HIStalk Quotes
News 11/08/2006
posted 11/07/2006
The Kaiser postings have drawn a lot of readers and comments. If you're an insider, feel free to send information my way anonymously (I never identify or reveal a source.) Note that only the first five comments display on the main page under each article. Click the More Comments link below and to the right of the last one to see the additional ones. Also, my ISP tells me that someone launched a denial-of-service attack against HIStalk this afternoon (now why would someone do that?) so if you couldn't get in earlier, that's why.
The Kaiser e-mail and CIO stories are being picked up by a lot of newspapers. Google "Kaiser+justen" and click News to find them. And as you read here, anything in blue is being stated by an HIStalk reader, not me, so I don't have further information and I don't take responsibility for their accuracy.
Speaking of Kaiser, note Anon E. Mouse's comment on Tanning Technologies and John C. Dodd (the formal name of former Kaiser CIO Cliff Dodd, apparently.) While the CEO's e-mail said that Dodd wasn't associated with that company when Dodd hired them for $1 million, conspicuously absent was a mention that he was up until one year before. Technically correct, hardly forthright. SEC filings here.
Diva of Disgruntled has good information coming her way. From her site: the interim CIO's memo announcing his new team (warning: PDF.) She also said the October 6 systems outage attributed to a power problem was actually caused by pointing a test server at a production database. Scroll down her page to read Kaiser's critical incident whiteboard, including this entry: "Fri, 6 Oct 2006 10:54:40 There were two databases in KMATE, one test and one production. For some reason they were both pointed to Diamond for data transfer. So Diamond was receiving good data from production, but bad data from the test environment. [Name Omitted] is now trying to figure out just how much data has been compromised and giving us an ETA on how mush is affected."
Kaiser announces Q3 numbers today: $417 million profit for the quarter compared to $305 million last year, but down 7% YTD.
I've tried to reach Justen Deal with no luck so far, but this paper did. "Meanwhile, an internal e-mail sent to virtually every Kaiser employee in the system by an employee named Justen Deal warned that Kaiser could be on track to lose as much as $7 billion in the next two fiscal years if major changes are not made, in large part because of allegedly 'inefficient and ineffective' spending on information technology projects, including Kaiser's highly touted HealthConnect system, based on Epic Systems Corp. technology. Reached by telephone on Tuesday morning, Deal said the electronic medical record system, HealthConnect, was a 'good concept,' but that Kaiser had tied itself to a single vendor, Epic Systems, and that there were many problems. In particular, he said the system was often 'down.' Deal said that in June, the system was down for 9,000 user hours and that in October it had been down for 60,000 user hours. He acknowledged that the number of users of the system had doubled during that period, but said that alone should not account for the difficulties."
From Anonymous: "Justen Deal sent out his original message on Friday at like 6 or 7pm. Whoever read the message over the weekend, it stayed in their box. Whoever didn't read it, Kaiser retracted the message and deleted it out of their inboxes. Obviously it made the rounds anyway because people forwarded it to each other." Forwarded to me was the e-mail response sent out by Kaiser HR, which said in part, "Our investigation found that the decision to change vendors was made in an open and inclusive process and was based on extensive technical and financial studies. The decision was also made based on the fact that the new system contained extensive and badly needed functionality and capability that had not been designed into the prior KPCIS system. No conflicts of interest were found at any level. More than two dozen other health care organizations such as The Cleveland Clinic, Geisinger Clinic, and Evanston Northwestern Healthcare have also fully adopted the same software solution. National surveys rate the Epic system as number one for both clinics and hospitals. As with the implementation of any new, large and complex system, such as KP HealthConnect™, some roll-out problems are to be expected. These problems are being addressed as they arise. The employee was provided with a written response and then given the opportunity to provide any other information he might have regarding either technical or conflict-of-interest issues. He has not availed himself of that opportunity. He has also not made use of other appropriate channels, but has instead chosen to send a large, group message that clogs the email system." Good thing for Kaiser, since I'm betting that gave them the excuse they needed to fire him.
From EpicKoolaidAcidTest: "Before the Epic moonies log on and defend the Maharajah Judy until they pry the keyboard from her cold dead hands, let's be clear - Epic does not scale. Kaiser has at LEAST 15 separate instances of Epic running individually. So much for an integrated system! They talk about adding more instances - possibly tripling this number. This whistle blower is spot on in many ways. When you think about it, this is the first big inpatient deal Epic announced - the beginning of Epic being seen as a real inpatient EMR provider. This is also the first of many scaling issues reported in addition to functionality gaps and endless promises made by Epic as they've won deals around the country. Every dog has its day in HIT and this is just the latest in a long line of spurts of greatness (in ammasing orders) then failure (in actually executing) starting with SMS with the baton then being passed to HBOC, Eclipsys, Cerner and now Epic."
From Anonymous: "Given the growth in imaging and PACS, would you consider publishing a PACSTalk ( or may be a RIS-PACS-Talk ) once a month? You have many readers interested in and contributing towards PACS information." Sure, if there's a need (is there?) and if I can get others to contribute (not my area of expertise.)
From RaleighHIS: "Re: Sanner gone? Wow, that is news. Sanner and Skelton went to High School together. Surprises me to see him leave. Any word on where he went?"
From David Brabant: "Re: Internet privacy. Using TorPark is probably the best alternative." Link. Sweet. Install it free on a USB keychain, plug it in, and surf anonymously and encrypted on any public PC. David's blog.
From Anonymous: "TPD mentions that Dr. Horii is from UPMC. Actually, he's from Penn." I see the confusion - the article refers to Penn as "University of Pennsylvania Medical Center." Never heard it called that.
From The Shelton Shadow: "Re: Neusoft PACS/RIS. TSS has done some more research on the Neusoft PACS/RIS. Neusoft has been in PACS/RIS business since 1998, mainly selling in China. Their system is Red Hat Linux-based and focused on being low cost. They just may be ready to enter the U.S. marketplace, as I hinted recently. Since the Dalai Lama is having problems with his Agfa Impax 6.0, maybe we can get him to try a Chinese PACS/RIS." Link.
StatCom names former IBM and Cerner consulting guy Lee Kramer as VP of client services.
French company Alcatel gets its biggest deal ever as UPMC signs with them for a $300 million network upgrade. Their comm systems are as diverse (being kind) as their applications: 150 phone systems, 30 voice mail systems, and 26 call centers. And as is becoming the norm for UPMC, they and Alcatel will each pitch in $25 million for a software and technology development joint venture. IBM deal: $402 million, Cerner deal, $10 million; dbMotion deal, $84 million, and now another $300 million. Pretty soon you'll be talking real money.
Charlie McCall's lawyer cried when Charlie got off last week. "I've been living in a hotel in San Francisco since August the 14th working, truly, 20-hour days. The fact that I was emotional, given the circumstances, is entirely understandable." Lucky that Charlie, unlike McKesson shareholders, got to keep his loot since I can't imagine bigshot white-collar crime lawyer hours come cheap. Prosecutors say they'll retry Charlie.
Sectra gets a big New Mexico PACS deal, bringing in Eclipsys for the RIS.
A former New Zealand health district CIO is under a fraud investigation for his dealings with a contracted IT company. He has a 50-meter boat, which you metric-impaired folks will know as 164 feet long.
Click4Care releases ThinkHealth Version 3.0. My interview with CEO David Blauer is here.
Lee Memorial Health System (FL) licenses transfusion and blood management applications from Mediware.
News, rumors, my invitation to be on Kaiser's IT leadership team: e-mail me.
comments (4)
1. Gadfly left...
11/07/2006 11:09 pm :: http://corphq.livejournal.com
I wonder if Kaiser actually has a stated policy about broadcast email in
their employee handbook. Another question would be if this information were
actually conveyed to Justen. At the time I worked for Kaiser, I didn't
actually get a copy of the employee handbook because they were in the
process of putting it on the Intranet. This makes me wonder what would
count as the "canonical copy" of the employee handbook.
2. Curious left...
11/08/2006 2:08 pm
Maybe this is a dumb question....if KP's systems selection/implementation
is above reproach, why did Dodd resign? It is not as though he is publicly
taking the pointed fall for the controversy.
3. PTSD left...
11/09/2006 3:07 pm
I just sat on a plane next to a DOP of a 50 bed facility that was excited
her 15 facility organization was going with Epic. She said they did site
visits and what Epic has works really well. Upon asking a few more
questions I find that Epic hasn't even developed the whole suite (no site
visit for that) and the customer paid lots of cash for a system that she
admitted was vapor ware... and her hospital won't go live until 2010. There
has to be some sort of Kool Aid out there!
4. PTSD left...
11/09/2006 3:10 pm
I am happy that Justem stood up for what he thought was right. When I was
25, single, with no children or real responsiblity, I might have done the
same. Unfortunately, most of the time people who speak their mind lose
their job, and fall on a sword for no good reason.
However, this may have been the right sword for the right person at the
right time.
