Weekend Update 02/06/05

I'll be closing the HISsies voting shortly, so here's your last call. I'll announce the winners in a day or two, just in time for HIMSS. Winners are encouraged to post proud signs in their HIMSS booths (you'll appeal to the offbeat crowd, which is a lot more of us than you might suspect.) I'll probably write a new article daily through the conference, so it would be cool if someone wants to put HIStalk on a monitor in their booth (not to immodestly plant subconscious promotional ideas in your head.) You could stick someone in an eye-holed paper bag and have him parade around as me ... no one would know, right?

Speaking of the conference, the groaning you hear is coming from herniated postal workers bearing stacks of throwaway "visit us in Booth 12,435 cards" for HIMSS attendees. Those will keep rolling in over the next couple of months if history is any indication, going right into the trash can long after the last booth shill's shallow promise has echoed through the cavernous exhibit hall.

Been to Boca checks in: "There were layoffs at Eclipsys, mostly in Boston. Apprarently a few more to come (not in large numbers). This will probably be good for the company. The people laid off worked on projects that were very unprofitable. Looks like they're doing everything possible to be profitable. Not sure how that impacts next week's financial announcements. I'm sure we'll find out."  Yes, we will ... after the market close Monday night.

You read in my interview with Howard Messing of MEDITECH that the company plans to get more involved in national healthcare IT initiatives. According to their website, the company has joined the HIMSS EHR Vendor Association, linked up with other groups who advocate healthcare IT, and had private meetings with David Brailer.

Speaking of MEDITECH, they just released their annual report (they aren't publicly traded, but they file a 10-K.) Tidbits: $281 million revenue for 2004 (about a third of Cerner's, by way of comparison, with 10% of that coming from HCA;) a spectacular $71 million profit, $252 million in cash and liquid securities, 2,100 employees, and 1,900 customer sites. The shortest time any officer or director has been with the company is 19 years, just in case you thought Howard's comments about promoting only from within were fluff. Support still costs just customers 12% a year (it's stated right in the 10-K, which is pretty cool.). Co-founder, CEO, and Chairman Neil Pappalardo has 9 million shares, making his equity worth in the $260 million range, or nearly double the value of Neal Patterson's Cerner shares. If they were go public at a capitalization-to-profit ratio similar to Cerner's, Mr. Pappalardo would easily be a billionaire (well, I'm no CPA, so take that with a clump of salt and remember that he doesn't seem to care a bit about cashing in anyway, but if you get that mythical chance to share a few beers with him .... hint, hint ... don't grab for the check too quickly.)

One more MEDITECH thought and I'll move on. The annual report says they update technology about ever ten years. I know the MAGIC product has many more customers than the client-server version. I wonder that they're working on now? It's been awhile since C-S was introduced. They don't talk much about R&D, but I'm sure it's happening.

An anonymous reader weighed in on the Catholic Healthcare East/SIS surgery system announcement, saying that the SIS deal is not exclusive (which the press release strongly implies) and that Picis has a similar agreement and several live CHE hospitals.

Wanted for HIStalk: a CMIO or other provider-side physician with clinical systems experience, willing to share your experiences and opinions with the industry at least 1-2 times a month. Pay: same as me ($0.) Rewards, influence, and ego-stroking opportunities: priceless. HIStalk has always had a clinical bent and I'd like to extend that into the physician's perspective on CPOE, clinical systems, physician adoption of systems, and related topics. All you need to do is e-mail me articles of your choice of topics and I'll do the ugly work of prettying it up for HIStalk. Anonymous or proudly emblazoned with your name, it's up to you. Contact me if you are interested. I'm serious, by the way, just in case that infrequent occurrence is hard to detect.

My Hospital CIO Salary of the Week items often surprise some readers, with CIOs who oversee just a few dozen or hundred IT geeky employees pulling in $250,000 or more in nonprofit hospital salary. I don't write about the CEO salaries, which sometimes exceed even $1 million, but they're being questioned in Indianapolis, where hospital CEO annual salary increases exceeded 20% last year (especially in Clarian Health Partners hospitals.) The usual lame excuses: they could make more in other industries, they have a lot of responsibility, fewer people are choosing healthcare as a profession, and the talent market is competitive. I suppose doing it for less money as a service calling is a quaint artifact of another time, back when those same nonprofit hospitals didn't sponsor stadium skyboxes or build so-called Taj Mahospitals while simultaneously lamenting publicly about their deteriorating financial state.

Drug distributor and hospital IT company Cardinal Health reported bad quarterly earnings Saturday, with profits down 42%. They also announced the resignation of their controller and termination of some employee bonuses following an internal investigation related to an SEC accounting probe, which resulted in replacement of their CFO this past summer.

LifePoint and Roanoke's Carilion fight over Virginia's Wythe County Community Hospital. LifePoint struck a deal to buy the 104-bed hospital for $56 million, but a right-of-first-refusal clause gave former partial owner Carilion a chance to match any offer, which they did. LifePoint sued, using Carilion's information systems as its argument for assuming control of the facility. They say Carilion's offer is not equivalent since Carilion will not be installing the same information systems, while Carilion says they'll upgrade the hospital's applications with their standard applications. Could be another Soarian go-live!

An opinion piece in the Denver newspaper advocates dismantling the VA, saying their VistA information system is the last piece of puzzle that would allow seamless care to be transitioned to the private sector. "... there is now no specialized body of knowledge available only within the VA medical system, as there was in the years following World War II ... The general health-care system is capable of caring for veterans more quickly, more efficiently, and at less cost than is now spent maintaining the separate VA medical system." Here are my objections to that idea:

The stock of hospital operator Health Management Associates is upgraded by a bond rater, partially due to its information systems. "One of HMA's key competitive strengths is its significant commitment to information systems including its proprietary information system, the 'Pulse System'."  

I can't help but comment on the Cookie Lawsuit, one of the most hateful and moronic uses of our legal sysem in memory. You surely haven't missed it, but just in case: two teenaged girls in Colorado skipped a dance to make cookies for their rural neighbors, packing them up with paper hearts handwritten with "Have a great night" and leaving them on doorsteps. A 49-year-old neighbor saw "shadowy figures" and decided she needed to check into the local hospital the next morning due to a self-diagnosed "anxiety attack". This being America and all, she sued the teens and was awarded $900 for her medical expenses and said she hoped the girls "had learned their lesson." She had asked for more than $3,000 to cover lost wages and security equipment for her house. But, this being America and all Part II, many citizens awoke briefly from their reality TV-induced stupor long enough to work up some outrage, offer to pay the judgment many times over, and (if I'm guessing right,) make a few threats to the plaintiff, who's keeping a very low profile (and probably calling a real estate agent even as we speak.)

Packing list for HIMSS: (1) comfortable shoes; (2) Pepcid; (3) resumes; (4) No-Doze; (5) invitations to vendor blowouts; and (6) a list of appointments with vendors that you're already sorry you confirmed. I'm on the provider side, of course ... what are you vendor types taking?

Rumor, news, opinion: e-mail me.