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 [...]

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 [...]

I had planned on including an expanded version of my June 5th post (HI(TECH) Anxiety) in the upcoming edition of SRS’ QuickHITs monthly newsletter. So in doing some additional research, I came across some interesting websites and facts that I thought I would share with www.healthsystemcio.com readers.
First of all, the readership of www.healthsystemcio.com not only [...]

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 [...]

 

 PODCAST: One-on-One w/Hallmark Health VP of IS Carol Dresser, Chapter 3 [10:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (129)

“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:

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)

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.”

Here we are, just 15 months after HITECH’s enactment and the government’s “full court press” to drive HIT adoption is in full swing.  The dizzying pace of events over just these past three months has been enough to take one’s breath away.  So let’s pause for a moment, take a deep breath, recap some relevant [...]

The other day I came across a quote from Walter Cronkite in which he said “America’s health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.” Although I believe that the people working in healthcare are caring both in terms of the work we do and the patients we treat, I think Mr. Cronkite was correct on the other two issues. American healthcare is not healthy nor a system.

Chuck Podesta’s stance on Stage 1 Meaningful Use criteria probably won’t win him any toasts at the next CIO event. That’s because, despite the position of organizations like CHIME (and this journalist), Podesta thinks the criteria aren’t overly onerous. Though he acknowledges the incentive payout structure isn’t perfect, little else about the program disquiets the [...]

Over a year ago, HITECH legislation gave rise to concepts like the “meaningful use” of electronic health records and established Regional Extension Centers to help small healthcare practices in underserved communities select and implement EHR systems. At that time, I found the latter to be an especially painful example of just how destructive government interference [...]

“My work here is done.”If something is worth doing, it is worth doing badly. Mistakes are inevitable—don’t be afraid to make them. However, pick your mistakes—let them be mistakes of your choosing, not mistakes born out of the hubristic approach of others. Permit me to explain. Hospital CIOs have a goal or set of goals they must meet to help drive the mission, vision, or strategy of their organization.

While everyone tries to create a sensation at the annual HIMSS conference, few actually achieve it. But with the release of its open-architecture Helios platform, Eclipsys managed to surmount that bar. The iPhone-esque vision of an open platform which independent application designers can build on seems to many a refreshing proposition. And some see it [...]

The Medical Group Management Association wants ONC to deem electronic health record software certified by CCHIT in 2008 or later as meeting the requirements for Meaningful Use Stage 1, according to the organization’s comment letter on the Certification Process NPRM. “MGMA representatives will continue to advocate for simplified EHR incentive program requirements, logistics and software certification processes. MGMA representatives believe that stringent program requirements will exclude a large percentage of physician practices from participating, which undermines the intention of the legislation,” the organization stated.

With more hospitals leveraging the Stark relaxations to underwrite EMRs for local practices, it’s incumbent for CIOs to know that market inside and out. Developing a sound short-list of vendors to offer the docs is serious business, as CIOs need to balance physician choice with integration issues. To learn more about the buying trends [...]

With a healthcare IT career that started in January 1973 — and has since covered the vendor, consultant and provider sides of the business — there isn’t much that’s going to surprise Eastern Connecticut Health Network (ECHN) VP and CIO Charlie Covin. But the HITECH Act, which he describes as close to revolutionary, comes darn [...]

Certain criteria and standards in the Certification and Implementation IFR may represent “a step backwards in progress toward EHR interoperability, by dropping standards that were already federally recognized and widely adopted, while other criteria demand an unrealistic leap forward,” stated CCHIT in a recently filed comment letter to CMS.
“… the criteria and standards need refinement [...]

According to the Premier health alliance, the Senate acted today to address another major concern that it raised in its comments, which is the need for CMS to modify the proposed rule to expand the eligibility for EHR incentive payments to physicians who work in hospitals. As proposed, the rule would prohibit EHR incentives for [...]

Thirty-one percent of physicians responding to an MGMA survey said their productivity will decrease more than 10 percent as a result of complying with the 25 Meaningful Use criteria laid out in the recent NPRM from HHS. The MGMA research also highlights the specific criteria that many respondents say would be “difficult” or “very difficult” [...]

After proclaiming its long-standing commitment to the implementation and use of health information technology, the American Academy of Family Physicians enumerated a litany of concerns it has with the Meaningful Use NPRM, still out for comment until March 15. “ … we believe that certain aspects in the details of these regulations are unworkable, excessive, [...]

In my last posting, I talked about some of the Meaningful Use observations made at the recent Health Stimulus Exchange Conference in Boston.  Another interesting factoid cited at the conference came from Mickey Tripathi, in his presentation on Regional Extension Centers.  Mr. Tripathi, who is the co-chair of the Information Exchange Workgroup of the HIT Policy Committee, [...]

As chair of CHIME’s Policy Steering Committee, Pamela McNutt, SVP & CIO, Methodist Health System, is leading that organization’s response to the Meaningful Use Interim Final Rule (IFR). But McNutt’s dual role as member of the AHA IT Policy Advisory Committee gives her an even more powerful vantage from which to formulate a comment, while [...]