healthsystemcio.com

Building on a recent post about Peter Orszag’s resignation, and stimulus funding for healthcare IT…As long as we’re throwing money around by the billions… If I were Dr. Blumenthal, I’d dangle $500M ala DARPA in front of Amazon, Google, Nintendo, Facebook, salesforce, eBay– or any other capable body– and sponsor a shoot out: Build an inpatient/outpatient EMR and financial management system that will rock our world.

The days of associating small hospitals with low-tech facilities are slowly fading in the past. One reason is that the small, including critical access, hospitals (CAHs) are not exempt from the HITECH programs carrots … or sticks. But sometimes being small does mean being resource constrained and, in that environment, doing any kind of rip [...]

I recently watched the movie *61 which documents the 1961 Yankees as Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle both chased Babe Ruth’s longstanding record of 60 home runs in a single season. Great movie if you happen to think baseball is a metaphor for America. Baseball is full of stats and facts like this one — before every game, in the bowels of the stadium, the umpires perform a decades old ritual. When baseballs arrive from the factory, they arrive with the sheen on them that all newly manufactured products have — a sheen that makes it difficult for the pitcher a gain proper grip on the ball.

A house is only as strong as the foundation on which it’s built. And an application environment is only as sound as the network infrastructure and data center upon which it rests. As such, Will Showalter and Sisters of Mercy Health System have undertaken a rebuild of their foundation to support the more than 4,000 [...]

 

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Sisters of Mercy Health System VP & CIO Will Showalter, Chapter 1: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Though there are thousands of Meditech hospitals, only a handful are in the in the process of migrating from the Magic to 6.0 platform. Of course, those hospitals (and their CIOs) are being watched very closely by the Meditech community. One of those CIOs is Ed Ricks of Beaufort Memorial Hospital. Ricks is not only taking his facility to 6.0 and going best of breed in the ED, but using a new integration engine to bring it all together. To gather some lessons learned for healthsystemCIO.com readers, editor Anthony Guerra recently chatted with Ricks.

 

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Beaufort Memorial Hospital VP of IS & CIO Ed Ricks, Chapter 1 [10:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (334)

After more than 20 years with the same organization (Partners HealthCare), it’s been a year of tremendous excitement and change for VP & CIO John Glaser. That’s because just after winding up a stint as senior adviser to National Coordinator David Blumenthal, M.D., shaping HITECH’s Meaningful Use rules, Glaser is off — permanently this time [...]

 

 Podcast: One on One w/Soon-To-Be Siemens Health Services Business Unit CEO John Glaser [20:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (356)

When AllScripts announced its acquisition of Eclipsys on June 9, I thought that would be the biggest healthcare IT M&A news for at least a year. But we’re not even through the month and it’s been bested by the news Siemens released on Friday. Of course, I’m talking about that company’s acquisition of Partners HealthCare VP and CIO John Glaser to head its Health Services Business Unit as CEO. And don’t forget, Glaser’s not just one of the top CIOs in the country, but also just finished paling around with the National Coordinator for Healthcare IT David Blumenthal, M.D., as his senior advisor in shaping early HITECH policy. Talk about connected!

Managing 512 interfaces isn’t easy. That’s why Daniel Barchi, SVP and CIO with Carilion Health System, was more than happy to embark on the search for a single integrated EMR a few years ago. After an intensive selection process — which included copious input from clinicians — the health system selected Epic. And from that [...]

 

 PODCAST: One-on-One-w/Carilion Health System SVP and CIO Daniel Barchi, Chapter 1 [13:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (131)

After 14 years with St. Claire Regional Medical Center, you might think Randy McCleese has done it all, but you’d be wrong. That’s because the CIO is just now embarking on a new core clinical install with a vendor he hasn’t worked with before — Meditech. And McCleese isn’t dipping his toe into the Meditech [...]

 

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/St. Claire Regional Medical Center VP of IS & CIO Randy McCleese, Chapter 1 [11:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (103)

Before I levy my criticisms on Orszag and the mess that his philosophies will leave behind for healthcare CIOs, you need to understand that I’m as politically liberal as they come.  I voted for Obama and celebrated in Grant Park when he was elected.  However, while I’m a spendthrift with my money, I’m a tightwad [...]

More and more, healthcare systems seem split into two camps: the one-vendor-for-everything, enterprise solution model or the best-of-suite (or breed) approach. Those embracing the former often spend a big chunk of change to rip and replace most of what they have, while being relieved of many integration headaches down the road. Those selecting the latter [...]

 

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Hunterdon Healthcare VP & CIO Glenn Mamary, Chapter 3 [14:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (172)

“From a technology point of view, how difficult will it be to truly integrate the Allscripts ambulatory product/s with the Eclipsys inpatient product/s. How long might it take?” Good question, and complicated answer: If you define “integrated” as systems running the same programming language, operating system, data base, and hardware platform, then AllScripts will never truly integrate all of their products with Eclipsys’. True integration would mean re-writing every product from both firms to be on the same database, OS, servers, etc., something that even Eclipsys didn’t do with the many (fine) products they bought over the years to build their Sunrise suite, to whit:

On NPR I listened to an interview of the man whose job is to ensure the reliability of the electrical grid for the northeastern US.  As you might suspect, the country’s power plants are all interconnected.  That way, if there’s a problem with one, power can be rerouted and we can still make our cappuccinos.  [...]

When Jody Albright took the IT reins at Overlake Hospital in December 2008, she had no idea industry-changing legislation was only a month away. And while HITECH has certainly accelerated some of her plans, Albright never expected the job to be a walk in the park. That’s because Overlake was in need of some heavy-duty [...]

 

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Overlake Hospital Medical Center VP of IS & CIO Jody Albright, Chapter 1 [14:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (105)

In what has become an interesting debate among CIOs — which to do first: CPOE or bedside bar-coded eMAR — smart individuals are coming down passionately on both sides. It’s also interesting that more than a few intrepid souls are counseling both should be done at the same time, though bandwidth constraints leave that group [...]

 

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Hennepin County Medical Center CIO Joanne Sunquist, Chapter 2 [11:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (50)

Allscripts and Eclipsys are merging in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $1.3 billion. Glen Tullman, CEO of Allscripts, will be the CEO of the combined company. Phil Pead, President and CEO of Eclipsys, will become Chairman of the combined company and, “on a full-time basis, will focus on key client and strategic relationships, product and process integration, strategy and the company’s international business.”

There are three messages that I hope to leave behind in this article. They may seem unrelated, but stick to the story and you’ll see how they all interact. Career opportunities come from equal parts planning, preparation, and random events. Current Electronic Medical Records in the United States are a reflection of a dysfunctional healthcare system and thus are dysfunctional themselves. There are less complicated, easier-to-achieve first-steps for Meaningful Use than those under consideration now.

I just returned from a weekend with my family at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, OH (the “roller coaster capital of the world”).  While we certainly had fun taking in all the coasters, I couldn’t help but think about health IT (I know, what can I say, I need a life!). What really struck [...]

More and more, healthcare systems seem split into two camps: the one-vendor-for-everything, enterprise solution model or the best-of-suite (or breed) approach. Those embracing the former often spend a big chunk of change to rip and replace most of what they have, while being relieved of many integration headaches down the road. Those selecting the latter [...]

 

 One-on-One w/Hunterdon Healthcare VP & CIO Glenn Mamary, Chapter 1 [15:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (196)

It didn’t take an act of Congress to start Carol Dresser and Hallmark Health implementing advanced clinical technologies. Hallmark — which includes Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Melrose-Wakefield Hospital, Hallmark Health Cancer Center and Hallmark Health Medical Center — is now working to increase adoption of CPOE and perfect its bedside bar coded medication administration processes. What [...]

 

 One-on-One w/Hallmark Health VP of IS Carol Dresser - Chapter 1 [10:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (492)

In every industry, there are organizations so pervasive they constitute bellwethers for the entire market segment. In healthcare IT, that company is Meditech. With over 2,200 customers and almost $400 million in software revenues last year, the Westwood, Mass.-based organization’s opinions on national policy — especially the HITECH Act’s Meaningful Use NPRM — should be taken very seriously by D.C.’s policy wonks. Offering those opinions to healthsystemCIO.com editor Anthony Guerra this exclusive interview is President and COO Howard Messing. In the following discussion, Messing — who was recently promoted to CEO subject to a perfunctory confirmation vote — offers his thoughts on the aforementioned HITECH Act, meeting customer demands for the latest software and much more.

 

 One-on-One-w/Meditech President & COO Howard Messing, Part II [17:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (341)

The Maginot Line—Ligne Maginot. France built the Maginot Line to protect itself from Germany so it would not be overrun as it was in World War One. France built hundreds of miles of fortification to: Disrupt Germany’s strategy; Avoid a surprise attack; To be used for a counteroffensive; To hold off the Germans while the French army could be brought up

I had repeatedly heard stories about the extended wait times for the company’s software — wait times that were as true for existing customers desperate for upgrades as newly signed clients desperate for delivery. I thought to myself, “Man, that company must be in some serious trouble. There’s no way those customers and prospects are [...]