Weblogs to Replace Trade Magazines?
Five years after the bubble burst, the Internet is still changing the way we get information. Whether it's “the sky is falling” stories like this, or more thoughtful stories, we are getting our information from new places and in new ways.
This story asks the question, are web logs to replace trade magazines? We have some great trade mags in our industry, but new media (and some not so new) provide real value too. An anonymous site like HIStalk or the BIOMEDTALK listserv, managed by Mike Kauffman, provides unvarnished frequently updated information without the corporate-speak. In almost 2 years, HIStalk has had over 80,000 visitors, and BIOMEDTALK is up to 2506 members in 33 countries. Sites like these (and I hope this one) are an up and coming means of communications.
This unfiltered means of communications is hard for vendors who face FDA oversight and where every written word on a company website is considered “labeling,” and thus regulated. Companies in other industries are starting their own web log sites. Scobleizer is a weblog by Robert Scoble, Technical Evangelist, at Microsoft — he's paid to blog, and evangelize of course.
Vendors, don't forget to think about this site, and others like it, when you want to start some buzz or scoop the competition. And you end-user visitors, keep giving us the straight story from the real world. Comments can be left under every post on a web log, so share your experience or opinion! Contact info, including my phone, are on the Contact page — drop me a line.
UPDATE: I picked up the current Business Week at the airport today. Cover story: Blogs will change your business.
UPDATE: Okay, this is just too much. Highpoint Regional Health System has started offering web logs for patients. Here's the story in the local paper, which may surprise you.
UPDATE: Here's another indication of change, a WSJ story on declining newspaper circulation. And here's another on weblogs by two of the greatest, Instapundit (who get's about 200,000 visits to his site per day) and Nick Denton (rumored to be the only guy making real money out of blogs).
UPDATE: The WSJ weighs in with a story on patient blogs, broadening the discussion beyond Highpoint's efforts – summary at iHealth Beat (registration required).
Smart IV Pumps Don't Necissarily Improve Patient Safety
Northwestern Memorial researchers have published a study demonstrating that “smart” IV pumps do not improve patient safety on their own. You can find the actual study here.
“The objectives of the study were to determine the actual types, frequency and severity of medication errors associated with IV pumps, and also determine if errors could have been prevented with the smart pump technology alone,” says Marla Husch, RPh, lead author of the study. “We found that by itself the smart pump technology has little potential of improving care and reducing harm but by integrating the smart pump software with other information technology components, hospitals will have checks and balances in place to reduce the number of errors and further increase patient safety.”
This could be a classic case of making lemonade out of lemons: a hospital adopts new technology based on expected benefits, when the expected benefits are not realized they figure out why and publish the results. This outcome is certainly a win for the industry, if not for Northwestern Memorial.
I've posted on smart pumps before, with write ups on Alaris, Baxter, and Hospira. There was also a similar study published last month that faulted workflow surrounding the use of smart pumps as being critical to realizing real improvements in patient safety.
Ironically, Northwestern Memorial is the same hospital that did a study looking at the risk of infection from rapidly proliferating computer keyboards found in clinical areas. Infection control and risk management folks should check it out.
New York Hospitals Face Excess Bed Capacity
The New York Times describes (registration required) the fall out of political patronage, heavy government regulation, and a late 90's building boom on New York state's hospitals. In a little more than two years, 12 New York hospitals have closed, and the state estimates there may still be as many as 20,000 excess beds. On the state level, New York has 20% more hospital beds per person than the national average. New York's hospitals were deregulated in 1997, and the resulting “constructive deconstruction” brought on by market factors has been as chaotic as expected.
In study after study, the biggest difference between New York and the rest of the country is in length of stay, widely considered a measure of the quality of both care and management. Patients spend about 37 percent longer in the hospital in New York than nationally for similar cases, Solucient found, which contributes greatly to higher costs.
UPDATE: Here's an follow up article on what's happening in Buffalo, NY.
UPDATE: Here's another follow up article from the Poughkeepsie Journal.
HIPAA Security Provision Goes Into Effect Today
Today's the day! This new rule applies to electronic, administrative and physical security of patient identifyable health data.
The security rule requires health groups to have on staff a chief information security officer, perform an analysis of security risks, take safeguards to address security vulnerabilities and train employees on compliance. Violators of the rule are subject to a $250,000 penalty and 10 years in prison.
The American Hosital association reports the cost of complying to what are in reality basic security requirements will be $22 billion over five years. I had no idea that data security was so deficient in hospitals that they'd need to spend $22 BILLION.
You can read about specifics on how to comply with the 13 standards here. And you can see how many hospitals and physicans were estimated to meet the deadline here. More on physician compliance here.
Service Interruptions
I'm back after more than two days struggling with my Verizon DSL broadband Internet connection. Last Tuesday, Verizon did some “scheduled maintenance” that they knew would knock some customers off their network. Of course there was no prior notice.
The big ISPs are notoriously cagey about the technical details of their networks. Verizon limits the outflow of meaningful technical info by limiting customer contact to technicians will little or no technical background (most of the 8 Verizon folks I talked to couldn't tell the difference between an IP address and a MAC address). Ultimately I was left with, “our circuit works when it's connected to your computer, but not with your router – call your router vendor,” but no explanation why DHCP no longer worked with my router.
Even though my router (a nifty model with 4 ports, 802.11a/b/g and firewall) is almost 2 years old, Netgear helped me resolved my problem in just a couple hours. (I had to download a new version of firmware.) I had to pay Netgear $30 for 30 minutes of support, and as expected, the tech was very knowledgable.
The exact nature of this maintenance is still a mystery. One Verizon agent told me they were in the process of tying DSL connections to computer MAC addresses for “security” reasons — something about spammers. Another rep told me it was because customers were leading too many IP addresses. They ended up having to re-provision my DSL circuit.
Now I'm looking at Comcast, for Internet access and VoIP phone service. They have a nice conversion promo for DSL customers…
UPDATE: Verizon called me twice yesterday (Thursday) to remind me that their circuit is up, and today they had a computer call once again to brag about their success. Note to vendors: how a customer feels they've been treated is more important than the eventual outcome. Comcast is looking just as attractive today is they did when my service was down.
