value as a standalone master’s. I would also suggest that if you’re looking for CEO/COO type jobs, consider a health system’s administrative internship or residency if you’ve got the connections to be named since hospitals frequently move those who are chosen up through the ranks. If your desired path is CIO, you can skip some layers and save some time by spending couple of years as a consultant if you don’t mind the travel, but you’ll still want that MBA. 

From Sunshine: “Re: new Orlando Health CIO. The new CEO came from Rex Healthcare (NC) and the new CIO worked there before Ascension. Final candidates were so weak that she looked like the best choice.” Novlet Mattus was CIO at much-smaller Rex from 2008 to 2012, while Orlando Health CEO David Strong was president of Rex for 10 years until he took the Orlando Health job in early 2015. You see all over healthcare that CEOs of both providers and vendors bring some of their executive entourage along with them when they switch jobs. Some that I’ve known personally in the past seemed to value comfortable loyalty or other unstated factors over competence, but part of being the boss is getting to choose your teams using whatever criteria you want.


HIStalk Announcements and Requests

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Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor HCTec. The Brentwood, TN-based company offers health IT consulting (full life cycle — including build, enhancements, optimization, and support — ERP, technical services);  revenue cycle consulting (HIM, clinical documentation improvement, case management staffing); and managed services (application support, help desk, legacy application support). The company’s 900 US-based consultants and 250 corporate team members provide services to 1,000 hospitals that can range from supplying a single expert partner to fielding fully-staffed on-site or remote teams. A recent case study describes their work with Saint Luke’s Health System to simultaneously optimize and support Epic, which improved employee satisfaction at a $20 million savings. Thanks to HCTec for supporting HIStalk. 

Listening: Strange Days by The Doors, the 50th anniversary (!) expanded edition. Mr. Mojo was definitely risin’ musically for the occasion at just 23 years of age.


Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for information.


People

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Deepak Murthy (Box) joins Innovaccer as president and chief business officer.

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SSI names Jeff Miller (CSC) chief product officer.

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Loyale Healthcare promotes industry long-timer Grattan Smith to EVP of channel strategies.

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DirectTrust President, CEO, and Co-Founder David Kibbe, MD, MBA will step down at the end of the year.


Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

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Soon to be under the Allscripts umbrella, Practice Fusion will start charging customers $100 monthly subscription fees for its previously free EHR software.

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MModal investors inject $70 million into the company through a debt conversion. The speech recognition vendor acquired Landmark Transcription last fall, three years after emerging from bankruptcy.

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Eight months after kicking off a $1.5 billion Epic implementation, Mayo Clinic (MN) officials report a 50 percent increase in earnings attributed to reduced Medicaid losses, greater philanthropy gains, increased efficiencies, and strong investment returns.

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TractManager acquires Newport Credentialing Solutions, adding the provider enrollment software company to its stable of healthcare sourcing divisions that include MD Buyline and MediTract. TractManager’s CEO is former Cerner President Trace Devanny.

Bon Secours Health System and Mercy Health – both Epic shops – will merge to create an $8 billion health system serving seven states across 1,000 facilities.


Privacy and Security

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University of Virginia Health System notifies 1,882 patients of an 18 month-long malware attack that enabled a hacker to remotely view hospital settings, possibly including PHI, through breached devices.


Government and Politics

A NEJM Catalyst article calls for Congress to lift its ban on a unique patient ID, enacted in 1998 due to patient privacy concerns even though other countries that issue those identifiers haven’t had problems.

Google’s DeepMind Health subsidiary will use the de-identified health records of 700,000 veterans to help the VA develop machine learning algorithms that can predict patient deterioration, initially focusing on acute kidney injury. DeepMind embarked on a similar project for the NHS last year that became mired in controversy over its failure to comply with UK data privacy laws.


Innovation and Research

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The latest Electronic Prior Authorization National Adoption Scorecard report from CoverMyMeds finds that the integration of EPA software with EHRs has increased year over year, and that prescribers who use a dedicated EPA tool spend 2.5 hours less on PAs than those who use more than one method.


Other

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The local paper highlights employee unrest at Intermountain Healthcare (UT) after it announced it would move 2,300 billing and collections employees to jobs with new outsourcing vendor R1 RCM (formerly Accretive Health). Those employees have voiced concerns about the Chicago-based company’s reputation for shaking down patients at the bedside for payment and other questionably ethical collection practices.

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A historically accurate tweet from BIDMC CIO and gentleman farmer John Halamka, MD.


Sponsor Updates

  • ESD publishes an explainer video of ARI, the cloud-based project management tool that it will demonstrate at HIMSS.
  • EClinicalWorks posts customer success stories for Petaluma Health Center (CA) and Prime Care Family Practice (VA).
  • Idaho Business Review profiles Healthwise SVP of Consumer Health Experiences Christy Calhoun.
  • Boston Children’s Hospital joins the TriNetX Global Health Research Network.
  • Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency adopts the Carequality framework via its Netsmart EHR.
  • ChartLogic will exhibit at the 2018 AAOS Meeting in New Orleans March 7-9.
  • Health Catalyst customers document 125 performance improvements including lower mortality, higher revenue, and better patient experiences using its data, analytics, and professional services.
  • Amion adds PerfectServe’s clinical communication and collaboration platform to its physician scheduling software.
  • Kyruus will present at Elasticon 2018 February 28 in San Francisco.
  • Visage Imaging announces GA of Visage 7 Enterprise Imaging Platform version 7.1.11.
  • PatientSafe Solutions will release new features for its PatientTouch communications software at HIMSS.
  • Mobile Heartbeat releases Version 18.1 of its MH-CURE clinical communications and collaboration platform.
  • Definitive Healthcare adds ICD-10 claims analytics for 2016, plus dashboards for hospital financial comparisons and quality performance, to its database of healthcare market research.
  • Cerner adds real-time prescription benefit data from Surescripts to its Millenium EHR.

Blog Posts


Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
Get HIStalk updates. Send news or rumors.
Contact us.

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EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 2/22/18

February 22, 2018 Dr. Jayne 2 Comments

The pre-HIMSS madness has started, with companies starting to churn out press releases that try to act very important but don’t actually say much. More than a few vendors save up even the smallest tidbits to try to release them for HIMSS, but miss the fact that their news is just going to get lost in the shuffle. The buzz words are out in full force, so for those of you playing along at home I offer up a HIMSS18 Buzzword Bingo card for your enjoyment:

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Some vendors are sending out sneak peeks of what will be in their booths, but quite a few others are sending cold-call type emails that are sometimes registering as spam. One arrived today thanking me for my interest in a particular company and asking me to click to verify my email address. It was a mainstream vendor, so I didn’t think a lot about it, but on the other hand, it sounded more like phishing so I decided to take a pass. Vendors need to think twice about the wording in their messaging (or hire public relations people who will think about it) if they want to truly get attention and not be accused of spamming people.

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Other vendors are going for the “wow factor,” with Imprivata shipping this HIMSS survival kit. In addition to protein bars and 5-hour energy shots, it has both plastic and metal water bottles, along with lip balm. The red survival kit has tissues, hand sanitizer, vitamin C supplements, and lollipops. The cutest part is the little black trinket stuck above the Imprivata logo – it’s a camera cover for your laptop, that slides to cover or reveal the lens depending on your needs. Usually I keep a piece of tape over my camera, but I’m going to test drive their slider and see how it does. I had some accidental camera exposure on a call several weeks ago, when I had to switch laptops at the last moment. It was one of those “crazy ponytail” days with an unmade hotel bed in the background, and the person I was talking to wondered why I covered my camera abruptly.

CMS announced its Annual Call for Measures for Eligible Hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals participating in Medicare EHR incentive programs. They’re looking for measures to be included for rules that are made during 2019 and would be optional in 2020 and required starting in 2021. CMS is looking for measures that build on Certified EHR Technology and increase interoperability, along with those that might improve program efficiency, effectiveness, and flexibility. Last on their list (although most clinicians might say it should be first) are measures that address patient outcomes and emphasize patient safety.

Much as there is increasing research into distracted driving, I’d like to propose some evaluation in the latter two categories that would look at distracted practicing. It’s increasingly hard to focus on the patient when you’re busy with data gathering, finding the right fields for documentation, and fielding clinical decision support popups. As systems become more sophisticated, I sometimes feel like I’m in the cockpit of a fighter jet rather than trying to care for patients.

CMS is also eager to find measures that would reduce reporting burden, avoid duplication of previous measures, and include an “emerging certified health IT functionality or capability.” It’s sexy to focus on new features, but how about allowing physicians to focus on the technology they already have and learn to use it well? I see numerous physicians who are underusing features such as order sets and clinical decision support, which should be able to drive clinical outcomes, reduce inappropriate ordering, and improve efficiency. They also tend to under use features that would make them not only more efficient but more satisfied with their systems, such as personalization features and individual preferences. Those features take time to set up on the front end but pay dividends on the back end, Shortsighted physicians who skip the pre-work wind up with many more clicks down the road.

Speaking of CMS programs, physicians continue to vote with their feet, not only opting out of the incentive programs, but by opting out of Medicare altogether. Based on data from the Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS) as of the end of the year, more than 16,000 physicians have filed affidavits to opt out of Medicare. The number was down in 2017 from a peak of more then 7,000 in 2016, but the overall trend is concerning. I recently received my letter from the Department of Health and Human Services detailing the penalty I’ll be taking this year. Since I’m in an employed situation and my practice isn’t participating in the incentive programs, there’s not much to be done. But if I were back in private practice, I might start thinking twice about CMS participation vs. moving to a practice that doesn’t have a payer-based compensation system. Nearly 40 percent of my residency class is now in practices that are either retainer-based or offer substantial savings through cash-only services.

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I’m in a no-travel zone leading up to HIMSS, which I desperately need after my most recent travel experience. After a flight that included some turbulence that felt a bit like the prelude to astronaut training, I made it to my hotel and found this little guy in my bed. Fortunately I spied him (or her) right when I came through the door and not after I had gotten settled in. I’m not sure what it is (it seemed too large to be a bed bug and not quite the right shape), but I am waiting to hear back from an entomologist friend. Although the hotel was apologetic (and moved me to a top floor corner suite), it’s unsettling. I’m hoping the only living thing in my room at the Venetian is a CMIO with tired feet, although a plant would be OK too.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve found in a hotel room? Email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.

HIStalk Interviews Neil Smiley, CEO, Loopback Analytics

February 22, 2018 Interviews Comments Off on HIStalk Interviews Neil Smiley, CEO, Loopback Analytics

Neil Smiley is founder and CEO of Loopback Analytics of Dallas, TX.

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Tell me about yourself and the company.

My wife and I live in Dallas. We have three children, all grown with now kids of their own. I have a computer science degree from Dartmouth and spent the first 15 years of my career in management consulting, first with Accenture and then EY. Then in 1997, I got the entrepreneurial bug and decided to leave consulting and start a company called Phytel. It is a software as a service platform company that, over a number of years, we grew to serve about 30 million patients. Phytel, along with another company called Explorys, was acquired by IBM as part of their launch of the Watson Health platform in 2015.

Loopback Analytics, where I serve as CEO, spun off that effort in 2009. The company provides a cloud-based platform we call EpisodeInsights. It enables health systems to proactively identify at-risk populations, match those patients with the appropriate services, and then evaluate the impact of those interventions on outcomes. The platform allows provider organizations to selectively and securely share data with network partners across care settings to coordinate care beyond their own walls, certainly outside of facilities they own. The key there is protecting data that should not be shared and sharing data that should.

How do you differentiate the company in a crowded population health management and analytics market?

We don’t go to market as just an analytics play. Instead, we’ve focused around specific solution areas where we feel like we can have a meaningful impact. Then, we’ve developed the specific competency within those verticals — specialty pharmacy, behavioral health and high utilizers, and then this area of bundled payments. When we go to market, it’s typically not to sell, “Here’s some analytics. Why don’t you go plug it in and see what it can do?” We come as a value proposition built around our return on investment, specifically around one of those verticals.

How do you address specialty drug use as a significant driver of cost?

There’s an interesting trend that’s happening. Our primary customers are large health systems. For a long time, they have been banned from managing limited distribution specialty pharmacy, which is the leading edge of innovation. Folks are concerned about how much these new meds cost and whether they’re worth the money. We equip health systems with a framework so they can establish real-world evidence around what they do and leverage the fact that they have a much better opportunity to coordinate all aspects of the patient’s care — particularly a complex patient who’s on some specialty therapy — and differentiate how well they can do that relative to potentially other distribution channels.

We see big pharma as being under increasing pressure to provide real evidence that there’s value. Pharma would like to do that, but struggles. How do you set up a measurement framework that you can believe in and all the parties can agree upon? This is where our company is going — providing a foundation for managing value-based care reimbursement models.

Some drug companies are hinting that they are willing to go at risk in getting paid only if their drug delivers the desired outcome for a specific patient. Are those companies showing interest in using provider data to monitor the process?

There’s a couple of problems to solve. One is that absent some kind of independent arbitrator, our role is as a data custodian. We can pull in data from a number of different sources that’s needed to complete that picture, but not be beholden to any one aspect — pharma, the health system, or in some cases, drug distribution centers. How do you provide a degree of independence so that as we’re looking at the efficacy of an intervention, it can be evaluated objectively? It’s interesting.

We’re seeing something similar with medical devices. Manufacturers are interested in engaging with health systems, potentially going at risk and getting into the clinical outcomes business rather than selling a widget and saying, good luck with that. It’s a requirement that for them to continue to defend their margins, they have to be able to point to the value that they’re creating.

We take data availability for granted these days, but these conversations couldn’t have happened five or 10 years ago

That’s absolutely right. Even today, how to share that data is a sensitive topic. People are obviously and appropriately sensitive about sharing protected health information, because if there’s a breach, that’s not good for anyone. The key role that we play is not to put all the data together and share it indiscriminately like it’s in one big pot. Instead, we very selectively share data around populations that individuals or stakeholders have in common, but then be able to protect the data that doesn’t need to be shared. If you don’t have that sort of governance structure, all the technology in the world isn’t going to help you.

Hospitals and skilled nursing facilities have mostly ignored each other and didn’t share data. What benefits are they seeing when they work from a common pool of data?

It’s a relatively recent phenomenon. Until there are financial incentives for these parties to come together, there’s just not a business reason to do so. It’s really the emergence of ACOs. We’re intrigued with this relaunch of bundled payments with the BPCI Advanced that CMS announced a few weeks ago. These provide the financial incentives for stakeholders to get together. Previously, they’ve each done their own thing, leaving a patient to be their own general contractor.

We see a tremendous role for us to come alongside the health system that wants to form a network with the best quality providers and hold them accountable for quality of care, but also the economics of the care that they’re providing with aligned financial incentives. If you’re doing a great job, you stand to profit from it, but if you’re not doing a good job, then it’s going to cost you. I’m excited about the emergence of these new models. They are going to pave the way to a higher degree of care coordination than has existed in the past.

Is that kind of vertical interoperability going to be more important than expecting competing health systems to share patient information?

Folks are increasingly aware that the social determinants of care play a significant role in terms of patient risk factors. Clinicians, for the most part, have ignored these characteristics.

We’re doing an intriguing project in North Texas. We have the largest health systems, many of which are competitors, getting together with the criminal justice system, jails, and the outpatient mental health services. They are knitted together through our platform to impact a difficult problem, which is unmanaged behavioral health issues with high utilizers who, up until now, were bouncing between the jail and the emergency departments in a way that is unsatisfactory, both for them and also for the community. With these kinds of formerly intractable problems, there’s a real opportunity, with the right kind of precise data sharing, to begin to make an impact that just wasn’t possible before.

What lessons did you learn from Phytel that you can apply to Loopback Analytics?

One of the things that allowed Phytel to take off was providing a return on investment guarantee. We basically said, we have the data flowing through the platform. We can ensure that a physician who’s now being held to pay-for-performance or trying to manage their practice more effectively by using targeted analytics and getting patients the care they need can benefit via to their bottom line. It was doing well by doing good. You have to connect the dots. It helped, of course, that we were doing all this at a time when population health was becoming more mainstream, so we rode that wind as well.

This continues to be one of the key challenges of anyone who is trying to innovate in healthcare. We still have a predominance of the fee-for-service reimbursement model, which often pays people to do things that aren’t helpful to patients. We have to pick around the edges still, finding those intersections where we can provide better outcomes, make providers more money, and reduce cost. If we can’t do all three of those things, then we have to stand down until reimbursement models change.

Your hit a home run with your first swing of your entrepreneurial bat with Phytel. How would you assess today’s health IT business climate with regard to innovation?

I don’t have a crystal ball, but I will say that if you’re trying to launch a health IT initiative on soft dollar benefits, it’s a lot harder. If you can find the intersection where there’s a compelling return on investment, those are the kinds of initiatives that I would get more excited about. Healthcare is entrenched and isn’t as nimble as a lot of other industries that I worked with in my consulting days. You have to have something compelling to interrupt somebody from their current set of priorities. Typically, it has to make financial sense for them to change.

Do you have any final thoughts?

Healthcare is in the middle of historic transition from volume-based to value-based care. The pace of change is uneven and messy. I don’t have a completely rosy picture that it will all be up and to the right. Perverse incentives still work against the goals of better outcomes and lower cost. Thankfully, what started out as this small niche play a few years ago is steadily expanding as value-based reimbursement models become more pervasive.

We’re particularly excited about the relaunch of bundled payments by CMS as BPCI Advanced. Initiatives like that provide an opportunity for providers to make more money by doing the right thing and improving the care system. It’s a rare opportunity to get visibility, specifically data of full episode claims, to inform their network design and prepare for broader adoption of value-based payment models. I would certainly encourage health systems and physician group practices that have an opportunity to at least apply and get their data. We’re putting a lot of effort into that.

Comments Off on HIStalk Interviews Neil Smiley, CEO, Loopback Analytics

Morning Headlines 2/22/18

February 21, 2018 Headlines Comments Off on Morning Headlines 2/22/18

Practice Fusion is scrapping free software model after agreeing to sell to Allscripts

Despite chief executive statements to the contrary, Practice Fusion will start charging customers $100 monthly subscription fees for its previously free EHR software.

Mayo Clinic sees big jump in 2017 earnings

Eight months after kicking off a $1.5 billion Epic implementation, Mayo Clinic officials report a 50-percent increase in earnings that they attribute to reduced Medicaid losses, greater philanthropy gains, increased efficiencies, and strong investment returns.

UVA Health System Notifies 1,882 Patients About Potential Privacy Issue

The University of Virginia Health System notifies nearly 2,000 patients of a malware attack that enabled a hacker to remotely view hospital settings, possibly including PHI, through breached devices.

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CIO Unplugged 2/21/18

February 21, 2018 Ed Marx 2 Comments

The views and opinions expressed are mine personally and are not necessarily representative of current or former employers.

First Days

This is the last in a four-part series on key considerations and action items during your first 120 days in a new job.

They say the typical executive will switch positions 5-7 times during his or her career. How can you ensure a smooth and effective transition? This series is intended to compliment what others have written over the years with some fresh perspective. This post will begin where the last left. A shout out to several peers whose ideas are reflected below.

A summary of the posts in this series.

30 Days Prior. After you have celebrated your new role with friends and family, you have to get to work. This is a challenging transition time as you must first honor your commitments and obligations to your current employer while also carving out time to focus on your pending role. Your primary commitment and loyalty remains with your current employer. If you can find some time to invest in your pending gig, it will pay dividends.

Day 1-30. Your first 30 days on the job are the most critical. The first day can be nerve-racking. You typically head straight for orientation or to your new office and meet your manager. Whatever the circumstance, dress the part and take a deep breath! Remember your first day of school?

Day 31-60. By this time, you no longer need a GPS to find your way around campus. You are becoming familiar with the organizational culture and building foundations of trust with key leaders and team. You are working hard but eating right and getting in rest.

Now we are at Day 60-90. The actions you take from this point forward establish the DNA of your organization. It is challenging to change trajectory as you lead from the base you established in your first 90 days. Final adjustments should be made during this time.

You are mastering many of the basics. You are learning culture, establishing relationships, converting quick wins, and building your team. There will be many nuances depending on your organization and the state of your division, but the following are generally solid areas to focus on.

90-Day Plan

Create and publish a second 90-day plan. This will buy you more time to develop your strategy and complete your onboarding. You have to visibly be moving things forward even while learning your new job. If you have no published plan, colleagues may assume the worse or others may attempt to fill a suspected void. It is best to showcase continuous action. The additional plan contents will also continue to keep your organization focused on getting things done, not waiting for some magical master plan. See next!

Strategy

Simply put, there are three broad categories of IT strategy: non-existent, aligned, and converged. Your objective should be to reach strategic convergence, as explained below. If there is no strategy, you must create one. If there is an aligned strategy, you should set the stage for convergence.

  • Non-existent. Many organizations have no defined IT strategy. This may be one of the reasons you were recruited. Before you seek to collaborate and create a strategy, make sure that other foundations are firm or else you’ll be building on shifting sand. Ensure governance is in place, as well as a functional project management office. Double down on key peer relationships to ensure the developed strategy sticks. There are many resources and examples available online. Someone once said, “If there is no plan, people will wander.” They will.
  • Aligned. Some organizations have a strategy that is aligned with the business. The fundamentals are popping and much care is given to ensure the IT strategy is in place to support the overall organizational strategy. Super. Make sure you have the right people on the IT governance team and aim to have your CEO co-chair with you. Include a patient for their unique perspective. Publish your plan and report on related metrics. Now focus on getting out of the IT strategy business and setting your eyes on convergence.
  • Converged. When the IT strategy is embedded as part of the overall organizational strategy, it’s organizational nirvana. IT is woven throughout, much as a thread within a tapestry. There are no defined boundaries; IT is just part of the business. There is little reason to call out IT because it is at the same level of all other key organizational functions. It is hard state to achieve and remain, but worth working towards.

Accountability

It is good to be brutally honest about IT and identify any gaps. Transparency is key. Share openly when things go wrong. Your customers know there are gaps and they know before you do when things are not working well. Go ahead and be proactive, own up, and take action. In addition to highlighting IT-related metrics, show all failures, along with the root cause analysis. It is old school, but there’s nothing wrong with adding one of those “X Days since…our last accident” reminders to keep the importance of high reliability front and center. You are what you measure.

Partnerships

You won’t succeed on your own, so be extremely diligent in pursuing relationships. Not everyone will be warm and welcoming, so it is up to you. It is not that your peers are uncaring; more likely, they are plain busy. It is your responsibility to develop high quality partnerships with your peers.

Vendor Management

I recommend developing a vendor management office and look to segment vendors in order to better manage your time. One method is to divide vendors into strategic, tactical, neutral, and emerging categories. Don’t get fixated on my descriptors as much as the concepts. Your time is precious and you will run out of resources if you try to meet with everyone. I stick with 3-4 strategic partners and 2-3 emerging vendors while my team handles the balance. You should invest time with key suppliers, as they can accelerate your strategy and success.

Professional Organizations

These are your lifeline. Do not ignore. Organizations like CHIME and HIMSS offer so much support through all of their programs and services. I would not be where I am today without them. By all means, give back to the broader community, especially local chapters.

Community CIOs

Another lifeline is your area peers, inside and outside of healthcare. In NYC and Dallas, I made it a point to try to bring peers together. In Cleveland, all area healthcare CIOs are meeting for dinner. I also encourage reaching out to the non-healthcare CIO community as part of onboarding. They can provide valuable insights and direct you to community resources. Asking for help is a sign of confidence and strength.

Leadership

I’m not sure I can overemphasize this. You must have the right people on your team. We all know this intellectually, but it is a challenge to pull off. Do you keep everyone? Individually, are there issues with competency? Character flaws? Does he or she embrace your vision? Is she or he better then you? (hopefully yes!) Your team alone may not lead to your success or demise, but will be the accelerator of either.

Opportunity

What an amazing opportunity you have as the new leader on board. You have been chosen for a reason and now you have to exceed your end of the employment agreement. To optimize your success, I encourage you to complete a written 90-day plan. Take posts like this and other resources to give you some ideas. Reach out to mentors and others who have gone before you. Write it out and execute.

Feedback

What other considerations and action items should leaders consider in their first 90 days that I haven’t covered in the First Days series?

edmarx

Ed encourages your interaction by clicking the comments link below. He can be followed on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

HIStalk Interviews Kamal Patel, CIO, Ellkay

February 21, 2018 Interviews Comments Off on HIStalk Interviews Kamal Patel, CIO, Ellkay

Kamal Patel is co-founder and CIO of Ellkay of Elmwood Park, NJ.

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Tell me about yourself and the company.

I am one of the co-founders of Ellkay, along with Lior Hod. We started the business in 2002 in his basement. Both of us are developers. We learned about business along the way.

We are now close to 200 people. When we started the business, our first client happened to be Quest Diagnostics, which was fantastic. We started with New York and New Jersey and then we expanded across the whole country with demographic connectivity.

We are known as the healthcare data plumbers in the industry. We solve key problems around all kinds of interoperability. Any data, any system. We assist in migrating data from all the legacy systems within a healthcare environment and ambulatory environment.

How would you describe the current and future state of interoperability from a technology perspective?

When you look at the lab environment, that is where you run into a lot of point-to-point interfaces, where you are connecting the ambulatory locations or reference lab locations for sharing lab orders and results back and forth. There’s a great need for interoperability in technology to streamline this process.

When we started the business, we started doing demographic interfaces. We were doing it across the country, most of them with point-to-point interfaces across all the various systems. We focused on building a platform that allows for all kinds of interoperability.

The way the industry is headed, some form of normalization or structure is required. But in the current state, the problems that everyone is having around interoperability is that it’s not necessarily standard, which is what everybody seems to focus on. There is no single platform that offers speed of deployment, cost effectiveness, and full monitoring of everything that is happening. Whether the data is going to APIs, HL7, FHIR, or sharing CCDs, any of those forms.

Do you see a lot of problems related more to the non-technical aspects of exchanging information related to individual system rules of how data is edited and stored?

When these systems were designed, they used the best available way to store that data. When you have two different systems, they are obviously going to have different ways of storing that data.

There are two parts to normalizing that data. One is the ability to take data from one system — it could be a database or CCD share — and standardize the data in a simple form. This is what everybody is talking about. Standardization will allow for easy viewing of data at the point of care.

The second part within standardization takes it to a different level with cross-reference mappings. Medications might be stored in one system using the RxNorm format, while another system uses some other format. These mappings need to occur around medications, problems, allergies, immunizations, and document types for analytics engines to work and to build machine learning pieces and so on.

These are some of the challenges the industry is solving. We are doing our part, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

What advice would you give a practice that is considering migrating to another EHR and wondering what data can be moved over?

Don’t be afraid. Today, when you ask a practice which data they want to move, they’re scared. Our approach has been that we’ll take everything you have and migrate it over. Whatever went into the old EHR, we will put it into the new EHR. We will map each destination in the EHR, medication to medication, and so forth. When they start using the system on Day 1, all the pieces are there.

Anything that can’t be migrated, we will move it into an archive, a repository where we are managing it. We will link those patients back to the existing EHR via a single sign-on. When they open a patient’s chart in the new EHR, they can simply click on the archive link and it will pull in all the historical data.

It’s a completely different world in health systems. They have all these legacy systems where we get the data, but we also get the same patient records from their ambulatory locations that they may want to archive. We consolidate these patients and link them to their primary EHR, whether it is Epic, Cerner, or others. We get the patient IDs from the primary EHR and then match it with the legacy systems, then we match it with the ambulatory patient IDs. When they open the patient record in their health system EHR, they see a consolidated, longitudinal view. Not only from the legacy system, but also from all the ambulatory practices that the health system may have acquired over time.

The company is of significant size with 200 employees. What created the growth and where will the company go in the future?

We’ve been growing on both sides because of the problems in the market that we can solve. We’ve been growing our connectivity and interoperability sites with labs, clinical data feeds, and scheduling interfaces. In solving all these different challenges, we have tremendous growth opportunities.

On the archiving side, when Meaningful Use Stage 2 was going on, we were doing a lot of data migrations for newly purchased EHRs. Now we’re doing a lot of health system migrations on really large scales. If a health system has 200 practices and 20 legacy systems that they’re constantly paying maintenance on, our goal is to help them reduce that maintenance and streamline all the data in a central, secure repository. We keep all that data discrete and still have it available at the point of care.

On the interoperability side, there are a lot of different types of challenges. We don’t believe that any form of standardization is going to solve all these things. We partner with a lot of EHR vendors. We partner with a lot of labs. We partner with ACOs. Everybody has different needs.

We recently moved from 13,000 square feet to a 74,000-square-foot building that we purchased. We are on a significant hiring spree. We are super excited about the growth and the direction of the company.

How would you describe the company’s culture?

The company is awesome. We focus on culture. We very rarely have people leave us.

In our office, the environment is amazing. We have had free lunch every single day since we started in 2002  — we even wrote a software program for handling the lunch orders and processes around it. We have bees on the roof and we make our own honey. All the beekeeping is done by Ellkay employees and our president even goes on the roof.

We are involved in two specific charities that we are tied to as an organization. One is for kids on the autism spectrum, Alpine Learning Group, where we assist them in fundraising and bike events. Our next event is rappelling from our building for this charity. We are also involved with Embrace Kids Foundation that helps families that have kids with cancer. They can use the money to take the kids to Disney or use it for whatever expenses they may have.

When we hire people, we’re looking at, are you going be a lifer at this company? The interview process is intense, but once they come through, it’s an amazing family environment. As we grow, we may struggle to maintain that, but so far, it’s been fantastic.

Do you have any final thoughts?

Our strengths are customer service, speed, reduced cost, and our platform.

We put great emphasis on the fact that it all starts with the customer and the service we provide. Even though we like to think about delivering products, platforms, and speed, the fact that our customers are extremely satisfied with what we do is critical. Everything we do is transparent. Our customers can see, through our online portal, every single phone call that our service reps have made and the amount of time they spend working on their projects.

We believe our interface interoperability platform, LKTransfer, is a completely new way of thinking about interfaces. In traditional thinking, health systems purchased an interface engine and scaled by hiring more resources. Our thought process is that interfaces in a health system should be done by just one person, and instead of taking weeks and months, it should be done in hours and minutes.

We are extremely focused on innovation and we have a dedicated R&D team that is focused on solving the new challenges in the healthcare industry. We are super excited about what we have been doing and where we are headed.

Comments Off on HIStalk Interviews Kamal Patel, CIO, Ellkay

Morning Headlines 2/21/18

February 20, 2018 Headlines Comments Off on Morning Headlines 2/21/18

Time to Release Medicare Advantage Claims Data

A JAMA editorial calls for CMS to release Medicare Advantage encounter data to allow taxpayers to see how their money is being spent on its growing number of beneficiaries.

Electronic Health Records Don’t Reduce Administrative Costs

Researchers find that a large academic health system’s certified EHR significantly drives up administrative costs associated with billing and insurance activities.

Leaked Nokia memo says no path forward for ‘struggling’ digital health business

Less than a week after announcing a strategic review of its digital health business, Nokia Chief Strategy Officer Kathrin Buvac tells employees that it will most likely not be a “meaningful part” of the company’s future.

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News 2/21/18

February 20, 2018 News Comments Off on News 2/21/18

Top News

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A JAMA editorial calls for CMS to release Medicare Advantage encounter data to allow taxpayers to see how their money is being spent on its growing number of beneficiaries. The article concludes that if the data is good enough to pay providers from, it’s good enough for the public to see. 


Reader Comments

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From Jagged Pill: “Re: Orlando Health’s CIO position. It’s interesting to compare the stated job requirements with the credentials of the chosen candidate.” The job description doesn’t contain the requirement that the new VP/CIO have experience in an organization of similar size ($3.4 billion), but some might be surprised that new CIO Novlet Mattis got the job with just four years of CIO experience, all of that accrued in one-hospital, $954 million Rex Healthcare (NC). She came from Ascension Information Services, so maybe there’s a consulting connection there. The job description also says that Orlando Health will be choosing a new EHR and replacing its best-of-breed systems, which will be a huge loss for Allscripts (Orlando Health paid them $5.1 million in FY2016, according to tax filings) and a big win for Cerner or Epic. A local announcement says the IT department’s annual budget is $145 million. According to those same tax filings, retired CIO Rick Schooler was making $785K per year. Another interesting tidbit is that Orlando Health’s VP/CIO position reports to the CFO, which is almost unheard of except in small hospitals where the primary objective is controlling cost.

From Jack Anape: “Re: Mitre’s report on Cerner interoperability. Will the VA make it available to the public?” I haven’t heard what’s in the report, but I would bet the VA won’t release it publicly, especially since it looks like there’s about an 80 percent chance that VA Secretary David Shulkin will be shown the door after ending up on the wrong end of White House infighting. What the report says is anyone’s guess, but given that its emphasis was on how Cerner would interoperate seamlessly with whatever EHRs are being used by community-based providers that might treat a veteran, it doesn’t seem likely that the report will provide a ringing endorsement. There’s also the chance the White House-pushed, no-bid contract Cerner signing could be put on hold or the EHR decision process restarted if Shulkin isn’t there to promise Congress that this time, the VA really, really, really won’t blow through taxpayer IT billions without much to show for it.


HIStalk Announcements and Requests

I’m enjoying the responses to “What I Wish I’d Known Before … Taking a Travel-Heavy Job.” Add yours and you’ll see it in this weekend’s write-up.

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Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor WebPT, the most-trusted, industry-leading rehab therapy software platform. The Phoenix, AZ-based company’s robust, Web-based solution – created by a therapist for therapists — offers EMR, scheduling, documentation, billing, outcomes tracking, business reporting, patient engagement tools, and system integration in enhancing patient care and driving business growth regardless of staff size, facility type, or number of specialties. The company has a  99 percent customer retention rate, 99.99 percent uptime, 10,000 clinic customers, and 79,000 member users. The company announced last week its acquisition of BMS Practice Solutions, the largest rehab therapy RCM company. WebPT offers video testimonials and case studies that explain why more therapy professionals rely on WebPT than any other software. Industry long-timer Nancy Ham is CEO and board member. Thanks to WebPT for supporting HIStalk.

Here’s a physical therapy practice’s WebPT testimonial that I found on YouTube.

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Welcome to new HIStalk Platinum Sponsor Philips Wellcentive. The Alpharetta, GA-based company has since 2005 driven quality improvement, revenue growth, and business transformation for healthcare organizations that are transitioning to value-based care. The company’s population health management solution boosts clinical, financial, and human outcomes and has been recognized as a PHM leader by KLAS, IDC, and Chilmark. Philips Wellcentive helps its customers provide care management for nearly 50 million people, using intelligence gained from 2.5 billion data points each month to earn $700 million each year in value-based revenue through improved outcomes. I interviewed PHM Business Leader Niki Buchanan a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to Philips Wellcentive for supporting HIStalk.


Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre for information.


Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

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Inovalon reports Q4 results: revenue up 19 percent, adjusted EPS $0.06 vs. $0.05. Shares rose 9 percent in the past year vs. the Nasdaq’s gain of 23 percent. 


Sales

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The Sac Valley Medshare HIE chooses Diameter Health for clinical data normalization and standardization services.


People

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Datica hires Christopher Gerg (Gauntlet Consulting) as CTO/CSO.

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Ciox Health hires Florian Quarre (Deloitte) as chief digital officer, David Dyke (Change Healthcare) as VP of product management, and Paula Lawlor (Accuity Delivery Systems) as EVP of provider solutions.

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Sumit Nagpal (LumiraDX) joins Accenture as managing director and global lead for digital health strategy.


Government and Politics

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A perceptive New York Times article says that a widening gap between Americans who pay full price for their ACA marketplace health insurance and those who get free or heavily subsidized coverage causes some of the resentment against social programs that middle-class citizens pay for. It concludes that the only universally liked social programs are Social Security and Medicare because everybody benefits from them.

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Researchers create a live tracking website to call out organizations and individuals that aren’t complying with a new law that requires that all completed or abandoned FDA-registered clinical trials to publish their results, good or bad. Interestingly, the FDA itself has no plans to do tracking of its own. Clicking an organization’s name shows every clinical trial that it has underway, which then links to the ClinicalTrials.gov site for full study details. 

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HHS issues a proposed rule that will allow insurers to sell short-term health insurance plans that don’t meet ACA requirements. CMS says lower premiums will allow people to buy insurance who otherwise can’t afford it, although it doesn’t mention that bare-bones plans historically have barely resembled real health insurance with a long list of excluded services and no coverage of pre-existing conditions. Not to mention that they will likely destroy what’s left of the marketplace risk pool. I looked at some of the plans offered and they have deductibles as high as $12,500, 40 percent co-insurance up to a maximum of $10,000 annual out of pocket, no coverage for conditions that have been treated in the preceding 24 months, and a lifetime maximum of $600,000 (your cancer and stroke crystal ball had better be accurate). HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a tweet that the change will offer people “quality, affordable healthcare that works for them,” although he didn’t mention whether he or members of Congress who are covered by generous, taxpayer-paid plans with ACA-mandated coverage are planning to trade theirs in.


Privacy and Security

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra says he won’t sign off on mandatory physician use of its CURES prescription drug monitoring program until its security has been certified.


Other

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A KLAS report on clinical mobility finds that few hospitals are keeping late-model iPhones for employee use like they did before the iPhone 6, with some of them instead moving to Zebra phones because of the iPhone’s shortcomings (lack of ruggedization, poor WiFi connectivity, and lack of swappable batteries). The iPhone is still the first choice for executives and doctors who get a hospital-provided phone to keep. BYOD strategies include paying employees a stipend for using their own phones for work, providing secure texting apps, securing the device remotely via mobile device management, offering remote system log-in as a value-added option, allowing employees to disconnect while not on call, and blacklisting apps if necessary.

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Google researchers apply deep learning to images of the eye (specifically the retinal fundus) to accurately determine cardiac risk factors, such as a patient’s age, gender, smoking status, blood pressure, and likelihood of having a heart attack. They hope to expand their work with a larger dataset in which more cardiovascular events occurred and to fine tune their risk prediction by looking at lifestyle changes or medications.

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Eric Topol notes that healthcare has morphed from a small industry to the country’s largest without improving outcomes.

A tiny physician survey finds that three-quarters use mobile health in their practice, but mostly only for internal messaging or for quick EHR lookups on their phones. Almost no practices offer telemedicine visits, although that doesn’t necessarily mean their patients aren’t using it – maybe they’re just getting them elsewhere. Few practices accept information from patient wearables, most commonly because the data doesn’t flow into their EHR , although I would bet the real reason is they aren’t being paid to review the information and are afraid of being sued if they miss something.

A medical resident’ s opinion piece ponders whether “the academic arms race” gunner competition among medical school applicants creates better doctors or perhaps instead burns them out. It made me think – are intelligence, drive, and competitiveness the best predictors of being a caring doctor?

Experts warn that the US military’s planned surge will struggle since three-fourths of Americans aged 17-24 are ineligible to serve because of obesity, other health conditions, criminal backgrounds, or lack of education. From the non-military viewpoint, that means employers will either have to hire them warts and all or they’ll be unemployed and thus supported by taxpayers.

In Australia, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians goes back to paper for its medical trainee exam after its first attempt at using a computer-based system locks users out five hours into their test. Test-takers who were planning to leave immediately afterward for vacation or to curl fetally in the corner from panic attacks over their future now have to prepare for the paper re-test that will be administered on March 2.


Sponsor Updates

  • Hands On Technology will integrate Ability Network’s RCM application into its rehab EMR/PM.
  • PatientKeeper and its owner HCA are awarded a patent for the way its software displays the most relevant patient information based on the user’s specialty and preference.
  • SSI launches an analytic product for ambulatory surgery centers.
  • Audacious Inquiry delivers more than 5 million clinical event alerts per month via its Encounter Notification Service.
  • The Tech Tribune includes CareSync in its list of the top 10 best tech startups in Tampa, FL.
  • CTG acquires Paris-based consulting and digital services business Soft Company.

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HIStalk Interviews Tom Skelton, CEO, Surescripts

February 20, 2018 Interviews Comments Off on HIStalk Interviews Tom Skelton, CEO, Surescripts

Tom Skelton is CEO of Surescripts of Arlington, VA.

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Tell me about yourself and the company.

I’ve been in technology for 30 years. I’ve been doing this a long time. I still find it challenging and interesting and I hope that all this technology that we’re all deploying is making a big difference out there.

Most people probably think of Surescripts in terms of electronic prescribing, which is now widely implemented and in some cases mandated. The next wave involves add-on capabilities, such as prescription price transparency and automating prior authorization. What is the status of those efforts within the industry and within Surescripts?

I think you are absolutely right. There’s a lot of information going back and forth. Prescriptions, eligibility, and some of the core things have made huge strides.

Price transparency is a big thing and we as an industry need to rise to the occasion. We’re now able to provide, at the point of care, information about co-pay and therapeutic alternatives. These are extremely helpful for consumers and fit very well into a consumer-driven world.

I would say it’s early stages here. It took 14 or 15 years to get 90 percent of prescriptions on the network. Electronic prescribing for controlled substances was introduced in 2011 and at the end of 2016, the number was up to 14 percent. The transparency piece is going to take a little while, but we expect a very big year in that regard for 2018. We have a lot of rollouts going on and physicians and patients will start to benefit from that very quickly.

Will the model follow e-prescribing, where the initial effort involved standalone applications that were rarely used that were then integrated into physician workflow?

Yes. Physician workflow is one of the absolute keys here. We’re in a market where physician burnout is rampant. Pressure on their time is just absolutely amazing.

Since its founding, Surescripts has been focused on partnering with electronic healthcare records vendors and other technology providers to make sure that physicians and pharmacists don’t need to step out of their workflow to do what needs to be done for a patient. If you’re looking at price transparency, the issue goes just beyond pricing and the alternatives. It’s a lot deeper than that. It sets the stage for whether or not a patient adheres to the treatment regimen that the physician has prescribed. That’s one of the key things that gets lost. That co-pay differential — $10 here, $20 there — makes a big difference in adherence levels.

That’s a huge issue for the industry. It’s a huge issue for the country. You move into the world of electronic prior authorization. All of this ties together when you look at what’s going on in the market. This front door of understanding what the patient’s benefits really provide them. Also, understanding whether or not that prior auth is really necessary. Making that as easy as possible is key.

When you look at adherence, the introduction of prior auth alone causes adherence scores to fall substantially. They approach a 40 percent decline in some cases. Not just prescriptions — when I was running a radiology company, we saw 25 percent declines in utilization as soon we sent letters saying that we were introducing prior auth for MRIs. This is something the healthcare system has to get good at.

That’s also true when you look at specialty drugs. You’re seeing a huge increase in utilization and cost of specialty drugs across the system. That’s also driving prior authorization work, and that’s important as well. When you’ve got $500 billion worth of specialty pharmacy spend, you want to make sure that very sick people get access to the drugs that they are required to take.

Is it a challenge for EHR vendors now that many other software vendors want to connect to them and it’s hard to determine whether a given company is a partner or a competitor?

Absolutely. I don’t think there’s any question that the EHR vendors have a tremendous challenge in dealing with all of the requests that are made of them and in meeting those requests. We’re coming out an era where government mandates drove a lot of the innovation and pushed a lot of the coding towards the EHRs. As that era recedes into the past a bit, they’ve got tough choices to make about what innovation they code first.

Our job is to make it as easy for them as possible. We’ve built tools that help do that. We have accelerators that make it easy for them to do that integration, taking advantage of standards that exist in the market, both technical standards in the information provided and the standards around how that’s formatted. They’ve certainly got a lot of work that they need to do. They are the front door, in many cases, to these hospitals and physician offices.

FDA and drug companies are interesting in using provider EHR information for market surveillance. Do you see Surescripts as having a role in provider-FDA data exchange?

As our role in the industry has grown and changed, we’ve tried to support certain key initiatives, whether they’re government initiatives, research initiatives, etc. We’ve been pretty selective about that, but we try to help out where we can. When they are looking for a comprehensive story, going to the EHR is the natural place for them.

Should we be optimistic about the current and future state of interoperability?

It has changed and improved substantially. I worked at a company in Raleigh, NC where we had a huge team of people doing nothing but HL7 work. It was unbelievable the time, energy, and resources we put into that. The industry has moved so far beyond that now.

One of the challenges that the industry has is that we’ve not done a great job setting the bar for success. Like many industries that don’t have great data to support a position, we end up living on anecdote. I can tell you 10 stories about my mother and elderly relatives and what they encounter in the healthcare system with interoperability. Those anecdotes are going to rule the day until we as an industry come together to help explain what the interoperability journey looks like and help provide criteria upon which we can be judged.

What role do you see for pharma in using healthcare data?

You’re asking specifically about data, but I’ll tell you one of our learnings. We just had some folks come back from JPMorgan. Emerging firms, smaller innovative firms, are being founded to fulfill a specific niche need. Pharma and life sciences are being viewed as important to their business models. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is probably less the point than the fact that these are large, healthy firms that are seeking to foster innovation and further their interest. A lot of these smaller startups are looking to them as key components of their business model.

How much of the success of Walgreens and CVS was due to innovative IT work and what can providers learn from that as the market consolidates?

The key word obviously is consolidation. Whether it’s horizontal or vertical, the entire healthcare ecosystem is undergoing another wave of consolidation.

As you pointed out at the beginning, when you and I used to talk 15 years ago, there were 800 EHR vendors. That number is down substantially. If you look at the market share on the hospital side, you’ve really got three key firms. If you think about the fact that firms like Walgreens and CVS have historically been innovative, both in technology and in evolving their business model, I don’t think that’s a surprise. That would also be true of groups like United Healthcare and others. There are a lot of large firms that have been innovative in terms of what they’ve done to evolve both their model and the infrastructure that they’ve built to support that new model.

Where do you see the future direction of Surescripts?

You highlighted a couple of these things that we would talk about. We would certainly talk about price transparency. The other thing that we would talk about is that there’s a lot of commentary and interest in how interoperable the system is. The second piece of that is you have to peel back the onion a little bit. The information that’s being moved — how actionable is it when it arrives? How accurate is it? We’ve made a huge investment there over the last few years.

The introduction of Sentinel was an important moment for us as an organization. It moves us beyond just talking about how data is formatted to how actionable it is when it arrives. It puts us in a situation where, instead of having one in 10 prescriptions requiring some type of phone call or human intervention, we can work with our EHR partners to help identify areas where those prescriptions might benefit from different work up front to make those scripts more actionable when they arrive. We think that’s a important.

We’re going to scan 2 billion prescriptions this year and eliminate 50 million instances where somebody’s got to do something. That 50 million is a monthly number, not an annual number, so 50 million times a month we’re saving a pharmacist, physician, pharmacy tech, or a physician assistant a lot of time trying to sort through these. That’s what technology is all about. We’re proud to be moving down that path.

The ability to get information at the point of care is still an aspiration. Forty-eight percent of all diagnostic errors are still due to a lack of access to the appropriate information at critical points in the care process. We’re doing work around medication history. Delivering that information in a natural workflow for the physician is an important piece of what we do. A lot of folks do those things, but they do it with information that has lags in it or information that’s incomplete. But we’ve got big and deep coverage there and we’re providing a billion medication histories annually.

When you’re looking at informing care decisions, it is still a heterogeneous world. Health systems still rely on information from other medical practices and other healthcare institutions. The ability to locate a record for a patient in this heterogeneous healthcare system is an important piece of what we do. We can help people locate records, and once they’ve located them, there are a number of mechanisms for moving them and we have offerings in that area. You have to be able to know where that patient was and we think we can help.

Those are the types of things that we’re working on today. You can see additional intelligence coming to bear with us helping physicians and pharmacists through clinical alerting based on rules and engines that they help configure. We see all of that as natural for us and part of the prescription and medication ecosystem.

We haven’t even discussed opioids yet. Certainly from our standpoint, that is a huge situation that needs to be dealt with. We certainly respect, understand, and applaud all of the attention and the scrutiny, but there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done to make that real.

Our medication history offering is a big part of that solution. Doctors are allowed to see a lot of that information in most states. That’s important. I just saw some data the other day that shows that following the I-STOP implementation in New York, they’re approaching 90 percent penetration. When nationally you’re at 14 and New York is at 90, you can see the digitization that has occurred.

Digitizing those prescriptions is an important part of allowing people to do the analysis they need to do. If society as a whole decides that we need to do more behavioral work to support those patients, or whatever it is that we decide to do to treat them, the sooner we can help recognize it, the better. This problem is not going away without some type of intervention.

Do you have any final thoughts?

You asked a great question. Where are we on the road to interoperability? Should we be positive about it? Should we be concerned? What I would say is that there’s a huge amount of work to do, There needs to be an appropriate amount of focus on that work. There’s also a huge amount of progress that has been made, and will be made in the future.

I continue to be optimistic that with the combination of private entities partnering, and then private entities partnering with the public interest at the state and federal level, you’re going to see continued progress and acceleration over the course of the next few years. It’s not a panacea, but I think it’s going to be very positive and will have a huge impact. Patients and all of us US citizens are going to benefit enormously.

Comments Off on HIStalk Interviews Tom Skelton, CEO, Surescripts

Morning Headlines 2/20/18

February 19, 2018 Headlines 2 Comments

21st Century Oncology’s new CEO seeks to rehab company image, expand operations

21st Century Oncology announces it will expand operations after emerging from bankruptcy and tackling legal issues related to a privacy breach of 2.2 million patient records and an investigation into improper Meaningful Use reporting.

There’s No Stopping the $50 Billion IPO With a Silly Name

Siemens confirms that the IPO of its Healthineers business will take place in the first half of this year.

Google AI can scan your eyes to predict heart disease

Verily researchers develop an early-stage algorithm that can evaluate retinal scans and, aided by machine learning, predict cardiovascular risk factors.

Partners HealthCare outsourcing coding jobs to India

Partners HealthCare (MA) will lay off 100 coders and outsource their jobs to India as part of a three-year plan to cut up to $800 million in costs.

Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 2/19/18

February 19, 2018 Dr. Jayne 2 Comments

From time to time, I contemplate heading back into the CMIO trenches full time. Although I do a lot of CMIO work in my consulting practice, it’s usually episodic and I miss seeing projects come full circle. I also miss being part of the strategic planning team, helping lay out the vision for an organization and how it plans to support patients and providers.

When I serve as an interim CMIO, I’m usually charged with keeping the ship afloat rather than deciding where the ship is going or what kind of cargo it will be carrying. Or perhaps I’m brought in as a consultant, tackling projects that the CMIO should be doing but doesn’t have the bandwidth to handle. There are some times where maybe the CMIO wants to do the project, but it’s politically charged and leadership feels having third-party assistance will help steer them through a rocky course. Those are challenging but often fun, although they can be stressful.

As I’ve talked to recruiters and looked at various job postings, I’m seeing some trends in CMIO job descriptions that I’m not sure I’m fond of. It might be a function of the duration clients have been using clinical systems, but I’m seeing more “maintenance” type job responsibilities and fewer “leadership” elements. Organizations are recruiting CMIOs to manage systems and data and people, but not necessarily for the ability to shape mission or to help architect strategies for delivering care in increasingly complex environments.

It feels like the role is being diminished somewhat, and the salaries are commensurate with that change. Of course, I have to remind myself that the positions I am looking at are sometimes in organizations that have struggled with even having a CMIO, let alone keeping one. If they were a great place to work and had found the right person, they wouldn’t have a vacancy.

Regardless of the situation, though, and the reason for the vacancy, it’s difficult to look at positions that are less C-suite and more director level, regardless of the title. Usually those positions have a salary range that is also less C-suite and more middle management. I recently spoke with a recruiter about a position with a salary range that was closer to that of a new graduate fresh out of residency than to an executive-level position, and certainly far less than one could earn in clinical practice. When asked about how they see the range as being supportive of the position, they mentioned that it was less than they pay their staff physicians “because it doesn’t have all the stress that comes with clinical medicine.”

When you hear comments like that, you know immediately that a position isn’t going to be a good fit. I would argue that anyone who thinks that being a CMIO is less stressful than other physician roles probably doesn’t understand what typically falls under a CMIO’s responsibility. I also didn’t like the fact that they were comparing the roles like that, because frankly being a physician is stressful and being an executive is stressful, but in different ways on different days. I don’t think that comparing stress levels across the organization as a means to justify salary shows that an organization is very progressive. It also highlights the risk that they might be in the habit of pitting various constituencies against each other in the hospital, which again is not a good sign.

I’m also struck by the lack of diversity in some organizations’ leadership profiles. At one organization, a large community health center that sees a very diverse population, the entire leadership team was composed of Caucasian males over age 55. I try to judge a potential job based on the job, but given the fact that I didn’t feel welcome during the interview, I didn’t think I’d feel welcome on the leadership team. Having grown up around many hunters and fishers and being fairly outdoorsy, I can talk hunting and fishing in a passable fashion, but it was nearly impossible to steer them away from conversations about who had the better deer lease and whether the wives would be coming to hunting camp this year or not. There were also conversations about how much money their stay-at-home spouses spent that were entirely inappropriate for an interview situation and made me concerned about how my potential peers viewed women in the workplace since none of the wives discussed work outside the home.

Another organization had an interviewer that asked me directly whether I had children. Although it was offered in a folksy tone under the banner of “help us get to know you,” it’s irrelevant to the job and role and was an immediate turn-off. It also said that this is an employer who doesn’t even understand the basics of employment law. As a seasoned people manager, that’s not something I want to sign up for. Given the desire of employees to have work-life balance along with the challenges of a graying society, rather than asking those kinds of questions, potential employers should be trumpeting whatever provisions they have in place to allow people to have children, build families, and participate in the care of aging family members.

Other organizations have been much more welcoming and have been proud to showcase provisions they have in place to keep their workforce healthy and productive. I’ve seen some fairly generous sick leave policies and concepts such as floating holidays to ensure that employees get time off on days that are significant to them and to their families. Vacation tends to still be a bit of a sticking point, though. Although I understand having people “earn” multiple weeks of vacation as they build tenure with a company, offering a senior-level applicant two weeks of vacation with the option to have a whopping three weeks of vacation after five years of service is a bit of a non-starter. We know the US lags behind the rest of the world with vacation days, and as a potential applicant who’s well established in the workforce, it’s a concern.

The issues I describe aren’t unique to finding CMIO positions and they apply to many other situations I see in the workplace. Potential employees want to feel valued and they want to feel like they’re moving to something better that offers more opportunity and/or rewards than their current situation. They don’t want to feel like they’re making a lateral move, let alone a downward move. I’ll be meeting up with some of my CMIO colleagues at HIMSS and will be interested to see how they feel about where they are in their careers or what the future holds. Until then, I’m off to the airport on my next adventure.

Email Dr. Jayne.

HIStalk Interviews Jim Causon, CIO, Memorial Hospital

February 19, 2018 Interviews 3 Comments

Jim Causon, CPA is CIO of Memorial Hospital in Stilwell, OK.

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Tell me about yourself and the hospital.

Memorial Hospital is a 50-bed acute care hospital. It has a 10-bed geriatric psych unit and a physicians’ clinic that has anywhere from 12 to 16 physicians, depending on who comes and goes at any given time. It’s in rural Oklahoma in Adair County.

The clinic sees about 3,000 patients a month. The total population for the county is 3,000. [laughs] You know everybody. We draw a lot of people through the clinic. We see a lot of frequent flyers. It’s a nice little facility. It’s about an hour or hour and a half from the next-largest facility.

I am a partner in an accounting firm, Causon & Westhoff CPAs. We provide the CIO function for the hospital.

What technologies does the hospital use?

It terms of patient care, billing, and admission, discharge, and transfer, we use Medsphere OpenVista CareVue in conjunction with Stockell Insight CS. We just bought the clinic live on the EMR in August. We bought the hospital up first, got everybody comfortable with it, and then brought it into the clinic.

How has Medsphere worked out?

It has worked out well. That was a big concern up front when we were looking for a product. We were probably a little later to the ball game in selecting a vendor, mostly because we wanted to see how other implementations went at other sites with different vendors.

Then, of course, cost was a big factor. The government didn’t do anybody any favors by publishing what they were going to pay. Everybody was at the top of that rate for what they wanted for their product, which left little for implementation, hardware support, and that kind of stuff. We were fortunate to find Medsphere. The pricing worked out well for our small hospital and we were able to get it up and running easily. It was really an easy process, or as easy as going from paper to electronic can be. The technology part was easy compared to the people transition.

I assume your doctors are community based. Did you get good buy-in for physician order entry and other direct physician use of Medsphere?

We did. We have one doctor who probably does three times the volume of anybody else. He was a big concern for us in terms of being able to keep up. Are we going to have to hire additional staff to support him?

He was the silent champion when we came online. He picked it up real quick, didn’t have any problem with it, didn’t really get behind significantly in the beginning. He does well with it. We’ve got a couple of doctors that see a third of the patients that he does who still struggle with it a little bit.

When we went live in August with the clinic, for probably the first four weeks following go-live, we had a dip in the number of people we saw and charges going out. But by Month 2, we were back up to where we normally are. We saw very little decrease in productivity when we brought the clinic live.

You had no unexpected impact on revenue or accounts receivable?

Our days in AR went up a little bit when we first went live in the hospital. It really wasn’t significant. We did it sort of backwards. Most people bring in their ADT, billing, admit-discharge software first. We didn’t. We started with the clinical side. We kept all of our old billing software in place, and once we were up and running on the clinical side, we brought the admit, discharge, billing in on top of it. We kind of did it in a backwards order, but it worked out well for us.

When you look at hospitals paying huge maintenance costs for Epic or Cerner even as they’re trying to cut costs, are you glad you chose a less-expensive product?

It was more about, we have to get this right, because if we don’t, we can close the doors on the hospital. There is not a lot of big budget in there for getting it wrong. [laughs] We were very careful in our choice and the way we implemented it to protect the revenue streams as we brought it online to make sure we didn’t get a very big drop at the beginning.

What kind of technology staff do you have?

Until we implemented Medsphere in the hospital, I was the only IT person for the facility. We had a maintenance person that had some computer experience that I would recruit to restart this machine, fix that printer, run this cable, that kind of thing. I was it. Probably a year after we were on CareVue, we brought Insight up and added a fair number of new machines. We decided it was time to bring a person in house. We hired a person to be in house to take care of user issues. I maintain the servers and all of the larger issues. That’s the way we’ve run it since then. Really, it’s just the two of us.

Does it scare you reading about malware and having just two people to protect the systems?

Scares the pants off me. [laughs] Our biggest risk is what that end user is going to click on in their e-mail that’s going to cause us problems. We have had one laptop that was infected with ransomware, but it was a non-critical machine. It was identified almost immediately and we dropped its connection within a couple of minutes. We didn’t have any problems with the rest of the system, but that’s a worry every day. What is going to pop up that you’re not protected for that you don’t know about yet?

We do as much as we can in terms of firewalls, monitoring, protection, filtering, and education, but you never know. Our people are getting better. They send me e-mails that say, “Hey, this doesn’t look legit. Is it?” Most of the time, it isn’t.

We are getting ready to implement a process where we send fake e-mails to employees to see if they click on it or not. A lot of other people are doing that. That is our weakest area, the end user. Plan for the worst and hope for the best, is that how it goes?

Do you have other systems you would like to implement but can’t justify financially?

With current market, everybody is holding onto their dollars the best they can. Medsphere and Stockell have been very good to work with. If we need something or want something, they will help us figure out a way to do it at a relatively low cost, or a lot of times, at no cost at all. If it’s something someone else has, something they were going to do anyway, or something that would be a nice feature for some other hospital, they will help us get it done.

Stockell Insight CS has a large user group. They donate a certain number of hours every year to the user group. We meet in June every year to recommend the enhancements. They tally up the number of hours the enhancements that were submitted will require and they do as many as they can. We vote as a group on which ones we want. We have taken a large delegation this year and just about every year. Almost everything we’ve requested, they’ve been able to provide for us. I really can’t complain with the additional expenditures to get us what we want and what we need.

What opportunities and challenges do you see in using technology to align more closely with patients?

The biggest challenge for us is the consumer. We are in a small, rural community. It is primarily a Cherokee Indian population. A lot of people don’t have cell phones, don’t have computers. As we started rolling out our patient portal and trying to meet Meaningful Use by getting people to sign up, they’re like, I don’t have an e-mail. I don’t have a cell phone. OK, what do we do? [laughs]

Even down to our employees. When we tried to implement direct deposit for paychecks or self-service for payroll, where you can print your own W-2 and stuff they, didn’t have a computer. Some didn’t even have a bank account. Those are the kinds of issues that we face, more so than people saying, why can’t I do this online? It’s more like, please, will you try this online? [laughs]

Do you have any final thoughts?

I saw other hospitals is that were picking a vendor for pharmacy, picking a vendor for lab, and then trying to integrate all these vendors through interfaces. When something didn’t work, these guys were pointing at those guys who were pointing at somebody else. Getting it fixed and reconciled is almost impossible because everybody is pointing fingers at each other.

When we selected this system, all of those departments were integrated. We don’t have 10 different software products that are trying to do this work. Pharmacy, lab, and radiology are all in one software. The only interface we have is the interface from Medsphere to Stockell, and since they’re under the same umbrella, we have one throat to choke if things don’t work.

Their support for both sides is first class. They are very professional and quick to respond. If something is not working and we’re concerned about it, then they’re concerned about it. With other facilities and some other products, I don’t get that feeling. We’ve had a good working relationship with their support teams. There are times where we lean on them more than a large facility might because we don’t have the IT staff on site to do it. I can’t say enough good things about the support coming out of these guys.

We have been happy with our choice. Irv Lichtenwald is top dog at Medsphere. He has a monthly call with each client, so we talk to him directly at least once a month. If we have problems or concerns, 30 minutes after the call, someone is calling me back to say, heard you talked to Irv today. Yes, where are we on this? You don’t feel like you’re just a number. When I call and say who I am, they don’t ask me for my client number and have to look me up. They know who we are. That’s nice. That says something.

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RECENT COMMENTS

  1. Seema Verma - that’s quite a spin of “facts” good luck.

  2. LOL Seema Verma. she ranks at the top of the list of absolute grifter frauds.

  3. Re: US Rep. Matt Rosendale's comments on MASS in the VA Ummm. I have to express some difference with Rep.…

  4. Yes. The sunshine on the processes and real-world details of how interoperability tech is being used will benefit the industry…

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