One-on-One With HIT Policy Committee Member & Intermountain Healthcare CIO Marc Probst, Part II

GUERRA: A few days ago, I interviewed GE CEO and President Vishal Wanchoo. That company is offering a no money down, no interest financing EMR package with repayment tied to HITECH. They are also guaranteeing customers that the product will meet whatever certification is deemed necessary. Sounds interesting, no?

PROBST: I think it’s a really interesting offer. In fact, I was debating with one of my internal folks. We talk about GE a lot, obviously, because they’re our partner. It’s kind of like talking about your wife I guess. J We were just brainstorming and wondering — if we were GE and knowing what we know about the economy, and knowing what we know about this ARRA and HITECH, what would we do? I didn’t realize GE had put that package together but that’s close to what we came up with. I think that’s pretty interesting.

GUERRA: One of the questions I asked Vishal was how many vendors, he thought, could offer something like this. GE Capital is putting aside $100 million for these loans.

PROBST: It’s not every vendor that could just write a check like that.

GUERRA: It may be attractive to some people who don’t have the money.

PROBST: Yes, and good for GE which has had a hard time getting real traction in the market. It could work for both the market and them very well.

GUERRA: Just one last question — You’re right in the thick of things, so what is your best advice for your CIO colleagues?

PROBST: I hesitate giving anyone advice because I’m not that smart. I think if you’re a practical CIO, it’s obvious advice; you need to be getting your plans in place for an electronic medical record. You have to have it. Now, that’s practical advice. If you’re asking me for philosophical advice or a comment – at some point we all need to step back and look at what’s right for our country. I will get comments from people that have fully deployed CPOE and those kind of things and they’ll suggest that 2011 is perfect, that’s a great deadline.

And to me, you’re not stepping back and looking at the whole picture here. If you’re a hospital in the middle of Iowa, the most automation you have is HBO Star from 20 years ago because, frankly, that’s all the capital you’ve had to deal with. And, frankly, you can handle your job on that, given your volumes and the problems that you had to face. If that is your situation, you have got such a tremendously difficult path from here to meaningful use or using a certified medical record, that we have to give these guys a break. And everyone isn’t on an equal playing field right now.

My philosophical advice is to make sure everyone is looking at this from the perspective of the country and not just their individual needs. You have to do that. You have to have the plans, you have to know where you’re going to go, you have to know what you’re going to install, but you also have to understand the endgame and appreciate that there’s a lot of participants.