News 1/4/23

Top News

Congress approves an omnibus spending bill that includes $300 billion in 2023 funding for the VA, with $1.8 billion of that earmarked to continue to support the rollout of the department’s Oracle Cerner-based EHR across 25 facilities beginning in June.

Implementations were paused last summer after numerous reports of system outages, patient safety concerns, and cost increases.

Oracle’s progress dashboard shows that it has resolved eight high-priority software issues identified by the VA, and a dozen more in various stages of progress.

The VA purchased the Oracle Cerner system in 2018 for $10 billion. More recent estimates of total project cost exceed $50 billion over 28 years.

Webinars

January 19 (Thursday) 2 ET. “Supercharge Your Clinical Data Searches.” Sponsor: Particle Health. Presenter: Paul Robbins, MSMBA, VP of product, Particle. Particle’s team will preview the exciting results of Specialty Search, a new condition-specific record locator service. This webinar will review how to collect patient records from top Centers of Excellence across the entire country; how healthcare organizations of all types are benefiting from Specialty Search capabilities, using Particle’s simple API; and why a focused search of chronic condition data — in oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, orthopedics, and more — has an outsized impact on care outcomes.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Sales

• Outpatient radiology service provider Akumin will implement cloud-based enterprise imaging and informatics software from Mach7 Technologies.
• Virtual consultation software vendor SmileSnap subscribes to Clearwater’s managed cybersecurity and compliance services program.

People

Fuse Oncology promotes James Bauler, MA to CEO.

Jessica Hadley (CHIME) joins Divurgent as associate VP of client engagement.

Direct Recruiters promotes Trevor Yasinow to partner.

Carl Bertrams, MBA (Collateral Opportunities) joins Prevounce Health as VP of sales.

Atrium Health promotes Dawn Ross, RN, DNP, MS to chief clinical informatics officer.

Announcements and Implementations

San Juan Regional Medical Center (NM) acquires an Amwell telemedicine cart that it will use as part of its new telehealth partnership with Presbyterian Hospital’s NICU team.

Tampa General Hospital (FL) launches a remote monitoring pilot program for patients with chronic conditions using technology from Stel Life and remote care management services from Signalamp Health.

Government and Politics

Staff at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (MD) prepare for the spring transition to MHS Genesis.

Hawaii’s prison and jail medical records system has not been working since June, leaving staff unable to determine inmate COVID-19 vaccination status. The department apparently purchased EClinicalWorks in 2008 but failed to budget software maintenance and has not applied updates since. It  launched a replacement project in 2021 with a 2025 implementation deadline, but hasn’t signed a contract.

Privacy and Security

The LockBit ransomware group apologizes for a cyberattack on Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and gives the hospital a free decryptor to release their files, 13 days after the initial attack. The ransomware group, which sells its technical services to hackers as ransomware-as-a-service, says that its partner that was responsible for the attack violated its rules and has been kicked out of its affiliate program.

Other

Burnout among clinical support staff appears to be on the wane, according to an Artera survey that found a 20% year-over-year decline in staff reporting moderate to severe burnout. A similar decline was found among those reporting high or severe burnout. Of the 300 surveyed, 41% say a patient has noticed their burnout and 33% report that burnout has negatively impacted patient care.

A study of 2,000 consumers by prescription discount card vendor CharityRx finds that two-thirds of Americans Google before they contact their doctors; 37% get health advice from influencers (most commonly for anxiety, weight loss, and depression where clinicians may not have personal experience); and 20% claim they discovered they had a health condition after seeing a drug ad and 25% of those regularly take the advertised product.

Security guards at Beaumont Hospital (MI) threaten to arrest a patient in the ED waiting room for recording a confrontation between a doctor and another patient on her phone, claiming that she was violating HIPAA. The guards told her she could either delete the TikTok video or go to jail, after which they locked her in a room. Local police who were called determined that she had broken no laws, but the hospital refused to hand over her discharge paperwork and prescription. A lawyer who was contacted by the local TV station noted that the patient is not a covered entity and therefore has no obligation under HIPAA.

Sponsor Updates

• AdvancedMD employees deliver gifts to three local schools and help 14 families and 35 children this holiday season as part of the Sub for Santa program.
• The Champion Hospital in Kuwait selects Oracle Cerner’s Millenium EHR.
• Pivot Point Consulting publishes its first quarterly Healthcare IT Market Report for 2023.
• EClinicalWorks releases a new podcast, “Clinical Testing Hackathon for V12 Release.”
• Arrive Health employees put together holiday gift bags for residents at WellPower in Denver.
• Ascom Americas hires Alexandre Gauthier as regional sales director, and Christopher Fant as project manager, professional services group.
• Nordic publishes a technical paper titled “Healthcare Modernization Through Cloud-Enhanced Application Accessibility.”
• AvaSure, which specializes in acute virtual care and remote safety monitoring, experiences record-breaking growth in 2022 as its customer base tops 1,000 hospitals.
• Baker Tilly releases a new Healthy Outcomes Podcast, “The Inflation Reduction Act and its Effect on Healthcare Providers.”
• CarePort publishes a 2022 Year in Review infographic.
• Censinet announces new portfolio management capabilities to accelerate cyber risk management and incident response.

Blog Posts

• Three key updates to healthcare terminologies in 2022 (Wolters Kluwer Health)
• Meet the MEAT Criteria to Avoid Overpayments (AGS Health)
• Improving patient engagement through shared decision making (Arcadia)
• Artera Finds Clinical Support Staff Burnout in Healthcare Remains High in 2nd Annual Study (Artera)
• How to ‘Be’ the CIO Your Organization Needs in 2023 (HealthTech Resources)
• The Azara Effect: Analyzing the Impact of the Patient Visit Planning Report on UDS Measure Improvement (Azara Healthcare)
• Delivering Equitable Healthcare Through Technology (Bamboo Health)
• RSNA 2022 | Visage’s Top Five (Visage Imaging)
• The Health Plan Response to the CMS RFI on a National Healthcare Directory (CareMesh)
• Epic Go-Live Planning: 4 Steps for Successful At-the-Elbow Support (CereCore)
• A Record-Setting Year (ChartSpan)
• A retrospective on Cerner’s transition to Oracle (Oracle Cerner)
• 2022 Wrapped Playlist (Clearsense)
• Disclosure of a Registrant’s Risk Management, Strategy, and Governance Regarding Cybersecurity Risks (Clearwater)
• 4 Ways to Support Patients Navigating Annual Benefits Changes (CoverMyMeds)
• Will new entrants slim healthcare by trimming the “waste”? (Nordic)
• The Ultimate Guide to Developing a Proprietary App (CTG)
• Availity Insights with Elaine Putman and John D’Ambrosio – Accelerating Enterprise Data Strategies (Availity)
• Urgent Care Software: Know What’s Right for Your Business (Experity)

Contacts

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