Dateline: 4/1/2009 (Atongue-in-cheek review of the most “beloved” IT vendors at HIMSS)
Did you miss HIMSS? You didn’t missmuch. Chicago in April!? As a courtesy to readers, here is a recap of what eachof the leading HIS vendors announced at their mega-booths:
1.
McKesson – Since they and HBOC have acquired more than 50 smallervendors over the past 20 years, McKesson announced plans to buy up every singleremaining vendor in the industry. After all, there’s only about a dozen majorplayers left… The cost is not much more than what McKesson had to pay a fewyears ago to settle the stockholder lawsuit from over-paying for HBOC, and itwill save the healthcare industry untold millions from issuing RFPs,negotiating contacts, writing Strategic Plans, etc. Talk aboutinteroperability!
2.
Siemens – announced the latest release (Version8.A.7-2) of Soarian PowerPoints. Spokesman explained that this latest versionruns in Microsoft Vista and Office 2008, vastly superior to the old slides thatonly ran on XP in Office 2002. The new slides have eliminated many usercomplaints such as nagging repeated occurrences of “TBA” or “N/A,” as well as afar more user-friendly slide animation and stunning new graphics and sound. Thenew PowerPoint files are free for prospect hospitals; clients can get a pricingquote from their account executive…
3.
Cerner – with no booth at HIMSS, Cerner made a“remote-hosted” announcement: as part of the economic recovery package, theywill be issuing invoices to clients using their ProFit billing system. Cernerexecutives explained how this problem-plagued billing system will probably takemonths to prepare bills forclients, versus a few days for their manual system, saving hospitals untoldmillions in cash flow. In addition, payment posting is so difficult, clientscan probably short-pay invoices and not be detected for many months more…
4.
GE – Announced a brand new hardware/softwaremodule for its Centricity series of products, this one for hospital Laundrydepartments. It is comprised of totally integrated systems with two primarymodules:
a.
Centricity Washing Machines – which will be fullyintegrated with the ADT module to pre-program wash cycles based on patients ageand weight.
b.
Centricity Clothes Dryers – interfaced to ADT to pre-programthe drying cycle based on each patient’s diet and diagnosis, with the on-offcycle triggered by Centricity’s discharge-planning module.
5.
Epic - Whose CEO was recently appointed to thegovernment’s committee on spending the $17B in ARRA funds, announced a move tosimplify the burgeoning government bureaucracy required to administer theprogram. Epic will give its system away for free for up to 10 hospitals(depending on their number of ambulatory visits), in return for the entire$17B. The program faces steep opposition in Congress, however, as lobbyists forKaiser claim they have already spent about that much for Epic, and would prefera rebate…
6.
Eclipsys –Announced the latest round of layoffs this week:this time, the entire HR department. At a press conference, a spokesman explained:“Our firm has been devastated by the recent series of layoffs that are damagingour ability to serve our highly valued clients. So we are now laying off thedepartment responsible for these layoffs, which should effectively endthem.”
Calls to the HR departmentfor comments were not returned…
7.
Meditech – Also without a booth, Meditech remotelyannounced plans for Release 7, a new system programmed in anas-yet-to-be-written programming language, which will replace Release 6,programmed in Focus, which is currently being developed to replaceClient/Server, which is half-Windows and half-Magic, which replaces the oldMagic system, which replaces the old MIIS system, which replaced MUMPS… Theirspokeman said: “Now that’s intergation!”Hundreds of Meditech clients lined up to sign early orders for the new system,which is expected to be programmed shortly after design specs for Release 6 arecompleted.
8.
QuadraMed - announced the resignation of their new CEO, their 3rd in 3 years. When asked to comment, the latest CEO said "Whaaa???"
9.
Keane – announced a new name for its “Optimum”system, which is replacing the old suite of PatCom, which was called Insights,First Coast systems, which had been known as EZ- Access, and iMed, which hadbeen known as, well, iMed. When pressed for details such as the new system’sname, spokesmen for the company confessed they could not remember the new name,but would get back with an answer shortly…
10.
Healthland –announced plans to change its name back to Dairyland. A spokesperson citeddiminished sales in Midwest states as the primary cause, as well as a desire tohelp stimulate the stressed business card and stationary industries, which aresuffering severely during the recent economic downturn.
11.
CPSI – This provider of extremelylow-cost system to small hospitals shocked the entire convention by announcingplans to give away its system for free! Executives from the firm explained thatif they could announce several hundred (possibly even a thousand!) contracts toWall Street during the next quarter, their stock would climb so high that theycould all retire on their stock options, leaving the firm to be bailed out bythe feds, just like AIG.
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发表于 2009-5-18 11:02:25
发表于 2009-5-18 19:21:29
