As we wind down an exciting year in healthcare IT, and look forward to an even more dynamic one, I’d like to take a moment to thank all the people who make HCI the superior information product it is today.
To start, no one will argue that we have an amazingly talented and passionate staff. Stacey Kramer, our managing editor, works tirelessly behind the scenes to bring you clean and crisp magazine pages. Kate Gamble, recently...
Every time I think
HITECH legislation is bad, a closer look reveals it’s worse.
As I write this column, we’re only days away from tallying
your votes for the “HCI Innovator Awards.” Though your work is just now
concluding, our editorial staff finished up a few weeks ago, after we reviewed
the 60+ nominations to arrive at our top 15.
And while those 60 entries covered every type of hospital IT
project, a majority of this year’s entries were...
Whenever I get the chance to advocate for a
colleague-turned-friend, I jump at it. As such, I’d like to explain why
electing Neal Ganguly to the CHIME Board
is a smart move.
I first got to know Neal early in 2008 when I interviewed
him for our
Legislation that took weeks to write will wreak havoc for
years.
Though some Cliniticos (clinicians turned politicos)
increasingly refer to HITECH as a “brilliant” piece of legislation, it’s clear
the impending market damage is only now coming into focus.
My unpalatable HITECH morsel of the moment centers,
generally, around the lack of healthcare IT workforce necessary to make the
legislation’s goals a reality and, more specifically,...
It’s not often we get an opportunity to lobby for a “friend”
of the magazine, but just such a chance is here.
Over the past year, HCI, specifically senior editor Daphne
Lawrence, has gotten to know Scott MacLean, CIO and Corporate Director at Newton-Wellesley
Hospital/Partners HealthCare, very well. Lawrence reviews all contributed
items, working closely with authors to bring submitted pieces up to her
exacting standards. To date, Scott has bested that hurdle twice –...
Interested CIOs, consultants and analysts may contact the
writers until Nov. 1.
Cover Story: Show Us the Evidence
Do you think CPOE implementation – a mountain of a task in
itself – is the end of the clinical IT road? Think again. Pioneering hospital
organizations around the country are now moving toward evidence-based care
delivery and processes. Clinician leaders in those organizations, working
closely with CIOs and their teams, are...
It’s 8 p.m. and you just arrived at the high school dance.
You think you’ve got all night to ask someone to do the fox trot, so you stand
around for a while, have some punch and work up the courage to make a move. But
by the time you’ve detached yourself from the wall, everyone has partnered-up.
Maybe when this song stops, you think, a few of the couples will separate and
you’ll get an opening, but something is strange about this dance, as the
couples remain on the floor...
Check out my presentation from CBI's "Access Federal Stimulus Incentives for Electronic Health Records" Conference, held last week in Alexandria, Va.
Other speakers at the conference included: Paul Tang, M.D., vice president and CMIO at Palo Alto Medical Foundation (and a member of the federal HIT Policy Committee); Geoff Brown, CIO, Inova Health System; Carol Steltenkamp, M.D., CMIO, University of Kentucky Healthcare; and Chuck Christian, CIO, Good Samaritan Hospital....
Before you get militant about CPOE, make sure
you’re not the only one.
Let’s start with a few basic premises. Most
hospitals in this country are “staffed” with physicians that don’t technically
work for them. These independent doctors run their own practices; with their
patients constituting an often formidable “book of business” that can be
directed to the acute-care institution of choice. In all but...
Interested CIOs, consultants and analysts may contact the
writers until Oct. 8.
Cover Story -- HITECH preparation: "Got people?"
The issue of human resources is going to be a significant
one for most hospitals going into the intense phases of preparation to apply
for ARRA-HITECH stimulus funds. Given the small number of people in the
healthcare industry who have extensive experience with EMR and especially CPOE
implementations at the level of...
I’ve
been asked to give a presentation at an upcoming conference – “Access Federal Stimulus
Incentives for Electronic Health Records” – being held at the Hilton in Alexandria, Va.,
on Sept. 24-25, and I decided to accept the opportunity to share my
observations on a topic we follow every single day.
At
the show, I’ll deliver a talk called, “Progress in the Trenches,” detailing
how HITECH has effected...
Interested CIOs, consultants and analysts may contact the
writers until Sept. 10.
COVER STORY
Imaging in the Spotlight
The world of diagnostic imaging is in flux as never before,
as hospital and health system CIOs and their teams figure out how to react to a
shifting landscape, one that includes expanding digital imaging management
across not only radiology, but also cardiology, pathology and other specialties;
work towards integration between RIS, PACS...
Certification is moving in the right direction, but
perils lay around every corner.
“Just take it down the street to Jerry,” said my father,
regarding where I should get the 1976 Oldsmobile Delta 88 I had inherited from
my grandmother inspected.
Sure, taking the car to Jerry’s repair station had its
disadvantages. For one, he charged $75 a sticker, he lacked certain social
graces (like acknowledging your...
The open-source vanguard embodies traits the industry sorely needs
“I feel really strongly about it, Mark. And you know I don't
push stories on you very often,” I said to HCI Contributing Editor Mark Hagland
in our edit meeting a last month.
Hagland, a veteran healthcare IT editor with more than 20
years in the industry, is the kind of reporter who always...
Interested
CIOs, CMIOs, consultants and analysts may contact the writers until Aug. 10.
October
Cover Story
Managing
Uncertainty (two parts)
As
initiative after unclear initiative piles up (HITECH, ICD-10, overall
healthcare reform), CIOs must devise methods of moving forward strategically in
an uncertain, unstable environment where diaphanous projects come into focus
and go out, where deadlines are established and then mysteriously postponed,
much...
CIOs, consultants and analysts interested in being
interviewed for these stories can contact the writers until 7/15.
Cover Story — CPOE Pioneers and the Value Equation
The CPOE doubters have been legion since the concept emerged.
But clarity has been reached due to advances at pioneering hospital
organizations. And that clarity has to do with the dramatic advances in patient
safety, clinical care quality, clinician workflow, and overall organizational
performance...
On Thursday, HHS/ONC
published a proposal
for the HITECH-mandated Health Information Technology Extension Program. While
a news writeup with highlights can be found
For at least a year now, there has been chatter around the
HIT industry about the potential of open source software – specifically the
VA’s VistA applications which were developed over many years with billions of
taxpayer dollars. Some open-source proponents say the disks are the key to
healthcare being affordable on Main Street, while others claim the associated
costs more than cancel the benefits. Does open-source software have...
HITECH has never made sense to me, not from the moment I
understood there would be no upfront money to help providers afford the systems
being foisted upon them, especially not from the moment I saw the ridiculous deadlines
involved. Later, as people came to understand that only CCHIT-certified systems
might qualify for incentives payments, the act became even more disconcerting.
As I worked through questions, the answers left me perplexed.
In 2004, when
President George Bush announced his vision that all Americans have an EMR by
2014, he set a long-term policy direction for the country. At that time, with a
10-year horizon to a deadline no one took literally, it made perfect sense to
designate the leader of that effort as a ‘coordinator.’ With no rush,
coordination was the proper way to go. It was a time of deliberately gathering
stakeholders, receiving input and collecting concerns. Robert Kolodner, M.D.,...
It’s been an eerily quiet week on the healthcare IT front. While we usually publish four news items a day, a few days found us with nothing significant to write up. I honestly can’t remember such a lack of noteworthy happenings since the week of Christmas/New Year's, more than four months ago.
Policyland is a fun place. I like to visit, but if you stay too
long, you lose touch with reality. In PolicyLand, everyone knows everyone else,
luminaries continually present on panels with each other, reinforce each others’
opinions, and are incredibly polite. In PolicyLand, you don’t even need to redo
your PowerPoint because you did this presentation last month, you can just
tweak it. In PolicyLand, everyone co-authors papers together and endorses each
others’ work, writes...
HITECH has swept the small physician practice into the dustbin of history
Most scientists believe the dinosaurs were killed by a meteor that hit the Earth, spewing a cloud of ash that blotted out the sun for years. While the dinosaurs perished, smaller, more adaptable microbes and tiny mammals survived, giving rise to the diverse ecosystem we see around us. That meteor had been on its trajectory for a long time, and...
This morning, Modern Healthcare reported that Republicans in the Senate have blocked a confirmation vote on Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as HHS secretary. Unfortunately, this holds up the starting gun for serious work at HHS, while HITECH’s deadlines remain fixed. Thus, the timeline for defining such important elements as “meaningful use” shrinks by the day. If the struggle to get a Secretary in place is...
(CNN) -- A veterinary pharmacy in Florida acknowledged Thursday that it incorrectly prepared medication used to treat 21 horses who all died around the time of an international polo match last weekend. Read More
At the recently held HIMSS conference, I took part in my first podcast. Taking the unfamiliar role in an interview, I sat across the table from Beacon Partners CEO Ralph Fargnoli, taking questions on the HITECH Act, how it was being received and the implications for the industry. To be honest, I enjoyed the process very much, as it allowed me to sound off on legislation I currently find very concerning. As I’ve
Main Feature: The HCI 100 – our proprietary ranking of the top 100 companies in healthcare IT by revenue (submissions close end of day April 20). Included in this comprehensive package are stories by HIS Pros’ Vince Ciotti on the evolution of our most well-known...
There are three kinds of people in the world (yes, a simplification I know): the first kind works the way they have been taught, the way they always have, not interested or capable of envisioning improvements. A half-step up are the individuals who can see the light, but quickly recoil from it, assuming they have no power to make that vision into reality.
Individuals of the first type might explain a particular aspect of their job by saying:...
The first rule of medicine is not to heal, but do no harm. Those tasked with fleshing out HITECH’s bones should operate on the same premise. By all accounts, the ability to define meaningful use as anything significant within the established framework of deadlines is impossible. The timelines are too short, and the law provides little access to capital for the implementation of electronic systems. Moreover, most hospitals don’t have the project management, workflow redesign, and...
Allowing patients to interact with physicians through messaging and e-mail is a game changer, in terms of increasing patient loyalty and satisfaction. This makes total sense to me, as I'd like nothing more than to never speak the admin at my doctor's practice for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, you see, customer service is not their forte. One problem here: the docs (or someone on their behalf) have to return the messages. Imagine that!
As one might suspect, all the talk at HIMSS has been around the meaning of “meaningful use.” Of course, that term refers to the mysterious criteria by which hospitals and physicians will (or will not) qualify for a piece of the HITECH Act. I have never in my career as a journalist seen such a hunger for information related to a particular piece of legislation.
The reason? CIOs I’ve spoken with know this is not merely an opportunity to score some cash for their...
2 percent? It sounds more like a type of milk than a description of how many hospitals in the Unites States have a “comprehensive” electronic environment. But there it is, right in a report from such reputable institutions as the Harvard School of Public Health, Massachusetts General Hospital and the George Washington University.
Now that the healthcare IT industry is getting what it wants, will it want what it gets?
President Obama recently blasted taxpayer-subsidized Wall Street bonuses as “the height of irresponsibility.” He also expressed displeasure with Citigroup's TARP-powered intention to buy a $50 million jet and spend $400 million for naming rights to the new version of Shea Stadium.
Boards must hold line, senator says By Lisa Wangsness, Boston Globe Staff | March 4, 2009
WASHINGTON - A leading Republican senator is scrutinizing another group of highly paid executives: leaders of nonprofit hospitals.
Nonprofit hospital presidents earned nearly $500,000 a year on average in salary and other benefits, according to a recent IRS survey of 485 hospitals, and a smaller group more closely reviewed by the IRS had an average...
I'm reposting my February Edit Memo in our blog section to facilitate greater discussion. When the Time is Right Physician EMR adoption will explode when doctors are comfortable with their risk calculation.
My wife has owned an iPod for years. While, to her, it's always been a must-have device, I've never felt the need to get one. I'm just not that into music, preferring to listen to talk radio, despite the excessive commercials. I also thought...
At HCI, we rely on our readers to help make our stories deeply useful and effective. Please take a close look at the lineup. If you are a C-suite technology leader, consultant or analyst interested in participating, please e-mail the writers listed below. Inquiries regarding these stories are welcome until March 13.
I received the following message through our Facebook page and was hoping to be of some service:
“I have an Assoc Degree in Nursing, an active RN license and have worked in surgery and ICU for over 30 years. I am interested in getting into healthcare...
From this morning's WSJ regarding the much scaled down version of the stimulus package (down from around $820 billion to $780 billion) moving through the Senate:
"Funding to computerize health records is all but gone ..."
While that doesn't necessarily mean the final bill will lack healthcare IT funding completely, it is certainly insauspicious.
"In Daschle's wake, industry vows to move ahead" — when did the industry take a vote? Nevertheless, I'm glad it "vowed" to move forward, rather than shut down.
To celebrate our Innovator Awards Winners (over 1,900 reader votes were cast), HCI is holding a reception at HIMSS. Come chat with your peers, enjoy drinks and hors d'oeuvres, and relax after a frazzled day in the convention center by getting far away from it.
Sometimes, your reactions tell you how you truly feel about things. As such, I learned a lot about myself on Friday when the NRC’s press release highlighting its new report hit the wires. It made me mad.
At HCI, we rely on our readers to help make our stories deeply useful and effective. Please take a close look at the lineup. If you are a C-suite technology leader, consultant or analyst interested in participating, please e-mail the writers listed below. Inquiries regarding these stories are welcome until Jan. 16....
HCI has just finalized its 2009 Webinar Series topics. If you are a provider-side IT executives, analyst or consultant interested in sharing your knowledge on one of the following topics, send an e-mail to Editor-in-Chief Anthony Guerra. You might just be selected to participate.
CIOs looking to stack the deck in their favor must bring nursing to the table.
Last year, when a ruptured aortic aneurysm landed my father in a Las Vegas ICU with little chance for recovery, I learned more about the world of acute-care medicine than I ever wanted. Like many with modest hospital exposure, I always conceived of acute care as similar to ambulatory — physician based. But it was evident during my month in the desert that, in the hospital, nurses run the...
I am interested in creating a very focused, high-level jobs board on the HCI site to help people out in these tough times. I would like to start with a comprehensive listing of the boutique healthcare IT-only recruiters. If you know of, or have dealt with, a good one, let me know.
At HCI, we rely on our readers to help make our stories deeply useful and effective. Please take a close look at the lineup below. If you are a C-suite technology leader, consultant or analyst interested in participating, please e-mail the writers listed below. Inquiries regarding these stories are welcome until Nov. 12.
Perhaps what I find most interesting about the annual CHIME conference in Las Vegas is the absence of panic. Though the economy is in shambles, the stock market is in the tank and a prolonged recession is the best-case scenario economists are prognosticating, nobody here seems all that scared. I sat in on one focus group where CIOs said their capital budget had to go up, regardless of what anybody wanted – it was...
Every year, HCI gives our readers a roadmap of the top tech trends shaping the healthcare landscape. This year, we’re looking to involve you every step of the way. The process will work something like this:
Over the next few weeks, we’ll gather your suggestion for the top tech trends right here on this blog, on our
Superior managers understand that making their mark is all about grooming their replacement.
What is the definition of a successful tenure when it comes to healthcare IT executives? Often in IT, impact is determined by the laundry list of applications that can be attributed to a CIO or CTO. But is...
At HCI, we rely on our readers to help make our stories deeply useful and effective. Please take a close look at the lineup below. If you are a C-suite technology leader, consultant or analyst interested in participating, please send me an e-mail. Inquiries regarding these stories are welcome until Oct. 15.
Next year, HCI and The Center for Health Design will conduct a joint conference on the intersection of facility design, sustainability and IT. We are currently looking for one or two speakers to address the issue of ‘culture change’ — namely, how do you alter the culture of an organization and its staff in order to give large-scale IT rollouts a...
(July 20) KANSAS CITY — As I fly back from a journalism conference, I feel a bit of weight on my shoulders. You see, not surprisingly, I spent the last few days having the “online is the future” message drummed into me. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am wholeheartedly a believer that such is the future of publishing, and I feel we’ve made tremendous strides at HCI Online, launching over 15 guest blogs, and more than doubling our Web traffic over the last year.
At HCI, we firmly believe our mission is to bring readers together to exchange information. In many ways, this is a departure from the traditional model of print journalism which, due to the Internet, has morphed from being a one-way street of information— with writers producing a story, sealing it and presenting it — to a two-way conversation. This change is largely based on the correct premise that editors will never be able to give you as much information as...
At HCI, we rely on our readers to help make our stories deeply useful and effective. Please take a close look at the lineup below. If you are a C-suite technology leader, consultant or analyst interested in participating, please send me an e-mail. Inquiries regarding these stories are welcome until Sept. 15.
Sometimes the best way to like your job again is to try another one.
A session I attended at the annual HFMA conference in Las Vegas focused on how CFOs can position themselves for the CEO slot. While there are many challenges to pulling off this transition, it can be done, especially at a time when understanding the finances is so important to making sure a hospital...
We interview CIOs all the time for both our traditional magazine-style stories and our one-on-one Web exclusives. These conversations are wide ranging, covering everything from leadership perspectives to implementation specifics. One of our favorite lines of questioning drills down on the CEOs they work for, to discover how the boss can contribute to, or hinder, CIO effectiveness. Because we usually talk to IT leaders that are finding some measure of success,...
The following questions were posed by a friend of the publication who prefered to remain anonymous. If anyone out there can help, please offer your comments below. Thanks, Anthony
RHIO's are expected to be the first step of Statewide and National infrastructures. Each RHIO has had the latitude to develop based on their regional needs. Some States have provided funding via grants yet have not provided standards of...
At HCI, we rely on our readers to help make our stories deeply useful and effective. Please take a close look at the lineup below. If you are a C-suite technology leader, consultant or analyst interested in participating, please send me an e-mail. Inquiries regarding these stories are welcome until Aug. 13.
And, as always, if you’ve got other story suggestions for us, let me know.
Please read below and help a fellow healthcare IT professional out with some advice. If you e-mail Nancy directly, please also publish your response here so everyone can benefit. (I've bolded some areas for emphasis)
Mr. Guerra,
I work as an Internal Consultant in Quality & Informatics for a large nonprofit health care system that provides both medical coverage and care. We have been using an EMR in our...
The future of healthcare is all about empowering the consumer with information and, subsequently, responsibility, according to Steve Case, the founder of AOL and, more recently, Revolution Health (a fact Mr. Case couldn’t help but continually remind us during the HFMA annual conference keynote this morning in Las Vegas).
The consumer, the consumer, data, data, PHRs, PHRs.
At HCI, we rely on our readers to help make our stories deeply useful and effective. Please take a close look at the lineup below. If you are a C-suite technology leader, consultant or analyst interested in participating, please send me an e-mail. Inquiries regarding these stories are welcome until July 16.
And, as always, if you’ve got other story suggestions for us, let me know.
Not every story is researched and written in a month, so we’re letting these ambitious projects percolate on the back burner until they’re ready to serve. CIOs, consultants and analysts looking to participate can contact Anthony Guerra.
At HCI, we rely on our readers to help make our stories deeply useful and effective. Please take a close look at the lineup below. If you are a C-suite technology leader, consultant or analyst interested in participating, please send me an e-mail. Inquiries regarding these stories are welcome until June 16.
Well, it’s live. If you look under the poll on the homepage, or simply click on the link here, you’ll see our first Virtual Hospital Tour. This one took place at Scottsdale...
At HCI, we rely on our readers to help make our stories deeply useful and effective. Please take a close look at the lineup below. If you are a C-suite technology leader, consultant or analyst interested in participating, please send me an e-mail. Inquiries regarding these stories are welcome until May 19.
And, as always, if you’ve got other story suggestions for us, let me know.
Healthcare Informatics new Discussion Boards are interactive online forums where readers can ask for help, learn best practices, and discover career-enhancing opportunities. Simply register once (requires separate registration from our Blog section) and start posting. We’ve organized our content into six areas corresponding to different hats healthcare IT leaders must wear throughout the day, month and year.
Reading the quotes below, what is striking is the focus on medical device/EMR integration and an observation on Cerner’s part that P4P is driving IT purchases. Also, interesting Misys/Allscripts analysis. See Pattersons’ closing comment for a nice overview of the company’s outlook.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Cerner Corp.'s profit climbed 33 percent in the first quarter on strong software sales, the health care information technology company said Tuesday.
In all industries, magazine stories are being written about it, supplements are being planned about it, and even spin-off publications are being launched about it. But is it for real, or is it all hype. Before we commit to a major feature story, I’d like to ask you: Areyou a green healthcare CIO? Is going green a real trend in this industry and, if so, what does being green really...
I got a call today from my sister regarding some medical tests my mother has just taken. A scan of some sort revealed that she has a mass on each of her kidneys – both approximately the same size. At this point, we don’t know if it’s cist that requires no attention or something far more serious.
Next up – a CT scan scheduled for Thursday. My first thought -- why so long? Why three days to get this checked out. When I...
Healthcare Revenue & Cost Management (HRCM) is a quarterly supplement to HCI focused on the acute care CEO and CFO. In HRCM, we provide strategic business advice on issues ranging from leadership and time management to cash management and financing; from M&A and philanthropy to facility construction and debt strategies. Do you have a story idea for HRCM, or would you like to be interviewed for our publication? If you’re an interested hospital CEO/CFO, e-mail...
Sure, I can understand what happened with American Airlines -- a "recall" of sorts had to take place due to a wiring problem. It shouldn't happen, but at least you can get your mind around what's going on. But when I found my trip out to Scottsdale Healthcare delayed by the following incident, it just blew my mind.
We were sitting on the plane, just about to pull back from the gate, when the following happened.
HCI’s Virtual Hospital Tours are proving that all the calls in the world don’t equal one walk around the hospital.
To be honest, the idea wasn’t mine. But then again, what original ideas are left anyway? I take solace in the fact that the concepts I’ve borrowed are from really smart people. So when I heard one of my former bosses, Kerry Massaro...
At HCI, we rely on our readers to help make our stories deeply useful and effective. Please take a close look at the lineup below. If you are a C-suite technology leader, consultant or analyst interested in participating, please send me an e-mail. Inquiries regarding these stories are welcome until April 17.
Tomorrow I fly to Phoenix, then a cab to Scottsdale to meet with Jim Cramer, CIO of Scottsdale Healthcare. Jim has been kind enough to invite me out there for HCI's first ever virtual hosptial tour. I've got a photographer meeting me at the hosptial who will follow Jim and me around the facility as he highlights all the IT Scottsdale Healthcare has put in place to make clinicians more efficient and improve care. I'll be blogging along my whole journey (a whopping two days -- gotta keep costs...
I recently had a meeting at which I was asked to present some of the major trends in healthcare IT --- here they are (these are rough notes)
Investment optimization -- Initial monies have been spent (electronic medical record packages)– now it's time to focus on continuing education, optimization, change management, adoption, fostering adoption—getting more people to use using more of the system – how...
As most of you know, every hear HCI ranks the top 100 vendors by revenue in our June issue, and this year is no exception. The HCI 100 application form is now posted. To all vendors, please carefully review the entire survey before entering your information, as there are some...
If you think all trade publications are the same, think again.
At HIMSS, I had almost 30 formal meetings, gave an opening presentation at our magazine’s Editorial Board breakfast, and delivered another at the beginning of our first-annual Innovator...
Healthcare IT leaders throughout the industry are largely struggling with the same handful of problems.
For a long time, I figured that reading self-improvement books on management and communication skills was silly. I thought I was a pretty smart guy — observant, pensive, and able to appreciate mistakes and modify behavior— and thus didn't need any advice from some self-proclaimed guru. But when a relative gave me one...
Allscripts hosted Newt Gingrich, who addressed the crowd on topics covered in his book, "Paper Kills" (Gingrich wrote the introduction). HCI had a great interview with the former speaker of the House of Representatives, which will appear online and in our April issue.
After five event filled days at HIMSS — one spent in preconference workshops and four spent speed-walking from booth to booth attempting to make of all my meetings — I was understandably exhausted and looking very much forward to being back home in the Garden State. Everything was looking up. I checked out of the hotel, enjoyed a virtually traffic-free ride to Orlando Airport, and was even able to book an earlier flight, trading the 6:15...
Just a quick introduction, I recently joined the staff at Healthcare Informatics as associate editor after spending the last few years working as a medical writer. Prior to that, I wrote for a smaller publication that covers healthcare information technology. So while I’m not quite a stranger to health IT, I was a stranger to HIMSS until a few days ago.
Anthony Guerra Anthony Guerra is Editor-in-Chief of Healthcare Informatics. His blog contains story lineups for issues in progress, along with calls to action for HCI’s CIO readers. Guerra blogs about the issues involved with running a controlled-circulation magazine, as well as the trends he observes while covering the industry. His interests tend toward leadership issues and how best CIOs can facilitate change management and clinician adoption of IT.
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Anthony Guerra