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.

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 [...]

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 [...]

While just about every healthcare CIO can hit the market and select a core clinical system that’s architecturally sound and fiscally feasible, no one recommends they make such a decision alone. One of the cardinal rules of system selection is to include the clinicians–the ultimate end users of the product. “From the beginning, we decided [...]

I had a brief chat with Dr. David Blumenthal last week that basically covered four areas: Transparency at the ONC; HITREC and communities of shared learning; Personal Health Records and possible certification; Rural practices and Critical Access Hospitals. Regarding transparency, which is something I’m fairly passionate about and have seen some improvements on at the ONC, Dr. Blumenthal said, “Trust is such an important factor in the management of sensitive information that it has to be attended to in everything we do. I think that being open is one way to create trust.”

It’s not just genomic scientists that are dealing with enormous amounts of DNA sequence data – the clinician will soon be next.  However, the explosion in linking disease with genetics, and the realization that the FDA will require gene testing prior to the prescription of potentially hundreds of drugs, will challenge the storage capacity required for [...]

I keep bouncing between cynicism and optimism on ARRA and the meaningful use rule. There are definitely a few problems with the proposed rule but I want to focus right now on how it will define a hospital-based eligible provider. I’m trying to be an optimist, but this portion of the rule really seems counter [...]

GE has extended the purchasing options associated with its Stimulus Simplicity program — 0 percent payment terms and deferred payments until 2012 — to include new purchases of its Centricity Business solution suite. 
Stimulus Simplicity, launched in June 2009, is a combined offering of GE Healthcare and GE Capital focused on the EMR purchase for providers.  [...]

IBM Global Financing has entered into financing agreements with four EMR vendors — Siemens Healthcare, Healthcare Management Systems, SCC Soft Computer and Lavender & Wyatt Systems, Inc. (focused on behavioral health).
The organization will provide financing for Siemens clinical and revenue cycle management applications, including INVISION, MedSeries4 and Soarian. IBM infrastructure and healthcare consulting services can [...]

Malvern, Pa.-based Siemens Healthcare is offering flexible financing solutions for organizations striving to meet HITECH deadlines, featuring 0 percent interest terms for qualified customers.
The solutions enable organizations to defer up-front payments associated with their technology investment.
In addition to financing options from Siemens Financial Services, Inc., customers can choose IBM Global Financing and/or 3-D Financial Services.

Ingenix is offering a package that includes interest-free financing, HIT services and performance guarantees. The program enables physicians to implement Ingenix CareTracker EHR with no out-of-pocket costs and no payments until 2011 when HITECH reimbursements begin.
Qualifying U.S. physicians can receive an interest-free loan from Ingenix (underwritten by OptumHealth Bank) to license and implement CareTracker EHR. [...]