HIStalk Quotes
News 05/31/07
posted 05/30/2007
From Bud Bundy: "Re: Bond Technologies. Rumor is that Dave Fotiadis, VP of sales for Bond Technologies, is leaving Bond to work in a sales role at Misys. Any tie-in to those rumors that Bond is going to be purchased by someone? Or to the rumors that Misys is going to purchase someone?"
From Mayor Larry Vaughn: "Re: McKesson. Nepotism is alive and well at McKesson. Following in the footsteps of David Pure, John King (son of former ??? McKesson President) was just handed the cushy role of staff assistant to Sunny Sanyal. John's brother Greg is also at McKesson in some anonymous VP role. McKesson management is once again proving that it is more important to be related to someone than have actual talent. Rumors of a major reorg throughout the sales side of McKesson from the top on down. Not sure why as they continue to post huge numbers in software revenue and market share, primaily in clinicals."
From Senor Ortega: "Re: InteGreat. A while ago I confirmed a rumor that MED3000 was acquiring InteGreat, although at the time the language was one of a 'strategic investment.' An InteGreat document is making the rounds officially calling it a merger as of April 27, 2007, saying 'InteGreat executed a Merger Agreement with MED3000 ... will merge with and into MED3000 ..." Inga got an on-the-record confirmation of the investment last month, but couldn't pin them down on the merger rumor.
From Miss Bankhead: "Re: HIMSS. In the old AHA conference days, colleagues talked about how they were using technology. And then came HIMSS. They had the same first-hand flavor initially. Now we're going out with this tarted-out streetwalker called HIMSS. Their value to the vendors paying them big bucks comes from the little guys who don't pay big bucks. Our information gets bought and sold and our work on committees is sold by HIMSS for a tidy profit. HIMSS executives are paid astronomical salaries. Volunteer to be on a high profile committee and see how far you get unless you have some big dollars to drop their way." If anyone in the Chicago area wants to drop by and peruse their 990 form to see how much they're paying executives, you know you'll find an audience here. I'm not that down on HIMSS, just in case I gave that impression. I've been on some committees and felt welcome, so my experience there is not at all bad. In fact, I don't have much to complain about except HIMSS Analytics and the reliance on heavy vendor revenue and membership. I understand the advocacy thing even though it doesn't interest (or benefit) me. The conference is great, other than the obvious excesses and the ever-diminishing emphasis on quality education. Otherwise, HIMSS does a super job in my book.
From Jerry Aldini: "Re: vendor incentives. I'm sure you realize, but I thought I'd point out, most vendors offer incentives/rewards for their participation with references calls and meetings. When I was at McKesson, it was something like $750 per product per call, or $1500 per product per site visit. And as you know, McK has lots of products, so a single visit could easily pull in over five or more applications. These incentives can be applied to existing A/R or future purchases." I always felt OK at MCK site visits since it was usually pretty obvious that the Horizon products had integration and maturity holes through which even large trucks were being routinely driven, so half-hearted customer expressions of love and admiration, compensated or not, were easy to ignore. ECLP visits were OK, although customers didn't seem all that thrilled with their skimpy product line (which made them all the more honest in my book.) Cerner's site hosts were obviously well coached on what to say, although that has an obvious solution: veer off from the pack and chat up a working nurse or doctor, not a Cerner associate working out of the customer's IT department. No vendor can control the minds or mouths of every user. The emptors better be caveating.
Picis announces European wins for the first half of 2007: two hospitals in Spain go with CareSuite Critical Care Manager; one in Portugal buys anesthesia, critical care, and PACU; one in Bavaria signs up for PACU; and one in Finland will implement anesthesia, PACU, and critical care. Picis will exhbit at SEMICYUC (Madrid) June 3-6 and ESA (Munich) June 9-12.
The federal government rejects all four NHIN proposals and sends Accenture, CSC, IBM, and Northrop Grumman away empty-handed. New RFPs will be issued combining the good parts.
Eclipsys gives a customer a made-up award, and in a frenzied fit of mutual back-scratching, winner Children's Hospital of Omaha chooses a worthy recipient of the accompanying cash: its own foundation. Sounds more like a rebate.
Idiotic lawsuit: St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock was killed in an early morning auto accident last month when his SUV ran into a tow truck whose driver was helping a motorist with a stalled car. Hancock was speeding, had a blood alcohol twice the legal limit, was talking on a cell phone, had no seat belt on, and had marijuana in his vehicle. His father is suing the restaurant where he drank, the restaurant manager, the towing company, the tow truck driver, and the driver of the stalled car. He said all contributed to his son's 'untimely and unnecessary death,' claiming his drunkenness was 'involuntary.' The restaurant had offered Hancock a ride home, which he declined.
Cerner's Neal Patterson, on rumored suitor GE: "I don't know if they have the guts to do it, the vision to do it ... vision just doesn't last very long in those companies." He's right, of course. When's the last time GE innovated anything? Interesting, though, was Neal's admission that Cerner's poison pill provision was allowed to lapse, opening the door to a hostile takeover. Guts or vision aside, GE could buy Cerner with their spare change, although I can't imagine anything good coming of that for anyone.
The all-but-done sale of iSoft to Australia's IBA is nixed at the last minute by NHS contractor CSC, which had to give its OK as iSoft's biggest customer. Despite its preliminary approval, CSC wanted to sell to McKesson instead, even though McKesson had demanded NHS contract changes that the British government refused. Since CSC gets paid by NHS only when iSoft delivers, they must have feared changes under IBA.
Cleveland Clinic CIO Martin Harris on the organization's Internet services: "We were serving patients from all over the country who were flying to Cleveland, and we realized we weren't providing the service they really needed. They needed our medical expertise, not a physician standing in front of them."
Not surprising to us informatics types: medication errors involving pediatric chemotherapy aren't often caught, with devastating consequences. Order entry isn't the problem (so CPOE doesn't help) since it's dispensing and administration that's most often at fault. My thoughts on this: (a) chemo is often given as an outpatient, meaning fewer checks and balances are in place, more responsibility is in the nurse's hands, and pharmacists are less involved; (b) pediatric doses are often prepared in the same facility as adult doses, meaning errors are less likely to be caught by non-peds pharmacists accustomed to large doses; (c) peds mistakes are often major, with decimal point and volume calculation errors more common; and (d) information systems generally are substandard for handling peds calculations, but even worse for chemo in general. My advice: Mom, don't let anything be given without your own double check.
An AHA-First Consulting Group report (warning: PDF) dips ham-handedly into pop culture for its snappy title: "When I'm 64: How Boomers Will Change Health Care." Think they got permission to use the Beatles song title? The report itself isn't bad, just the attempt to be cool (like your grandma using rap slang.)
A heart hospital in Bangalore, India is using RFID to track patients and equipment. Their Clinical Information Processing Platform is from San Diego-based Aventyn.
Speaking of rap slang and walking the walk: oft-shot rapper Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, of "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" fame, gets rich(er): Coca-Cola is buying Glaceau, the company that sells his energy drink, for $4.1 billion. Fitty will pocket $400 million for his piece of the pie. He was already rich (net worth over $100 million) from several dozen million albums sold, of course, so he's at least halfway to being a billionaire. Darn all that time I spent becoming educated and staying out of trouble.
An Alegent Health (IA) clinic pilots NextGen.
TEPR got a couple of thousand attendees, I'm told. Sounds pretty intimate. Was it good or not? My only experience with it wasn't, but I'm interested in thoughts (and no vendor whining about how few prospects dropped by, since this isn't HIMSS after all.)
Congratulations to HIStalk friend Orlando Portale, who is the new Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Palomar Pomerado Health District (CA).
Agfa demos its Orbis system at a conference in Canada.
Consultants brought in to save Atlanta's Grady Hospital don't have much good to say about it, starting with what it says is a board made up of members without the skills to oversee it. Other problems: inefficiency, poor customer service, deteriorating buildings, computer systems that are 10 years behind, and employee dissatisfaction. If I'm not mistaken, that outdated computer system is Siemens Invision, among others.
Does Medsphere have any feet left to shoot after firing (and suing) its co-founders and now losing its only obvious asset, Ken Kizer? They were fun as a scrappy, passionate underdog with big names, but I have to admit that, without Kizer, I really have no interest in them. Plus, the lawsuit makes me wonder if open source interests might be better served by other VistA stewards. Just my opinion, of course.
News, rumors, whatever: e-mail me, or use the confidential Rumor Report form to your right.
Inga's Update
Walgreens purchases Conshocken, PA-based Take Home Health Systems. Take Home operates 51 retail health clinics in Chicago, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis and anticipates having 400 clinics by the end of 2008. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. This is definitely a major trend to watch ... the clinics are staffed by nurse practioners who maintain relationships with the local medical communities. A typical office visit when paid in cash is $59-$74 and the clinics are open 7 days a week.
Duane Lawrence, former General Manager of Misys Healthcare International, takes over as CEO of Infermed (www.infermed.com.) Lawrence was "re-structured" from Misys earlier in the year and previously worked with B. Braun Medical and Coca Cola. UK-based InferMed provides software and services for clinical research.
E-mail Inga.
comments (10)
1. JB left...
05/31/2007 6:33 am
Vendor awards to clients are part of the relationship of mutual promotion
entered into with reference sites. Whether compensated for their time
(which is not insignificant) or not. The awards serve both vendor and
client, hopefully promoting a defined benefit of the solution (not always
the case) and advancing the relationship of both parties.
2. 50's Agent left...
05/31/2007 6:51 am
So you're saying 50 Cent made 400 Billion Cent off of some flavored water?
That's keepin' it real.
3. Anonymous left...
05/31/2007 10:42 am
Dave Fotiadis has been gone from Bond Technologies since January. I don't
think there is any connection as he used to work for Medic long ago.
4. Dogofwar left...
05/31/2007 12:20 pm
"When's the last time GE innovated anything?"
5. Nasty Parts left...
05/31/2007 2:59 pm
Re: Nepotism at McKesson.
6. Pass the Mustard left...
05/31/2007 3:12 pm
I think that it was mentioned here some time ago that Bond was rumored to
have been in Raleigh (home of Misys). Seems like Bundy is on to
something. Wonder what that would mean to the physicians and health
organizations that have invested in the current EMR from Misys? I'll bet
that those physicians don't want to attempt an EMR data conversion any time
soon. I thought that Misys had already committed a lot of money and time
to enhancing their EMR system. If Bundy's correct, there could be a lot of
Misys physician users looking to switch vendors in the coming months. Then
again, maybe Misys can design, develop and implement two separate EMR
systems without negatively affecting customer satisfaction.
7. Bob LaBlah left...
05/31/2007 8:41 pm
Forget about nepotism at McKesson, what I really want to know is are the
King brothers as horny as their dad was....holy smokes!
9. Anonymous left...
06/01/2007 2:59 pm
Saw a posting on emrupdate.com that eMDS was being sold to Misys a little
over an hour ago and the posting just got pulled!!
10. MCK Family left...
06/05/2007 9:48 am
It probably is not a matter of sour grapes but confusion. Even if they
are excellent managers, and given their father’s track record it is
probably true, why go to McKesson? Even if the management is told to
treat them like everyone else, some of the “suck up” managers will try to
get ahead by giving them preferential treatment.
