Monday Morning Update 2/20/23
Top News
The VA postpones its planned July 2023 Oracle Cerner go-live at its Ann Arbor, MI facilities until later this year or early in 2024.
The service region is concerned about “how well EHRM would interact with VA Ann Arbor’s vital medical research mission.”
Reader Comments
From AT: “Re: pet peeves with service industry words and phrases. ‘I appreciate you,’ following my thanking you and leaving you a tip, which suggests that we are like-minded, decent people even though you have no way of knowing that. Second is thanking someone with ‘of course,” implying that I’m either too stupid to know the obvious answer or should not have even said thanks.” I will admit that even my curmudgeonly self has no problem with either of these, especially ‘I appreciate you’ that I first heard among polite Southerners who likely meant it. “No problem” is much worse in my mind – should I feel relieved that my thanking you for doing the job for which you are paid isn’t a bother? Others that bug me at least a little:
- “Yeah-no” or “no-yeah.” Why do people think that appending these opposites adds emphasis?
- “Curated.” Unless you are observing nature or some random phenomenon, everything you experience was “curated” by someone.
- “It is what it is.” This phrase is intended to convey a philosophical acceptance of immutable circumstances, but most people who use it seem more inarticulate than profound.
- “I could care less,” said by people who mean that they could not care less.
- Marketing emails that contain “hope you are well” (should I tell you if I’m not?) and using the flabby “please don’t hesitate to call me” as though I not only require an invitation to call, but I have to do it quickly.
- Starting a sentence with “know,” as in “know that I am here for you.” Just say what you want me to “know” and I’ll know it without being ordered.
- “Now,” “presently,” “today,” or “at this point in time.” It’s always now unless you indicate otherwise.
- “Build out” as an unnecessarily wordy way to say “build.” Build it out and they will come?
- “Simplistic” means a dangerous oversimplification, which is not at all synonymous with “simple” and does not take an adjective such as “too simplistic.”
- I won’t even bother with “reimbursement” as a financially appalling and less-forthright euphemism for “payment.”
HIStalk Announcements and Requests
Most poll respondents felt cared for during their most recent clinician encounter. However, some of them left comments indicating that while the physician did a good job, they are moated off by the bureaucracy of hospitals, insurers, indifferent front desk staff, and a preoccupation with following mandatory workflows.
New poll to your right or here, following up on last week’s musing: Do you have to pay to park at your primary work site? I’ve only ever had to pay at one employer, an academic medical center. Parking lots are assigned by seniority, so new hires get stuck parking far from their work sites and sometimes extend their workdays for free during waits for shuttle buses both ways. You are also buying access to a garage, not a reserved spot, so your day starts by looking at taillights of your co-workers who are fighting for the same first available spots. The university defended its parking policies by saying that students would otherwise be leaving cars all over the place, but of course those students were also customers who were paying many thousands of dollars each year on top of parking fees. Even worse was charging patients and visitors to cruise dark garages looking desperately for a space as they ran late for appointments, often forgetting how to find their car after leaving, and then being stuck in the exit’s pay line while trying not to forget the clinician’s instructions. My personal gripe was that when I drove in to see a doctor on a different campus as a patient, I theoretically could have been issued a ticket because my permanently affixed sticker (they didn’t use hang tags back then) made it appear that I was parking inappropriately in a spot that was reserved for patients, not to mention that they stopped validating. This is a good marketing lesson – no matter how much good patients get from their visit, the first and last thing they encounter is an impersonal, frustrating parking experience, which you don’t see at CVS and suburban medical buildings that share a plaza with Home Depot.
I get frequent emails from teachers whose Donors Choose grant requests were funded by reader donations along with matching money from my Anonymous Vendor Executive. Here’s a new one from Mrs. S in California:
My amazing scholars not only use, but enthusiastically ask for “Fun Friday” every single week in order to explore the STEM materials YOU helped provide for them! They are building worlds using their imagination, and solving problems as they arise while using the engineering design process. They utilize critical thinking skills, and collaborative skills to learn science through creative fun spaces. Never were so many rowdy 5th graders ready to get their hands moving and brains working so late on a Friday afternoon. Thank you for giving them that that joyful opportunity!
Webinars
February 28 (Tuesday) 1 ET. “Words Matter: Simplifying Clinical Terms for Patients.” Sponsor: Intelligent Medical Objects. Presenters: Whitney Mannion, RN, MSN, senior terminologist, IMO; David Bocanegra, RN, nurse informaticist, IMO. The language of medicine can be confusing and contradictory to patients, challenging their ability to prepare for a procedure or pay their bills. This webinar will explore how the words that are used to communicate – online, in print, and in person – must be chosen carefully to allow patients to comprehend their diagnoses, treatments, and care plans. The presenters will also describe how the ONC Final Rule for the 21st Century Cures Act will make clinical and technical language more directly accessible through patient portals.
March 7 (Tuesday) noon ET. “Prescribe RPA 2.0 to Treat Healthcare Worker Burnout.” Sponsor: Keysight Technologies. Presenters: Anne Foster, MS, technical consultant manager, Eggplant; Emily Yan, MPA, product marketing manager, Keysight Technologies. Half of US health systems plan to invest in robotic process automation by the end of this year, per Gartner. The concept is evolving to help with staff burnout and physician productivity. The presenters will introduce RPA 2.0, explain how to maximize its value, demonstrate how to quickly start on RPA 2.0 and test automation in one platform, and answer questions about healthcare automation.
Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.
Sales
- University Hospitals (OH) will work with Premier’s PINC AI Applied Services on projects related to real-world data, prospective research, clinical trials, and the use of natural language processing for early disease identification.
Announcements and Implementations
A Wolters Kluwer Health survey finds that while most patients prefer receiving educational materials from their providers, they often end up looking online because they have left an encounter with unanswered questions.
Government and Politics
Two Idaho state lawmakers co-sponsor a bill that would make it illegal to administer MRNA vaccines.
Other
Romania investigates five doctors who are accused of faking diagnoses, or intentionally inducing cardiac problems with medications, as an excuse to charge for implanting into their patients medical devices that they had removed from dead people.
Sponsor Updates
- CTG publishes a new case study, “Healthcare System for Children Transforms Their Data Management Strategy with CTG’s Help.”
- Meditech will present at the 2023 AHA Rural Health Care Leadership Conference February 19-22 in San Antonio.
- RxLightning’s MedAccess ecosystem solves specialty medication enrollment problems while relieving healthcare burnout.
- West Monroe announces Strategic Workforce Optimization with Work 4D, which analyzes a company’s work and aligns it to the most appropriate type of talent – employees, contractors, outsourcers, or automation.
- Sectra wins four awards for customer satisfaction – 10 consecutive years of winning in the US.
Blog Posts
- Overcoming Staffing Shortages in the Lab: Finding the Right Fit Consulting Firm (JTG Consulting Group)
- Why it’s time to amplify virtual care experiences (Wolters Kluwer Health)
- Taking the temperature of health systems (Nordic)
- Supporting Working Women Caregivers (Optum)
- 4 Ways to Modernize the Hospital Call Center (PerfectServe)
- RCxRules Conferences and Events: Where Should We Go? (RCxRules)
- AI ethics and CX: How to build effective AI chatbots (Talkdesk)
- Benefits of Investing in Patient Engagement (TigerConnect)
- Think Globally, Act Locally: Finding New Patients to Stay Financially Viable (WebPT)
- As Emergency Department Clinicians Struggle with Burnout, Clinical Decision Support Emerges as a Potential Lifeline (Zynx Health)
- Population Health and SDOH: What’s driving the push for better, and how can your organization compete? (Clearsense)
Contacts
Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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