Monday Morning Update 10/10/05

I had barbeque for lunch, college football is on TV, and October is maybe the best month of year throughout much of the country. It doesn't get much better than this. Other than that the announcer for one of the games is the least talented human being ever allowed to hog a microphone: the vain sissy Brent Musburger. Maybe his most notable accomplishment, other than looking like a Village Person with his cowboy hat on, is having a college drinking game based on his cliche-riddled announcing. Maybe he's the reason God invented the mute button.

From Anonymous Reader: "Scuttlebutt about GE/IDX quite interesting. Big question seems to be do they understand integration requirements and challenges and will they invest sufficiently  Noted your reader (and others) continue to say GE doesn't support OR (related to Picis remarks) when in fact one of their early acquisitions was iPath - then an up and coming and well regarded OR system (see early KLAS scores). Since they acquired iPath, they've not only failed to enhance it and grow the market, people now don't even remember it and clearly not a big player - not on anyone's radar screen I know. Similar situation with Logician. Does this foretell the future of Carecast? Does GE understand the EMR market and depth of knowledge, expertise and investments needed to survive? If the past is any indication, the answer is no." Good points. Getting bought by GE seems to mean being pushed into semi-obscurity. It seems most analysts are assuming that CareCast was not the prize in this deal, especially since it wasn't selling anyway. Having experienced developers (or at least designers) should be of value, however. Maybe they'll cannibalize the old Phamis group and send them off to Utah to work with IHC.

From KindredSpirit: "Have you ever met John Halamka, i.e. interacted with him beyond just seeing him speak? He really is a decent guy and extremely enthusiastic about what he does. I don't know him well, but have always been impressed with the fact that he does not act anything like the other 'rock star' CIOs, who always seem to be looking past the 'little people' who queue up to talk with them after their speech. There is no pretense to this guy -- he responds to emails quickly regardless of who they are from (at all hours of the day no less). He seems to be very forthright and self-deprecating -- particularly about that disastrous network crash a couple years back. I can see why people would be willing to run through a brick wall for him." You've uncovered one of my major character flaws: I'm way too quick to make a superficial judgment about people I don't know and then run off my mouth. I admit that I don't know the man, but I'm encouraged by your description. If he's unlike "rock star CIOs," then I'll be a fan too, since that's what I've assumed he is. Maybe he'll sit for an HIStalk interview, which would probably humble me even more because I'd probably like him.

From Anonymous Reader II: "[HIStalk] mentioned the historical integration problems with McKesson ...the upcoming release has all of the major clinical products on the same infrastructure ... After the tremendous effort that everyone who works directly with products has put in ... it is especially harsh to read a disgruntled chronicle from the old days ... I can only hope that as the new integrated infrastructure is implemented that McKesson will receive the approval of customers and that over time a new and better reputation will be earned." McKesson's problem is that they've been selling tight integration for many years and still haven't delivered it. I'm sure their intentions are more honorable and their efforts more focused than previously, but it's not unreasonable that customers and prospects hold them accountable for past claims, especially since their often-duplicative product lines were voluntarily acquired and maintained by them when they could have instead focused on developing a single, integrated platform as their competitors have done. I'm sympathetic to the hard work required of MCK employees to lay a smooth veneer over this rough pile of old boards, but MCK's product indecisiveness (or fears that customers won't stick with them through product changes, a la SMS) is a corporate decision they made and stand by. I don't know anyone who thinks of them as anything more than fixer-uppers ("have they ever built anything?" is the most common question I get asked.) And, IMHO, Horizon Expert Orders is a flagship fraught with spurting leaks that no amount of fixing up can rectify (that most-asked question there is, "What were they thinking to let Vandy dump this crude experiment on them for $30 million?") I, too, hope they can earn a better reputation, since so many hospitals are on the hook with MCK products.

Speaking of McKesson, being their CEO makes it too dangerous to fly commercial, even in first class. Or at least that's what the company claims in response to a Wall Street Journal article exposing that John Hammergren used the company's Dassault Falcon 900 jet over 50 times since 2001 to whisk him to his vacation home in New Hampshire, free of unwelcome rabble encounters. Cost to shareholders: about $66,000 per trip. The article mentions that he was paid $7.2 million last year, plus $7.4 million in stock, plus 400,000 options.

I was serious about recording when each print publication breaks the news of GE's acquisition of IDX. Send it in to me. I'm interested in the lead time of the ink boys and I think it's many weeks in some cases.

I mentioned Steve Case's Revolution Health Group. Interesting that a Google search doesn't turn up anything, although I eventually found their site. Also, that their management team is mostly from dot-coms and their board has a high concentration of dethroned executives: Carly Fiorina of HP, Franklin Raines of Fannie Mae, Steve Wiggins of  Oxford Health Plans, Colin Powell of Your Tax Dollars, and Jim Barksdale of Netscape. I joked about the company being stuck in the 1990s, but all the emphasis on their portal and the retread execs makes me really wonder if they are. They've also got a lot of other goofy, "hey, wouldn't this be cool" business lines: resorts, cable networks, and a car-sharing service. There's nothing like a razor-sharp focus for a startup. 

If you're at the Cerner user group meeting, why not send me a day-by-day account of what's going on? If you've read here without contributing anything in the past, now's your chance to do something easy and worthwhile. E-mail me your writeup.

It wasn't Al Gore who invented the Internet, it was Neal Patterson, at least according to this shoddily researched article. "If you look at the history of technology, I would venture to say that all the major leaps in technology came out of basic research, unexpectedly ... Even the Internet came out of basic research at CERN (Cerner Corp.) by the high energy guys. I hate to say this, but even high energy guys are useful.”  The reporter is a college student, so I'll be nice: CERN is the ticker symbol for Cerner, but Internet research came from Centre Européen de Recherche Nucléaire. They share these four letters, but absolutely nothing else.

David Brailer fills his five newly approved executive positions with interim staff, all government insiders.

Thanks to HIStalk sponsors Medicity, Healthcare Growth Partners, and VesCell. I appreciate their support. If you do, too, click their links over to the left or let them know.

I was watching Major League, one of my favorite movies, on DVD the other night when I came to a surprise realization: I like a lot of Charlie Sheen movies. Red Dawn (more of a comedy with a typical bad Patrick Swayze performance in which he cries); Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Platoon, Wall Street (my favorite), Hot Shots, Terminal Velocity, The Arrival, and Hot Shots! Part Deux (DVR'ed it and watched twice the other night - nothing like low-brow comedy featuring dead Lloyd Bridges.) Major League is a classic: Bob Uecker as announcer Harry Doyle ("Heywood leads the league in most offensive categories, including nose hair. When this guy sneezes, he looks like a party favor."), Wesley Snipes as Willy Mays Hays ("Excuse me while I take my first step toward the Hall of Fame."), and current Allstate pitch man Dennis Haysbert ("Are you in good hands?") as the Jobu-worshipping Pedro Cerrano ("I ask Jobu to come, take fear from bats. I offer him cigar, rum. He will come.") Charlie seems to give his smirking all, no matter what piece of crap he's cast in. I'm no Roger Ebert, but I know what I like.

Miami's Jackson Memorial will re-bid a $57 million patient accounting contract awarded to Siemens and later protested by PHNS when they learned that the CFO hand-picked favorable selection committee members and attended an invitation-only golf trip with Siemens staff during the selection phase. The hospital's CIO, who criticized the CFO's cost estimates, resigned under pressure this summer.

A Michigan hospital is free to seek defense costs of $1 million from a former VP who lost a $10 million wrongful discharge suit. The ex-employee had previously filed a whisteblower lawsuit against the hospital for Medicare violations and collected over $1 million.

HIMSS elbows in to the HHS "standards harmonization" table, being named a strategic partner to winning bidder ANSI.

Two new Misys rumors are floating around: (1) Oracle will buy the company, which maybe makes a lot of sense, given their financial software focus. (2) Their healthcare business will be split off or sold. Also makes sense, given M&A activity and their need to boost the bottom line on what they know best (financial software again.) Misys may well be one of those companies whose distinctly different lines of business might be worth more separately than together, and their current performance has led shareholders to question how well they're running the portfolio.

Stock message board pontification:

McKesson
"As a McKesson employee, I am thoroughly ashamed and disgusted by John's questionable use of the company jet. I thought highly of John until now. He'll lose a lot of credibility over this--with employees and customers. Next time he talks to employees about cost cutting measures, it had better start with golf trips."

"Well, now that you're getting the picture, did you know that there are 2 additional jets that Paul and Pam have at their disposal?! Now start doing THAT math. Let's not even discuss the private limos, SUVs, and drivers. That would really get you pissed."

IDX
"I think that Crooke et al - understood the market very well and understood that IDX, at its size, could not compete in the global economy which is where healthcare software is competing. Yes, he and others will make a lot of money, they've worked hard, that's a good thing I think. I will also make some money as a investor in IDX stock. Why would we on this board be invested in IDX if not to make money? The fact that we make money does not mean that others in the future will not also make money, that GE Medical will not succeed. Intersting dichotomy in this country. On the one hand we all want to succeed in this capitalist society, on the other hand we trash it. What is that about? I think that IDX senior management has made a good choice."

First Consulting Group
"UMass isn't 'insourcing as a part of their strategy' they threw FCG out and signed a new 5 year deal with ACS to take it over. Nice try at trying to dress this pig up Luther but it is still another pig you lost. What an idiot."

"Actually UMass is taking over the Apps and PM roles but ACS gets everything else and the announcement on the ACS website says their rev will increase by 60% and has quotes from the UMass exec in charge that are positive of ACS and backhanded slaps at FCG. Another good effort by the Long Beach bozos."