Monday Morning Update 11/28/22

Top News

Australia’s NSW Health chooses Epic to replace nine EHRs, six patient administration systems, and five pathology laboratory information systems to create a Single Digital Patient Record for the state’s public health system.

Epic will displace Oracle Cerner and Orion Health for the EHRs, Oracle Cerner and DXC for PAS, and Citadel and OmniLab for LIMS.

HIStalk Announcements and Requests

A significant percentage of poll respondents think that other conferences will negatively impact that of HIMSS. Dr. Showoff opines that HIMSS is “outdated, entitled, and bloated;” created lingering resentment over its decisions around the 2020 cancellation; and erred in limiting its conference venues to Las Vegas and Orlando. Jack says that while the association conference model of HIMSS and other member organizations is dying quickly, “CHIME latched onto HLTH for cash flow” and questions whether provider executives really paid to show up at HLTH since the conference won’t share its attendee lists. Meanwhile, the Thanksgiving leftovers are about to be abandoned as RSNA kicks off in McCormick Place.

New poll to your right or here: Which winter holiday is most important to you? Regardless of your choice, I think we can agree that it’s coming soon.

You’ll probably see some bugs on the site over the next couple of weeks as I migrate to a new server, which always involves challenges with timing, PHP version incompatibilities, and problems I didn’t catch during testing. I dread this kind of project because it’s just me trying to get it done without making a technical mess.

Journalism peeve: writers who state that some major story fact is “unclear,” meaning the writer is interjecting their own unanswered questions instead of sticking to known facts. Also, statements such as “the community is in mourning tonight” that attempt to portray emotional color as a universal feeling without quantification or exception. I suppose that these are minor sins compared to crafting entire “news” articles whose only sources are TikTok videos or anonymous Reddit comments.

HIStalk reader Mark made a generous donation to my Donors Choose project, which with matching funds applied fully funded these teacher grant requests:

• Math manipulatives for Ms. H’s elementary school class in Houston, TX.
• Math books and games for Ms. N’s special education high school class in Alexandria, VA.
• Math games for Ms. S’s elementary school class in Camp Verde, AZ.
• STEM kits for Ms. P’s kindergarten class in Lakeside, CA (her note is above).

Webinars

None scheduled soon. Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

People

Arcadia promotes Michael Meucci to CEO. He replaces Sean Carroll, who moves to executive chair.

Jim Dowling (Philips) joins Infinitt Healthcare as SVP of sales for North America.

Stephanie Lahr, MD (Monument Health) joins Artisight as president.

Announcements and Implementations

Epic will modify its system to run more easily on Apple devices, Axios reports, although Epic declined Apple’s request to develop an Apple-only native version.

Privacy and Security

Microsoft warns that hackers are exploiting vulnerabilities in the Boa web server for embedded applications, which was retired 17 years ago but is still being used in routers, security cameras, and software development kits.

In India, systems of 2,200-bed AIIMS go offline from a ransomware attack.

Other

The computer network of One Brooklyn Health System remains down following a November 19 incident.

News outlets in Canada warn that several of Ontario’s virtual care sites will shut down after reduced payments take effect on December 1. Most surveyed doctors say won’t accept the new $20 fee of Ontario Health Insurance Plan that affects patients who have not been previously seen in person. Some sites have already starting turning OHIP patients away or requiring them to pay cash. One hospital HIV and hepatitis C clinic that rarely sees patients in person says it will be paid $15 per appointment, less than 25% of what it billed using previous fee codes in the absence of virtual-only ones.

Police in Bhilwara,India shut down the Internet for two days as family members of a man who was shot by “four miscreants” vandalize the hospital in which he died, demanding government jobs and cash payments as compensation.

A patient who woke up during his 2017 back surgery at UCSD says in a lawsuit that a former anesthesiologist stole some of the fentanyl intended for his case, falsified his medical record to indicate that he was given the full dose, and was later found unconscious with drugs and syringes in a hospital bathroom. The anesthesiologist, whose medical license has since been revoked, admitted that he injected himself with unused patient drugs in hospital bathrooms up to eight times per day starting with his UCSD residency in 2003.

Sponsor Updates

• Pivot Point Consulting Engagement Manager Kathy Inkley works with Cerner Foundation to help pack and ship more than 200 care kits for underprivileged kids in local schools.
• Optimum Healthcare IT names Melissa Gilman a Beacon Analyst on its Managed Services team.
• ENT and Allergy Associates wins the NextGen 2022 Excellence in Healthcare Award for its implementation of the RCxRules Revenue Cycle Engine.
• Sectra releases the first three episodes of its new podcast, “Let’s talk enterprise imaging.”
• WebPT publishes “The Rehab Therapist’s Guide to Remote Therapeutic Monitoring.”
• Zen Healthcare IT announces that its Zen SSL Extension is now available via ECommerce.

Blog Posts

• Strengthening Communication with EHR Embedded Messaging (PerfectServe)
• Anatomy of a Shortage: A Lack of Contrast Media Supplies Compromised Care for Up to 10 Percent of Patients in Key Clinical Categories (Premier)
• 20 Things You Can Do to Honor and Celebrate the Caregivers in Your Life (Quil)
• HLTH Highlights Need for Greater Efficiency and Simplicity (Surescripts)
• The ultimate guide to choosing the right customer support software for your company (Talkdesk)
• Getting Stakeholders on the Same Clinical Page: A Costly Proposition (Zynx Health)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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