The DOD-MHS/VA Lovell ‘success story’ can’t process 60% of pharmacy prescriptions: House Committee

Here we go again. The Department of Defense’s Military Health System (MHS), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and Oracle have all cited the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago as a successful joint implementation. It is the only joint, fully integrated MHS/VA facility, was the only exception to the full pause on Oracle Cerner implementations in going live on 9 March, and so stands alone in complexity and importance. Oracle EVP Ken Glueck, in excoriating Business Insider, pointed to Lovell as a successful implementation to prove It Could Be Done! [TTA 31 May].

Except…except. House Representative Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization, a skeptic from Day One, investigated with other committee members. Several unnerving findings: 

  • “The pharmacy is completely reliant on outside help to operate”. 
  • “The Oracle Cerner pharmacy software functions so poorly that the permanent pharmacy staff can only process about 40% of the prescriptions.”. That means 60% of prescriptions go unfilled.
  • “The Committee staff visited James A. Lovell twice, and the employees are reporting the same frustration, hypervigilance, and burnout that the managers of the other four facilities testified about last September.”
  • 100 new staff have been hired at Lovell, with another 100 on the way.
  • About 800 experienced staff from other facilities and VA’s central office pitched in after the 9 March go-live.

Rosendale, in his opening remarks, expressed great concern that VA Secretary McDonough could realistically resume Oracle Cerner EHRM go-live at any scale, given the Lovell experience. He also noted that “the Veterans Health Administration is facing a $12 billion budget deficit, the financial impacts of the EHR on the organization’s staffing have never been budgeted or seriously reckoned with.” 

His conclusion was strong language: “Veterans and taxpayers deserve to know how large the Oracle Cerner bill truly is. Congress as well as the public need all of the information in order to make an informed decision about whether this is worth it, and whether the inevitable sacrifices are truly justified. Anything less is dereliction of duty.” Hat tip to HIStalk 7/24/24

Unicorns to Series A–health tech funding gained in (perhaps) the nick of time

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/1107_unicorn_head_mask_inuse.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Money, money everywhere–unicorns get the headlines, but the companies are still (largely) small

Up until early August, this Editor would have assumed that our Readers would look at this funding roundup as a bracing windup to a largely positive eight months and a veritable Corvette Summer for healthcare technology funding. We may have to give back the keys a little sooner than we imagined. Will the dropping market affect digital health as 2008-9 did–‘out of gas’ for years? Or will it barely affect our motoring onward? Despite the Dow Jones average hitting an 18 month low today, we hope it’s closer to the latter than the former. though the new and big entrant to digital health investing is the country most affected, China.

Our roundup of the August Action includes ZocDoc, Fitbit, Alphabet, PillPack, Owlet and more, along with a few comments:

**ZocDoc, a NYC-based online medical care appointment service that matches patients with doctors by location and schedule, had the most sensational round with last week’s Series D funding of $130 million, giving it a valuation of $1.8 bn. It took over a year after the filing (June 2014) and was led by two foreign funds (London-based Atomico and Edinburgh-based Baillie Gifford) with additional funding from Founders Fund, which previously participated in raises of $95 million.

Though it claims 60 percent coverage in the US  and ‘millions of users’ (numbers which have been quoted for some years), ZocDoc won’t disclose profitability nor volume–metrics that would be part of any IPO.

Direction? Points given for deciphering this windy statement (quoted from Mobihealthnews): (more…)

HealthSpot Station kiosks add telepharmacy

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/booth-with_new_attendant.jpg” thumb_width=”180″ /]’Virtual consult’/staffed kiosk HealthSpot Station [TTA 29 Oct], most recently adding behavioral health EHR Netsmart and telemedicine provider Teladoc [TTA 5 Sept], as well as several health system providers, is expanding into telepharmacy through a strategic alliance with Canada-based MedAvail. MedAvail’s kiosks fill prescriptions in clinics, hospitals and office locations, including live assistance from a pharmacist, though the website video doesn’t explain how drugs not in stock in the kiosk are handled. What’s notable? Large kiosks are moving towards full-scope onsite clinics. HealthSpot in its three years of existence has quietly accumulated over $15 million in funding, $10 million in 2013 alone–a fact that is not included in Rock Health’s Digital Health 2013 report, unless this Editor overlooked it. Is this not digital health delivered? Correct me if I’m wrong. HealthSpot/MedAvail press release. Also see Editor Charles’ post on ‘The Future of Doctors’ below for more on this trend and its consequences.