Weekender 11/13/20

Weekly News Recap

• Health Catalyst announces Q3 results that beat Wall Street expectations for revenue and earnings.
• Providence will implement Nuance’s Dragon Ambient Experience for EHR documentation and will co-develop solutions covering other areas.
• Australia’s SA Health is given another $146 million to complete its years-overdue implementation of Allscripts Sunrise.
• Ambulatory surgery center software vendors HST Pathways and Casetabs announce plans to merge.
• Managed care company Centene will acquire AI-powered healthcare analytics vendor Apixio.
• HHS OIG imposes additional Corporate Integrity Agreement terms on EClinicalWorks, including requiring the company to notify customers that its EHR creates a material risk of patient harm.
• Sky Lakes Medical Center says that its October 27 ransomware attack, recovery from which is continuing, will hit its bottom line hard and will require replacing 2,000 computers.
• University of Vermont Health Network, whose systems remain offline from an October malware incident, has regained access to a week’s worth of patient schedules.
• The VA’s 16,000-employee Office of Information and Technology publishes its fiscal year report, which primarily addresses the COVID-related challenges it met.

Best Reader Comments

I am a Livongo customer and I don’t think it has revolutionized anything. It has some nice features. You get as many strips as you want, which is good so you have extra test strips when sick. The meter keeps track of how many strips you have left and one click on your meter will order more for you. Maybe a new diabetic would find the coaches helpful. All that doesn’t look like a revolution to me. (Kathy)

Re: Bridge Connector. Stunning news. I was traveling last week and woke up to the news this morning. This has got to be one of the more epic startup failures since CareSync went bust a couple of years ago. Good luck to all those affected. (D.L. Miller)

Provider organizations should support sustained efforts to continuously pare down the EHR interaction time required by clinicians. This is not a one-time exercise. It requires highly knowledgeable and skilled individuals, though, ones with operational, clinical informatics, and IT wisdom. I would venture to say that CIOs should now track measures such as reduction of interaction time as badges of honor / performance metrics, just like in years past organizations tracked EMRAM levels. The Less is More Awards? (Azmat Ahmad)

Watercooler Talk Tidbits

Readers funded the Donors Choose teacher grant request of Ms. G in California, who asked for STEM kits for her first-grade class. She reported in January, “Thank you so much for your generous donation! My students are going to benefit greatly from your thoughtfulness and have an enriched learning opportunity thanks to your contribution to our project. My students and I can’t wait to get this project started. They are excited to explore the STEM bins and get into engineering mode! These Stem bins are going to put their problem solving skills and creativity into high gear while learning in a fun way using fun materials. I truly appreciate your dedication to education as you are going to greatly impact my students’ learning.”

A Mississippi pharmacist who is among several defendants who are accused of defrauding insurers of $510 million in a compounding pharmacy pain cream scheme says that he gave a local doctor – who is also charged — $127,000 to buy himself a new Jaguar. The pharmacist says he wanted to keep the doctor happy to keep the prescriptions coming for cream that was billed at up to $13,000. The pharmacist said a Rush Health Systems employee scoured its patient database to find those whose insurance was likely to pay.

Utah Valley Hospitals has stopped five conspiracy theorists who have tried to bluff their way into the ICU to prove that it isn’t full as claimed. The hospital’s telephone operators are also being bothered people calling every day demanding to know if the ICU is full.

A 63-year-old man who had spent weeks in a Jacksonville, FL hospital’s ICU recovering from COVID-19 marries his long-time fiancée the day before his discharge because they wanted hospital staff “to share the life they gave us back.”

Hollyanne Milley, a cardiac nurse who is married to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, saves a veteran who collapsed during a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery by performing CPR. She said afterward that it was even more unusual a few years ago when she was attending an Army Ball and performed CPR in her evening gown.

In Case You Missed It

• News 11/13/20
• EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 11/12/20
• Book Report: “UnHealthcare: A Manifesto for Health Assurance”
• HIStalk Interviews William Febbo, CEO, OptimizeRx
• News 11/11/20
• HIStalk Interviews Carm Huntress, CEO, RxRevu
• Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 11/9/20
• Monday Morning Update 11/9/20
• Katie the Intern 11/6/20

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