October 5, 2010
For the last two days I have been sitting in a dark 1970s era auditorium looking at software products. This is the second vendor selection that I have been involved in during the last month. Both product selections are for immature markets where there is almost no experience or reputation to regard. For both, we were following a common process: Each vendor has a prescribed amount of time. There is a script. The audience has an evaluation sheet. Here is my unsolicited advice to vendors.
September 10, 2010
I am preparing to do a series of education sessions for our private physicians on ARRA and Meaningful Use. I would like our docs, and more importantly, their office managers, to know what is available for them and how we can assist them with their plans. Since their time is valuable and their attention span is limited, I started to delve into what would really motivate them to adopt EMRs. If I could determine that, I could do a better presentation.
August 30, 2010
Are we old, or is our technology becoming so obsolete that 20-somethings in the mall only know it from the movies? I know that my colleague Ann Malinowski felt like she was in the twilight zone, when the above happened to her.
August 25, 2010
July 1 is the start of my organization’s fiscal year, so any changes that have accompanied the new budget are in full swing by that date. There are the usual reductions in various discretionary items, but by far, the biggest issue is coffee. The coffee itself is not the problem, but the fact that it is no longer free in the cafeteria for employees, is. If you would like a cup of cafeteria coffee, it will now cost 89 cents (employee discount applied).
August 15, 2010
“Careworks: Just a Click Away Nov 2010”: That is what the buttons say for our large HIT project. Our marketing department designed them with a pleasing design and the Edward colors. Our core team and our senior staff have been wearing them on their badges for a few months. We wanted to highlight both the movement from our old DOS looking system as well as the date for conversion. I personally wanted the date on the button. I wanted to use every mechanism to rally the organization around this project being on time. I was not part of setting these dates, but I darn sure wanted to be part of making them on time.
August 10, 2010
Long before “meaningful use” was a glimmer in the eye of some Congressional staffer, and probably about the time I was still logging 200,000 miles a year in the air, my hospital had planned a rough path to get paperless. It was a multi-year project with CPOE towards the end. There were fits and starts along the way. There was the inevitable discussion about staying with the longstanding spouse (a.k.a., legacy vendor), versus throwing her over for a hot young new model. Once the decision was made, there was then continued angst over whether or not it was the right path.
August 3, 2010
About seven months ago, I made the movement back to a provider organization after seven years in mostly industry and a little bit of policy work in health information technology. A lot of organizations hire into the CIO role someone who has grown through the analyst-manager-director path. There are a lot of terrific CIOs with that background. I am just grateful that my organization saw some value to a pediatrician who had never managed an hospital IT department before, but had been around the block in a few other capacities—consultant, vendor, CCHIT devotee.
