DOCtalk with Dr. Gregg 9/26/16

Vendor Apologies Work

This Saturday morning, as usual, I got up very early and started my typical routine, which includes checking my EMR to see what labs, prescription refill requests, consultant notes, and ER or urgent care notes may have come through since the night before. Only problem was, this morning, as compared to every other Saturday morning since we started on our current EMR, something was wrong – very, very wrong.

Not only couldn’t I access my EMR, I couldn’t even get to the sign-on page. (Yes, it’s a browser-based system.) All I could see when I tried to open the login screen was a blank, totally white page. Hmmm … that’s different …

I tried a couple of tricks in that browser with no luck. Well … maybe it’s a browser issue, I thought. Went to browser 2 … same problem. Hmmm …

All vendors have periods on downtime, you know, for system maintenance and upgrades and whatnot. However, before any scheduled downtime, most vendors notify their clients, as ours always does. Maybe I missed just such a notice thought I, so I double-checked my emails, including Junk and Spam folders. Nada. Hmmm, hmmm …

Well, glitches happen, my coffee hasn’t kicked in yet, and maybe I’m not really awake and am just dreaming. Maybe I’ll just go on about some business financial stuff (bills – ugh), run through emails, and then double back to this in a while.

However, an hour or two later, the same blank white browser page kept staring me down. “Maybe there is a system problem” now became my number-one thought.

Before I began to panic with dreadful doom-and-gloom thoughts, I decided to send the EMR support folks an email detailing what was happening on my end. Knowing I’m in the Eastern Time Zone and that they are West Coasters, I figured they may take a bit to respond – you know, wake up, grab coffee, etc. – so I sent the email and proceeded onto the aforementioned doom-and-gloom mental scenarios, such as:

• What if my EMR vendor has unexpectedly gone under, just shut the doors and shuttered the Web access? (Unlikely. They just raised a snootful of investor capital.)
• What if the system has had an irreparable glitch, maybe a total system failure? (Doubtful. They use some pretty great system architecture. Plus, at least some redundancies are in place to prevent total loss.)
• What if hackers have breached the system and are holding our data captive for some ungodly sum of ransom? (Prob’ly not. That investor money still wouldn’t make them as likely a target as many other, more prominent and likely more cash-rich, EMR vendors out there.)
• What if I somehow, for whatever the reason, we lost all access to all of our patient records? (Naw. But, still, a very scary mental picture came to mind, if only for a fleeting, though rather frightening, instant.)

OK, so I played the game of “Fear Factor” in my head and decided it might be best to walk away for a bit and give the support folks a chance to respond. Otherwise, I could envision doom-and-gloom overtaking my day, and it’s SATURDAY! No way I’m wasting a lovely, end-of-summer weekend on HIT anguish and angst.

After some workout time, some dog time, and some home puttering time, I returned to find that my EMR was fully back online, and that support had sent me a response email to say the system was back, and that it was “very unprecedented” and they had “put measures in place to ensure this will not happen again.” They also extended “sincerest apologies.”

OK, the world is once again spinning in greased grooves, and I go on about my patient-related morning duties with no signs of any lingering digital hiccup. My fears have abated, but my curiosity is still nagging away wondering what had actually occurred. Thus, later in the day, I responded to the support person’s email that I had received asking if she’d mind letting me know what exactly had “problem-ized” the system.

I didn’t hear back. Not Saturday. Not Sunday. No biggie, as I’m sure they have better things to do than explain their issues to some little trench grunt. Still, curiosity nagged a bit.

Come Monday, though, my curiosity quotient was fully addressed. In my email inbox, I received – and I’m sure all other clients of this EMR did as well – a wonderful email not only providing a full-blown apology for this “first time in [EMR’s] history that the service has been down for anywhere near this length of time,” but also a sufficiently detailed description of the problem. (Apparently there was a “system infrastructure upgrade” that was not expected to cause any downtime or service interruption whatsoever. Ah, the best laid plans …) It was the first time in their entire corporate history that such an unexpected and lengthy disruption had ever occurred.

But – and here’s the best part – the email didn’t end there, nor even with some politically-correct, corporate-speak apology. No, instead they proceeded to list important addresses to this issue should such an unintended disturbance reoccur:

• First, such a “system infrastructure upgrade” would be addressed in future so that such surprises were avoided. Additional redundancies were being deployed as well;
• Second, they started a public “status webpage” to communicate application status and any communications or solution estimates in real time;
• Third, they instituted a dedicated emergency phone number that will be monitored by in-house staff (read that as “not outsourced”), because they understood that the “inability to talk to someone when you aren’t able to access your records is very stressful and has a great impact on your practice;”
• Fourth, they offered a very sincere-sounding apology, directly from the co-founders;
• And, fifth, and what was especially high on my “Well, Ain’t That Cool” list, they sent us the personal cell phone numbers of both of the co-founders to use until the 24/7 emergency line was fully implemented!!

That last one takes commitment to your clients, personal integrity, and a bit of moxie to float out the cell numbers of the top brass for any old trench grunt to use. (I promise, guys: I’ll try never to abuse it.)

I hope this very cool response, apology, and good-faith gesture sets a standard for any and all other HIT vendors to emulate. Stuff happens, to say it politely, but it’s the response to the “stuff” that lets clients know how much – or how little – you care.

From the trenches…

“If God doesn’t destroy Hollywood Boulevard, he owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.” – Jay Leno

Dr. Gregg Alexander, a grunt in the trenches pediatrician at Madison Pediatrics, is chief medical officer for Health Nuts Media, an HIT and marketing consultant, sits on the board of directors of the Ohio Health Information Partnership, and is the semi-proud author of “Monsters Don’t Fart!”

Contacts

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

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News 9/22/16

Top News

Yahoo makes headlines, announcing a 2014 breach that resulted in the theft of data from at least 500 million accounts. (For perspective, the LinkedIn breach involved 100 million accounts, and the Anthem breach involved 80 million.) Rumors are swirling regarding the culprit, with some speculating it could be a case of espionage by a “state-sponsored actor.” The FBI remains mum on the rumor.

HIStalk Practice Musings

I got a lot out of the Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Summit in Chicago, though I spent a little less than 24 hours on site. I made a point to pack every hour in with activities and networking. The highlight had to be the immersion tour several other folks and I took to Oak Street Health, a chain of primary care clinics serving Medicare patients in underserved Chicago neighborhoods. It’s extremely rare for me to get a chance to visit physician practices – for self care or otherwise – and so I was excited to tour the clinic and pepper the co-founders Mike Pykosz and Griffin Myers with questions.

Founded just three years ago, the company operates 15 facilities and plans to open at least two more by the end of the year. It’s a challenging work environment, according to Pykosz, who’s also CEO. He half-jokingly told us that it is in fact hard to find PCPs with a passion for serving dual-eligible patients in a team-based environment that cares more about value-based care than fee-for-service traditions. Oak Street staff – and it’s patients, for that matter – all seemed happy enough working in what I was told is a very ED-like command center.

Regarding healthcare technology, the company uses Greenway, and seems resigned to the fact that no EHR is perfect. Physicians, all of whom were carrying around laptops, are accompanied by scribes to give physicians more eye-to-eye contact with patients. My interest was especially piqued when Myers explained that the clinic had recently begun offering telepsychiatry, partnering with local startup Regroup Therapy for the IT.

As the tweet above illustrates, Oak Street has really made an effort to connect with people in the communities where it operates. Its clinics now typically serve as daily hang-out areas for its elderly patrons, which in turn makes them more comfortable coming to see their physician. Bingo games, bridge clubs, book clubs, and other community organizations are typically taking up space in clinic common rooms on any given day. It was heartwarming to me to see that Oak Street Clinics not only provide healthcare, but socialization and a sense of community for all involved.

After last night’s evening reception and a good but short night’s sleep, today dawned bright, early and breathtaking. I did in fact make it to the 5k and was fortunate to find a group of likeminded “runners” to hang back with. Imagine my surprise when I found out that I was running alongside Neil Solomon, MD co-founder of Atlanta-based telemedicine company MedZed. (I had the opportunity to chat with Neil for “The House Call Comeback” in July.)

My conference experience was made complete when Aledade CEO Farzad Mostashari, MD walked by. I’m bummed that I’ll miss his evening keynote tonight. Having seen him present at HIMSS as National Coordinator, I can attest that his enthusiasm for healthcare transformation knows no bounds.

Today’s post will be the last regular news update until October 3rd. I’ll be attempting to take a digital sabbatical next week in the Smoky Mountains, and have coerced several industry movers and shakers to contribute content in my absence. See you in next month!

Webinars

September 27 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Put MACRA in your Workflow – CDS and Evolving Payment Models.” Sponsored by Stanson Health. Presenters: Anne Wellington, chief product officer, Stanson Health; Scott Weingarten, MD, MPH, SVP and chief clinical transformation officer, Cedars-Sinai. Reimbursement models are rapidly changing, and as a result, health systems need to influence physicians to align with health system strategy. In this webinar, we will discuss how Stanson’s Clinical Decision Support can run in the background of every patient visit to help physicians execute with MACRA, CJR, et al.

October 13 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Glycemic Control During Therapeutic Hypothermia.” Sponsored by Monarch Medical Technologies. Presenter: Tracey Melhuish, RN, MSN, clinical practice specialist, Holy Cross Hospital (FL). Using therapeutic hypothermia (TH) as a method of care can present risks of hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, and blood glucose variability. Maintaining safe glucose levels during the cooling and rewarming phases of TH reduces the risks of adverse events. Tracey Melhuish, author of “Linking Hypothermia and Hyperglycemia,” will share best practices for optimal glucose control during TH and the success Holy Cross Hospital sees while using a computerized glucose management software.

Contact Lorre for webinar services. View previous webinars on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel.

Announcements and Implementations

Sarasota Interventional Radiology (FL) replaces Allscripts MyWay, which was discontinued several years ago, with AbbaDox EHR from IDS.

Bizmatics updates its EHR and PM software with the launch of PrognocisDenali, which features enhanced order management, EOB processing, data analytics, and dashboards.

Sacramento, CA-based Sutter Health affiliate Sutter Physician Services adds CloudMedX’s clinical AI tool to its care delivery and RCM services for providers as part of a joint marketing agreement.

Ontario Telemedicine Network CEO Ed Brown, MD develops PracticalApps.ca to help family physicians advise patients on healthcare-related apps, which are rated by MDs for clinical validity, usability, privacy and security, accessibility, safety, and reliability. The idea seems like a good one, though I’m wondering how Brown and his team will drive physicians to it. Perhaps it can pick up as a physician resource where app certification services like the failed Happtique left off.

People

Rita Schaefer (ChartLogic) joins MedSphere as CFO.

David Shedlarz joins Teladoc’s Board of Directors.

Government and Politics

And I thought EHRs were everywhere: The Northampton County Health Department in North Carolina approves a contract to purchase or purchase an EHR for the department. It will now be eligible for $63,750 over six years for participating in the NC Medicaid EHR Incentive Program.

Telemedicine

CoolDoctors adds voice, messaging, and enhanced video capabilities from Genband to its telemedicine solution for ophthalmologists and optometrists. CoolDoctors opened up its technology for provider licensing this summer.

Research and Innovation

A new report from ResearchAmerica highlights the money companies are spending on healthcare research and development. Total spend in 2015 was $158.7 billion, with private industry making up 65 percent of that figure. It’s one that boggles my mind when I think about how that money could have been used to better address social determinants of health. I continue to wonder how much impact splashy initiatives like the Cancer Moonshot and Precision Medicine Initiative will have versus pouring money into making sure the elderly and underserved have access to basic services like heat and transportation to work, not to mention healthcare appointments.

Contacts

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

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HIStalk Practice Interviews Hill Ferguson, CEO, Doctor on Demand

Hill Ferguson is CEO of Doctor on Demand in San Francisco.

Tell me about yourself and the organization.
I came to Doctor On Demand having spent most of my career in fintech and mobile payments, most recently as CPO at PayPal. Even with the tremendous progress Doctor On Demand has made, where we are today in telemedicine is where we were 20 years ago in fintech and digital payments. Back then it was a novelty to do your banking online or send money to someone digitally. Now, it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t conduct all of their banking that way.

Let me take a step back. Lack of access to healthcare providers in the United States is a massive, growing problem. The average wait time to see a physician is three weeks. Even if you can see a doctor, it takes two to three hours every time you leave your home or office to the time you get back. It takes an average of 25 days to see a psychiatrist or psychologist. Nearly half of all patients with mental health issues go without treatment. At Doctor On Demand we provide fast, easy, and cost-effective access to some of the best physicians, psychiatrists, and psychologists in the country. Our patients can have video visits with these providers on their smartphones or computers, no matter where they are. We do this without making any sacrifices on quality. All providers are carefully screened and trained to conduct video visits and maintain more than 200 clinical protocols.

Circling back to my time in fintech, if we can make the same progress with telemedicine, we can solve some of the longstanding challenges in healthcare. By getting people high-quality healthcare, when they need it, in a setting that works best for them, Doctor On Demand is creating a new front door to healthcare.

Given your strong track record with mobile technology companies, what has surprised you most about the world of telemedicine?
Before I came to Doctor On Demand, I asked a few of my colleagues if they had seen a doctor through their smartphone or laptop, and, even among my colleagues in the tech industry, only one or two had experienced a virtual medical visit. That answer surprised me.

Telemedicine has the tremendous potential to transform healthcare, by both making people healthier and reducing healthcare costs. There are more than 160 million urgent care visits in the US each year. If telemedicine, which costs about 75 percent less than a typical urgent care visit, can replace even a portion of those, the savings would be massive.

You took over from Adam Jackson, who has remained at the company as an advisor. I understand the two of you have a bit of history together going back to your days at Vanderbilt. What has that transition been like?
I’ve known and respected Adam for many years. We’re both Vanderbilt alums, and we hired him as an intern at my first startup when he was still in school. What Doctor On Demand has accomplished in the three years since its founding would not have been possible without Adam’s skill and hard work. The company has grown rapidly. We have hundreds of enterprise customers, like Comcast, and work with dozens of major health plans, like UnitedHealthcare, Humana, and our recently launched partnership with Harvard Pilgrim. Today, millions of Americans have access to our service through their employer or health plan. Now, the company is ready for its next phase of growth, and I’m thrilled to be part of it. The whole team, including Adam, have made the transition seamless.

How do you plan to leverage your consumer-focused tech background to help Doctor On Demand move forward over the next few years?
Telemedicine — just like a lot of other innovations in digital health — can only make people healthier and save them money if people use it. What I’ve learned from PayPal and in my history with fintech is that the key to engagement is a superior customer experience. That includes things like user-friendly design, excellent customer service, innovative partnerships, and, most importantly, the highest quality healthcare. Doctor On Demand places a high priority on all of these areas, and that is what will make us successful.

Cybersecurity attacks continue to make headlines. Given the ubiquity of smart devices, how concerned is Doctor On Demand with the security of its technologies? What’s on your radar in terms of data security?It’s important that Doctor On Demand’s patients trust us not only to provide high quality healthcare, but to keep their personal information secure. Data security and privacy controls are one of our highest priorities. Doctor On Demand is the first telemedicine company to earn HITRUST CSF certified status, which is the most stringent security standard in digital health and one of the most rigorous accreditation standards in the healthcare industry.

HITRUST is an organization promoting information security in all health IT systems and exchanges. The CSF certification framework was developed with input from healthcare, business, technology, and information security leaders and includes federal and state regulations, standards, and frameworks. We believe HITRUST should be the standard across the industry.

How do you envision the telemedicine industry changing over the next five years? It seems like new companies pop up every day. Do you foresee a “bubble” that will ultimately burst?
Rather than a “bubble,” we’re at the beginning of a huge shift in the healthcare industry. We’re just on the cusp of technology’s transformation of healthcare. When realized, we will solve some of the industry’s longstanding challenges. This is the last generation that will call the doctor’s office to make an appointment when they are sick.

How does Doctor on Demand plan to stay ahead of its competitors during that timeframe?
[W]e want to not just be as good as other telemedicine providers, or even as good as brick-and-mortar healthcare. We want to provide the best access to the best healthcare at the lowest price possible. The companies that will ultimately be successful in the digital health revolution will be those that are building the future of medicine.

For telemedicine, that means leaving behind outdated technologies — like healthcare via audio telephone call — for innovations that provide better clinical quality. To ensure that, all of our visits are conducted through video so that doctors can see, hear, and examine patients. This should be the standard industry-wide. We’re also developing partnerships that will push the bounds of telemedicine. For example, we’re working with CliniCloud to incorporate connected medical devices into our video visits that can transmit real-time data to the physician.

Contacts

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

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News 9/21/16

Top News

John Meigs, Jr. MD takes on the role of AAFP president. A family physician based in Centreville, AL, Meigs probably has a good handle on the ups and downs of the physician practice landscape, given that he was in private practice for over 30 years before merging with another medical practice affiliated with Bibb Medical Center (AL). The pros seems to outweigh the cons when it comes to moving from independent practice to employment:

“I have to go through a bureaucracy to do things and sometimes I get frustrated by the bureaucracy. And now there are a lot of committees that have to approve things. When I was private, I decided what EHR I wanted to buy, and I decided what kind of pens to write with. Now I have to put in a special request to get my pens. It’s a minor little thing, but it illustrates the point. But I still have my patients. I mean I’m still seeing the same people I’ve been seeing for almost 35 years. The best part about it is I don’t have to do the payroll and the accounts payable and all those kinds of things I did when I was in private practice. I frequently did those things at one o’clock in the morning because there wasn’t time to do it during the day.”

Meigs, who seems more in tune with healthcare technology than his peer at AMA, counts usability and interoperability as his two biggest challenges with EHRs.

HIStalk Practice Musings

This week finds me in Chicago for the Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Summit. I’ve had the opportunity thus far to gaze at Lake Michigan from my hotel window and attend an immersion tour at local primary care clinic Oak Street Health. The conference will officially kick off tomorrow, and, for reasons I still can’t remember, I signed myself up for the “Wakeup Wellness 5k” at 6 am. Look for the rundown in tomorrow’s post.

Webinars

September 27 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Put MACRA in your Workflow – CDS and Evolving Payment Models.” Sponsored by Stanson Health. Presenters: Anne Wellington, chief product officer, Stanson Health; Scott Weingarten, MD, MPH, SVP and chief clinical transformation officer, Cedars-Sinai. Reimbursement models are rapidly changing, and as a result, health systems need to influence physicians to align with health system strategy. In this webinar, we will discuss how Stanson’s Clinical Decision Support can run in the background of every patient visit to help physicians execute with MACRA, CJR, et al.

October 13 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Glycemic Control During Therapeutic Hypothermia.” Sponsored by Monarch Medical Technologies. Presenter: Tracey Melhuish, RN, MSN, clinical practice specialist, Holy Cross Hospital (FL). Using therapeutic hypothermia (TH) as a method of care can present risks of hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, and blood glucose variability. Maintaining safe glucose levels during the cooling and rewarming phases of TH reduces the risks of adverse events. Tracey Melhuish, author of “Linking Hypothermia and Hyperglycemia,” will share best practices for optimal glucose control during TH and the success Holy Cross Hospital sees while using a computerized glucose management software.

Contact Lorre for webinar services. View previous webinars on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Englewood, CO-based startup CarnotMD, which offers provider benchmarking data and dashboard tools, joins Innosphere’s incubator program in Colorado. Founded by a group of physicians in 2013, the company is named after Nicolas Carnot, the “father of the second law of thermodynamics.”

Healthcare consulting and services company Primaris merges with care coordination and patient engagement consulting firm Digital Collaboration Solutions. DCS Founder and CEO Michael Levinger will take on the role of Primaris COO. HIStalk Practice readers may know Columbia, MO-based Primaris for its work helping Aledade stand up an ACO in Missouri – the first independent physician-led ACO in the state.

Announcements and Implementations

NextGen reseller TSI Healthcare adds OTech Group’s patient check-in kiosks to its line of technologies for rheumatologists.

People

Ellis Keitt (Radiology Associates) joins Zotec Partners as vice president.

Jennifer Nuckles (Zynga) joins Doctor on Demand as chief marketing officer.

Telemedicine

Managed care company Prime Health Services partners with technology firm Consumer Health Connections to roll out a telemedicine offering for the workers’ compensation industry.

Research and Innovation

A Physicians Foundation survey finds that 54 percent of physicians surveyed rate their morale as somewhat or very negative, with 49 percent saying they are either often or always feeling burnt out. As a patient, that greatly concerns me, especially with additional, impending MACRA hurdles (of which only 20 percent are aware). If given the chance at a career do-over, nearly a third would go into a different field. Over 60 percent are “pessimistic” about the future of the profession. Not surprisingly their biggest source of dissatisfaction stems from regulatory and paperwork burdens, and loss of clinical autonomy.

Shocking: Consumers prefer doing just about anything else (including filing taxes) to enrolling in a health plan during open enrollment, according to a UnitedHealthcare survey. To add insult to injury, most consumers don’t fully understand what they’re buying. Just 7 percent of those surveyed could define basic health insurance concepts like premiums, deductibles, co-insurance, and out-of-pocket maximums. With regard to technology, 37 percent of consumers are likely to use telemedicine. The payer launched telemedicine offerings through American Well and Doctor on Demand in late 2015.

Sponsor Updates

• Aprima will exhibit at the American Academy of Pain Management annual meeting September 22-24 in San Antonio.
• GE Healthcare will invest €150 million to establish a biopharmaceutical manufacturing campus and advanced manufacturing training center in Ireland.
• Built in Austin profiles E-MDs CTO Alan Ortego.

Blog Posts

• 3 Tips for Stopping Revenue Leaks that are Draining Your Practice Profitability (AdvancedMD)
• The Best Screening Test is the One That Gets Performed (Healthwise)

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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News 9/20/16

Top News

The Texas Association of Business follows up on its employer and consumer telemedicine survey with a more extensive report, presumably in an effort to convince its members and legislators to change the state’s “onerous regulatory hurdles for telemedicine technologies.” (It requires an in-person or face-to-face video conference visit with a physician prior to a virtual consult.) TAB policy recommendations include:

• Only require a patient to be examined in-person or travel to a facility when medically necessary.
• Adopt a technology-neutral definition of telemedicine that allows for patient and physician choice in selecting appropriate technology.
• Ensure that standards of practice for telemedicine and in-person care are consistent with the main goal of increasing access to quality healthcare and lower consumer cost.

Webinars

September 27 (Tuesday) 1:00 ET. “Put MACRA in your Workflow – CDS and Evolving Payment Models.” Sponsored by Stanson Health. Presenters: Anne Wellington, chief product officer, Stanson Health; Scott Weingarten, MD, MPH, SVP and chief clinical transformation officer, Cedars-Sinai. Reimbursement models are rapidly changing, and as a result, health systems need to influence physicians to align with health system strategy. In this webinar, we will discuss how Stanson’s Clinical Decision Support can run in the background of every patient visit to help physicians execute with MACRA, CJR, et al.

October 13 (Thursday) 2:00 ET. “Glycemic Control During Therapeutic Hypothermia.” Sponsored by Monarch Medical Technologies. Presenter: Tracey Melhuish, RN, MSN, clinical practice specialist, Holy Cross Hospital (FL). Using therapeutic hypothermia (TH) as a method of care can present risks of hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, and blood glucose variability. Maintaining safe glucose levels during the cooling and rewarming phases of TH reduces the risks of adverse events. Tracey Melhuish, author of “Linking Hypothermia and Hyperglycemia,” will share best practices for optimal glucose control during TH and the success Holy Cross Hospital sees while using a computerized glucose management software.

Contact Lorre for webinar services. View previous webinars on our HIStalk webinars YouTube channel.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Aprima completes its move to new headquarters in Richardson, TX. The new location, which consolidates the company’s North Texas operations into 55,000 square feet of office space, will initially house 250 employees.

Clinical trial recruitment startup EPatientFinder joins Athenahealth’s More Disruption Please program and marketplace. Based in Austin, TX, the company has raised nearly $11 million since launching in 2013.

Now it all makes sense: Bond University researchers find that nearly one in five CEOs exhibit psychopathic traits, including superficiality, insincerity, and an inability to empathize. Lead researcher Nathan Brooks says that the study’s findings “shared similarities to what we would find in a prison population.”

Announcements and Implementations

The Kansas City Care Clinic (MO) selects care coordination and patient engagement technology from BluePrint Healthcare IT to support its Community Health Worker program.

DocuTap adds text-based patient satisfaction survey technology from Calibrater Health to its EHR and PM software for urgent care facilities.

Surescripts will offer EHR vendors free access to its National Record Locator Service through 2019. The service went live earlier this year with 140 million patients and over 2 billion patient/provider interactions.

People

Carol Alter, MD (AstraZeneca) joins Mindoula Health as CMO. The Silver Spring, MD-based case management company is developing a virtual collaborative care program that will link patients with PCPs and behavioral health providers.

Government and Politics

AAP creates a wish list of action items it hopes the next administration will address. Included in the 62-page report are a number of items related to healthcare IT, including expanding pediatric functionality of EHRs. “Right now,” the AAP explains, “only 8 percent of office-based EHRs contain pediatric functionality, which creates an increased risk for errors and injuries. [ONC] should emphasize and make pediatric functionality of EHRs a driving priority in its future efforts to increase the use, effectiveness, and quality of EHRs. Eligibility for the Meaningful Use program should also be expanded to include all providers who serve Medicaid and CHIP patients, not just those who achieve a 20-percent threshold of Medicaid patients.”

Telemedicine

TreatMD offers a white-label version of its telemedicine platform. The Biscayne Bay, FL-based company officially opened for business last month.

Community Health Center (CT) and its research affiliate, The Weitzman Institute, select virtual consult technology from Safety Net Connect as part of a broader effort to bring telemedicine to school-based health centers in New Mexico. The program has been funded by a $1.1 million grant from the HRSA Telehealth Network Grant Program.

CareClix partners with Verizon to deliver telemedicine services to patients in remote areas with limited healthcare access.

Other

The local paper covers the closure of the last primary care practice in Haines, AK. Linda Keirstead, MD who has operated the practice for nine years, didn’t make the decision lightly, telling patients in a farewell letter that she looked to no avail for ways to remain open “without being consumed by the enormous and escalating administrative burden that our healthcare system has placed on us.” Colleague Leonard Feldman, MD closed his practice in Haines two years ago for similar reasons. “As a doctor, if you accept Medicare, then not only do they set the prices for you, and determine whether or not your treatment was even necessary, but they also require that you submit the billing yourself to Medicare,” he says. “Those sorts of things subtract from the time you can spend with your patients, and sort of eat away at your positive attitude, because you get these letters from Medicare saying that you’re not going to get paid.”

You and me both: Researchers conclude that the “five-second rule” isn’t real, and that “surface cross-contamination was the sixth most common contributing factor out of 32 in outbreaks of food-borne illnesses.”

Contacts

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

More news: HIStalk, HIStalk Connect.

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