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Drudge Report, Oct. 10, 2013, 9 AM EST: All that needs to be said about government, computing and healthcare

Per <a href="http://www.drudgereport.com/">Drudge Report</a>. Oct. 10, 2013, 9 AM EST: From the same people who brought us HITECH, the stimulus bill for rapid rollout of commercial electronic medical records, order entry, results reporting and other components of enterprise clinical "command and control" software for hospitals through which every transaction of care must pass. More IT malpractice.  The Drudge links, as they appear on the page: <blockquote class="tr_bq"><a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/opinion/obamacare-healthcare-gov-website-cost/">Obamacare website cost more than FACEBOOK, TWITTER, LINKEDIN, INSTAGRAM...</a> <a href="http://thehill.com/video/house/327489-boehner-obamacare-threatens-fines-but-fails-to-deliver-care">'How can we tax people for not buying a product from a website that doesn't work?'</a> <a href="http://www.elpasotimes.com/politics-national/?third_party=many-tried-to-warn-officials-of-obamacare-website-jam"> Major insurers, Dem allies repeatedly warned Obama admin...</a> <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/10/09/3-million-obamacare-website-may-face-months-glitches-experts-warn/">REPORT: WH knew site might not be ready...</a> <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/poll-rollout-health-exchanges-gets-thumbs-down#overlay-context=article/anti-government-protesters-dog-taiwan-national-day">POLL: Just 1 in 10 report success...</a> <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/debbie-wasserman-schultzs-shocking-insufficient-rambling-response-to-msnbc-on-obamacare-enrollees/">DNC head says site designed for 50,000 max...</a> <a href="http://www.infowars.com/once-you-get-into-the-obamacare-website-you-cant-get-out/">Once you get in, you can't get out...</a> <a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/marketplace/global/en_US/registration.js">Crazzzzzzzy code...</a> <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505269_162-57606633/obamacare-website-looks-like-nobody-tested-it-programmer-says/">'It looks like nobody tested it'...</a> <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/some-say-health-care-sites-problems-highlight-flawed-federal-it-policies/2013/10/09/d558da42-30fe-11e3-8627-c5d7de0a046b_story.html?hpid=z3">WASHPOST: Not code, but 'outdated, costly, buggy technology'...</a> <a href="http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/10/09/carney-i-dont-know-if-obama-has-used-health-care-website/">CARNEY: 'I Don’t Know' If Obama Has Tried Website...</a> <a href="http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/10/10/hawaii-relaunching-obamacare-exchange-after-not-selling-any-health-insurance-due-to-software-problems/">Hawaii forced to relaunch after zero sign-ups...</a></blockquote> I won't comment any further; I don't think I need to. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioxvlYhb12vWVBwgfbAaRyFwgypKV8y0E58B8ndx9GQ10QJ2Z_aOyJsdVFRsFs6jv8GM3TsIVJ06wIU3ADiSUO8Kh8uOVTzEVjheehWDk6xSre92w_Rlew0e-EPt9MY09j06M1CL-ekt02/s1600/drudge_computers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioxvlYhb12vWVBwgfbAaRyFwgypKV8y0E58B8ndx9GQ10QJ2Z_aOyJsdVFRsFs6jv8GM3TsIVJ06wIU3ADiSUO8Kh8uOVTzEVjheehWDk6xSre92w_Rlew0e-EPt9MY09j06M1CL-ekt02/s400/drudge_computers.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drudge Report, Oct. 10, 2013, 9 AM EST.  Click to enlarge.</td></tr></tbody></table> Of course, the Anecdotalists [1] and Denialists [2] will probably say this is all a "glitch" and that things will be great in ver. 2.0. Fools all. Oh, and the cost, via Drudge, per the linked story.  A mere: <div style="text-align: center;"><tt><tt><a href="http://weaselzippers.us/2013/10/09/gross-u-s-taxpayers-shelled-out-634320919-to-build-obamacare-website/">$634,320,919</a></tt></tt> </div> -- SS [1]  See "Health IT: On Anecdotalism and Totalitarianism" at  <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/09/health-it-on-anecdotalism-and.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/09/health-it-on-anecdotalism-and.html</a>) [2]  See "The Denialists' Deck of Cards: An Illustrated Taxonomy of Rhetoric Used to Frustrate Consumer Protection Efforts" by Chris Jay Hoofnagle, available at <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=962462">http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=962462</a>) Oct. 10, 2013 addendum: Also see "Analysis: IT experts question architecture of Obamacare website" at <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/10/05/us-usa-healthcare-technology-analysis-idUKBRE99407T20131005">http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/10/05/us-usa-healthcare-technology-analysis-idUKBRE99407T20131005</a>.  If the allegations here are even partially true, every programmer and manager who ever worked on this system should be summarily fired and never permitted to touch another computer involved in healthcare - ever. -- SS

Drudge Report, Oct. 10, 2013, 9 AM EST: All that needs to be said about government, computing and healthcare

Per Drudge Report. Oct. 10, 2013, 9 AM EST:From the same people who brought us HITECH, the stimulus bill for rapid rollout of commercial electronic medical records, order entry, results reporting and …

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10 Oct 2013

Quality and Safety Implications of Emergency Department Information Systems: ED EHR Systems Pose Serious Concerns, Report Says

A report "Quality and Safety Implications of Emergency Department Information Systems" appeared in the Oct. 2013 issue of "Annals of Emergency Medicine."  It is available fulltext at <a href="http://www.annemergmed.com/article/S0196-0644%2813%2900506-4/fulltext">http://www.annemergmed.com/article/S0196-0644%2813%2900506-4/fulltext</a>, or in PDF via the tab, free as of this writing. First, a preamble:  I once tried to alert a hospital where I'd trained decades before, Abington Memorial Hospital (<a href="http://www.amh.org/">http://www.amh.org/</a>), of impediments to safe care I'd noted in their EHR's, predominantly their ED EHR.  They did not listen.  In fact, their response to my concerns was characterized by an apparent incompetence regarding conduct of safety investigations.  For instance, to my written concern in an April 2010 letter to the CEO and CMO about the ED EHR that: <blockquote class="tr_bq"> ... I've also had to stop administration [to my mother] of an antibiotic (Levaquin) in the recent past in the ED that she has had an adverse reaction to (torn rotator cuff), despite my having told ED intake she was allergic to it. She relates that administration of Levaquin was then almost repeated on the floor until she herself refused it during that past admission.</blockquote> This was the sworn testimony in May 2013 about the "investigation" that resulted, from the hospital's VP of Risk Management, <a href="http://www.corporationwiki.com/Pennsylvania/Abington/regina-sturgis/81813980.aspx">Regina Sturgis</a>: <blockquote class="tr_bq">A:      Deborah [hospital General Counsel] asked me to investigate the Levaquin issue which I did. Q:      Did you do that on your own or did you delegate some of the -- A:      No.  I did it on my own. Q:      Do you know whether any of the IT folks were ever brought in to look at the -- the EMR issues referenced in this letter? A:     No, I do not.  I know that I was asked to look at the Levaquin because of my clinical background. Q:      Okay.  Did you come up with any conclusions? A:      Yes. Q:      What was your conclusion? A:      That she had been ordered Levaquin in the ETC [Emergency Trauma Center a.k.a. ED], that it had been discontinued about a very short period of time later, under a half an hour, and that she never received it. </blockquote> So, the investigation of a complaint that family and then the patient themselves had to stop the administration of a drug whose staff and EHR had been informed of an allergy consisted of confirming that the medication was never given.  No problem, the ED EHR is safe. (I am not joking; that is the testimony given.  Imagine such an investigation and conclusion about, say, reported aircraft flaws, or, in the industry in which I was once a safety officer, public transit vehicle defects and dangers.) However, when competent people investigate similar issues, the findings are concerning.  From Modern Healthcare (<a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/">http://www.modernhealthcare.com/</a>), a publication for healthcare executives, on the new Annals of Emergency Medicine article: <blockquote class="tr_bq"><a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20130624/NEWS/306249952/">ED EHR systems pose serious concerns, report says</a> By <a href="mailto:jconn@modernhealthcare.com" target="_blank">Joseph Conn</a> Modern Healthcare <div>June 24, 2013</div></blockquote><blockquote>Electronic health-record systems used in <a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/section/articles?tagID=5739" target="_blank">emergency</a> departments are beset with poor data displays, loaded with so many alerts warning of potential <a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/section/articles?tagID=51" target="_blank">patient-safety issues</a> that they can lead to user alert fatigue, and may be generating incorrect physician orders, according to a report by two emergency physicians' study groups. Meanwhile, providers wanting to address these <a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/section/articles?tagID=975" target="_blank">EHR</a> issues are hampered by a lack of research and solid evidence of the extent of the problem with these systems, and by contract provisions with EHR vendors that stymie the free flow of information about system-linked safety concerns, the report authors say. </blockquote> So, ED's across the country are rolling out technology, often taking advantage of ARRA's HITECH incentives ... but there is a lack of research and solid evidence into the risks.  Allow me to opine - that's simply crazy. <blockquote class="tr_bq">The groups found that “poor data display is a serious problem with many of today's EDISs,” while “the sheer volume” of alerts that range from the “completely irrelevant to life threatening” [or lack of appropriate alerts to relevant, simple issues such as data input errors - ed.] can “dull the senses, leading to a failure to react to a truly important warning.” They also found that “an alarming number of clinicians are anecdotally reporting a substantial increase in the incidence of wrong order/wrong patient errors while using the computerized physician order entry component of information systems.”</blockquote> The word "anecdote", as I have written, is being misused.  The reports are not "anecdotes."  They are risk management-relevant incident reports.  (See "From a Senior Clinician Down Under: Anecdotes and Medicine, We are Actually Talking About Two Different Things" at <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/08/from-senior-clinician-down-under.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/08/from-senior-clinician-down-under.html</a>.) <blockquote class="tr_bq">Two study groups from the American College of Emergency Physicians have recommended a program of systemic vigilance over electronic health-record systems used in emergency departments to improve patient safety and enhance quality of care. ACEP workgroups on informatics and on quality improvement and patient safety published their findings in an article, “<a href="http://www.annemergmed.com/article/S0196-0644%2813%2900506-4/abstract" target="_blank">Quality and Safety Implications of Emergency Department Information Systems</a>,” in the current issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine. </blockquote> Post marketing surveillance, a standard for decades in other healthcare sectors, has been absent from health IT due to a long-obsolete special regulatory accommodation afforded that industry.  This accommodation was initiated when systems were simple and merely advisory - not the comprehensive enterprise clinical resource and clinician command-and-control systems they are today.  Now, clinician investigators of the technology such as the authors of this study are realizing that continuing this accommodation is a mistake. <blockquote class="tr_bq">It follows in the wake of, and references, an Institute of Medicine report from 2011, “Health IT and Patient Safety: Building Safer Systems for Better Care.” That report concluded that “current market forces are not adequately addressing the potential risks associated with the use of health IT.” It also comes eight months after the New England Journal of Medicine published “<a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsb1205420" target="_blank">Electronic Health Records and National Patient-Safety Goals</a>,” which warned that recent evidence “has highlighted substantial and often unexpected risks resulting from the use of EHRs and other forms of health information technology.”</blockquote> I note that if you frequent this blog, you likely read material similar to the bolded red statements above here first, as authored by me, dating to the founding of this blog in 2004. <blockquote class="tr_bq">... “The rush to capitalize on the huge federal investment of $30 billion for the adoption of electronic medical records led to some unfortunate and unintended consequences, particularly in the unique emergency department environment,” said Dr. Heather L. Farley, the lead author of the report, in a news release. “The irreversible drive toward EDIS implementation should be accompanied by a constant focus on improvement and hazard prevention." Farley is assistant chairwoman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Christiana Care Health System in Newark, Del.</blockquote> Ironically, I note in Dr. Farley's statement some of my own advice, given to ED staff when I was Chief Medical Informatics Officer at Christiana Care 1996-8.   I had in that time period advised <a href="http://www.christianacare.org/bodymod.cfm?id=169&action=detail&ref=1909">Charles Reese IV, MD</a>, Chair of Emergency Medicine, to not implement EHRs or, at best, implement document imaging systems (since ED charts are not that long or complex), not full field-based EHRs, due to the "unfortunate and unintended consequences" of bad health IT in such an environment I recognized even then.  It was only a few years ago that my advice was finally overturned. <blockquote class="tr_bq">The authors also report “(t)here are few consistent data on how commonly these errors occur, and few studies are actually focused on collecting evidence of these errors.” Meanwhile, “there is currently no mechanism in place to systematically allow, let alone encourage, users to provide feedback about ongoing safety issues or concerns” with EHRs in general, and EDISs specifically.</blockquote> On its face, that is not a safety-conscious environment and the rollout and use of such systems seems a fundamental violation of patient's rights, made worse by the fact that there is no informed consent process whatsoever to ED EHR use. <blockquote class="tr_bq">The workgroups came up with seven recommendations: appointing an emergency department “clinician champion,” creating within healthcare delivery organizations an EDIS performance improvement group and an ongoing review process, paying timely attention to EDIS-related patient-safety issues raised by the review process, disseminating to the public lessons learned from performance improvement efforts, distributing vendors' product updates in a timely manner to all EDIS users and removing the “hold harmless” and “learned intermediary clauses” from vendor contracts. </blockquote> Many of these issues have been discussed on this blog. <blockquote class="tr_bq">“The learned intermediary doctrine implies that the end users (clinicians) are the medical experts and should be able to detect and overcome any fallibility or contributing factor of the product,” the authors said.</blockquote> I have also pointed out the absurdity of such a "doctors are clairvoyant" attitude, e.g., at my 2011 post on basic common sense on IT adverse consequences at <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/04/common-sense-on-side-effects-lacking-in.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/04/common-sense-on-side-effects-lacking-in.html</a>. <blockquote class="tr_bq">They conclude that the “lack of accountability for vendors through hold harmless clauses and the shifting of liability to the clinicians through the learned intermediary doctrine are significant and additional impairments to safety improvement. Electronic health records and EDISs are sufficiently complex that the physician and other users cannot be expected to anticipate unpredictable errors.” </blockquote> That aligns with the work of Dr. Jon Patrick in Sydney, whose treatise "A study of an Enterprise Health information System" on the Cerner FirstNet ED EHR is available here: <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/engineering/it/~hitru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=91&Itemid=146">http://sydney.edu.au/engineering/it/~hitru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=91&Itemid=146</a> <blockquote class="tr_bq">Earlier this month, the Electronic Health Record Association, an EHR developers trade group affiliated with the Chicago-based Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, announced the launch of a voluntary “<a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20130611/NEWS/306119952/ehr-trade-group-issues-code-of-conduct-to-improve-patient-safety" target="_blank">code of conduct</a>” in which adherents would agree to drop “gag clauses” in the contracts with their provider customers. </blockquote> Great.  Per the wonderful 2007 article "The Denialists' Deck of Cards: An Illustrated Taxonomy of Rhetoric Used to Frustrate Consumer Protection Efforts" by Chris Jay Hoofnagle, available at <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=962462">http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=962462</a>, as of this writing free: <blockquote class="tr_bq"> ... At this point [of losing the argument], the denialist must propose "self regulation" to deal with the problem that doesn't exist. The cool thing about self regulation is that it cannot be enforced, and once the non-existent problem blows over, the denialist can simply scrap it! [20] [20] In the runup to passage of bank privacy legislation, data brokers created a group called the "Individual Reference Services Group" that promptly disappeared after the legislation passed.</blockquote> ("Denialism" is the use of rhetorical techniques and predictable tactics to erect barriers to debate and consideration of any type of reform, regardless of the facts.) IMO 'self regulation' of healthcare is, on its face, a deception.  There are simply too many conflicts of interest. On use of "integrated" big systems: <blockquote class="tr_bq">“These systems do have glitches [indeed - see <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/glitch">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/glitch</a> - ed], but it can be plain and simple bad design that can lead to clinical errors,” Cozzens said.  But ED physicians, he said, are “having the enterprise systems forced upon them. To think you can take one system and adapt it to those different environments is totally wrong. That's why you see low physician satisfaction and the productivity is going down, all for the sacrifice of having an integrated system.”</blockquote> In fact, so-called "best of breed" systems can be bad health IT as well.  See the aforementioned evaluation by Dr. Patrick in Australia. <blockquote class="tr_bq">Bad Health IT ("BHIT") is defined as IT that is ill-suited to purpose, hard to use, hard to customize, unreliable, loses data or provides incorrect data, causes cognitive overload, slows rather than facilitates users, lacks appropriate alerts, creates the need for hypervigilance (i.e., towards avoiding IT-related mishaps) that increases stress, is lacking in security, compromises patient privacy or otherwise demonstrates suboptimal design and/or implementation.  </blockquote> Through my own work, I've seen bad health IT result in patient harm and death.  It's just unfortunate that I got started in this line of work by being, in effect, shot out of a cannon.  That is, my own mother was a victim. -- SS Addendum 10/8/13: From the article: <blockquote class="tr_bq">End-User Recommendation 4: EDIS-related patient safety concerns identified by the review process should be addressed in a timely manner by ED providers, the EDIS vendors, and hospital administration. Each of these processes should be performed in full transparency, specifically with openness, communication, and accountability. </blockquote> I'm not sure the aforementioned levaquin near-accident "investigation" meets these standards. -- SS

Quality and Safety Implications of Emergency Department Information Systems: ED EHR Systems Pose Serious Concerns, Report Says

A report "Quality and Safety Implications of Emergency Department Information Systems"appeared in the Oct. 2013 issue of "Annals of Emergency Medicine." It is available fulltext at http://www.annemer…

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08 Oct 2013

Marketing Bad Health Care Decisions as a New Form of Stealth Health Policy Advocacy

A remarkable set of video advertisements appeared a few weeks ago that seem designed to frighten people into making bad health care decisions. The "Bad Uncle Sam" Advertisements As <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-20/the-creative-minds-behind-the-new-ghoulish-anti-obamacare-ads">described</a> by Businessweek, <blockquote class="tr_bq">In the first ad, dubbed '<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7cRsfW0Jv8">The Exam</a>,' a young woman who has signed up for Obamacare arrives at a medical facility and changes out of her clothes and into a flimsy hospital gown. Following the instructions of a doctor, she reclines on a hospital bed and spreads her legs into a pair of stirrups. The doctor leaves the room. Then, suddenly a mascot wearing a plastic Uncle Sam mask and sporting an unwavering grin—Creepy Uncle Sam!—pops up between her legs. As she screams, the ad pans out. 'Don’t let government play doctor,' reads the kicker.</blockquote> The final message, for some reason not described by Businessweek, was <blockquote class="tr_bq">Opt out of ObamaCare</blockquote> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/R7cRsfW0Jv8" width="420"></iframe> Similarly, <blockquote class="tr_bq">A second spot, entitled '<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsN75nt1aUU">The Glove</a>,' follows a similar narrative arc. A young man sits in an examination room and tells a doctor that he’s signed up for Obamacare. 'I saw the ads and figured, why not?' he says. 'Okay,' says the doctor. 'Take your pants off.' The man drops his trousers, reclines on the hospital bed, and brings his knees to his chest. The doctor leaves the room. Behind the young man, Creepy Uncle Sam pops up, raises his hand into the air, snaps on a latex medical glove, and wiggles his fingers menacingly.</blockquote> Once again, the final message is <blockquote class="tr_bq">Opt out of ObamaCare</blockquote> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/BsN75nt1aUU" width="420"></iframe> The Ostensible Message of the Advertisements Again per Businessweek, the ads were sponsored by " <a href="http://generationopportunity.org/who-we-are/#axzz2fRyKxa6K">Generation Opportunity</a>, a Virginia-based conservative organization <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/09/12247/breaking-new-list-dark-money-shell-game-groups-connected-kochs">funded</a> in part by Charles and David Koch,..."  According to an <a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/10/group-telling-young-people-opt-out-obamacare-still-working-math/70079/">article</a> on the Atlantic website, Generation Opportunity means to be <blockquote class="tr_bq">urging Millennials not to sign up for insurance on the health care exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act. It claims that paying the individual mandate's tax penalty and buying insurance that doesn't meet government coverage rules is a 'better deal' for young people.</blockquote> As many have noticed, that is not the implication of the visuals.  As an <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/right-wing-ad-equates-obamacare-and-rape-20130919">opinion piece</a> in the National Journal put it, <blockquote class="tr_bq"> the message is that the government is trying to forcibly rape women with a blunt metal instrument.</blockquote> Furthermore, the final written message of both advertisements is not a nuanced one about where one should seek to go to buy health insurance.  It is simply "opt out of ObamaCare." A Nonsensical Premise Also, the premise of the advertisements is nonsense, to put it politely. ObamaCare does require health insurance to pay for various kinds of preventive care without requiring patients to pay deductibles.  It does not make physicians and nurses provide these services.  Whether a patient gets, for example, a pelvic exam, is up to that patient and her doctor or nurse practitioner, not the government.  Of course, the legislation does not remotely suggest creepy government agents should perform pelvic or rectal exams.  Thus, the entire point of these advertisements seems to be to generate irrational fears that will drive young people away from health insurance now available through ObamaCare. Stealth Health Policy Advocacy by Means of Marketing Bad Personal Health Care Decisions In the US, the Affordable Care Act, aka ObamaCare, still arouses a lot of controversy.  There are many people who have been critical of various aspects of the law.  (In fact, we <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/03/health-care-reform-bill-and-health-care.html">criticized </a>it for not addressing most of the issues about which we write on this blog.)  Furthermore, there is at least a large minority who want to repeal the law.  So there has been an ongoing barrage of persuasive messages meant to support or criticize various aspects of the law, and to support or discredit the entire law. However, the "Bad Uncle Sam" advertisements are different.  They do not urge people to vote for any particular person or initiative.  They do not urge people to express their own policy views.  They do not ask for contributions to political or advocacy organizations. Instead, they urge people to make particular health care decisions.  Despite the more nuanced messages espoused by Generation Opportunity when interviewed, their advertisements try to irrationally scare people away from purchasing health insurance made available by ObamaCare. They are aimed at young adults, who are less likely to have spare funds to pay for expensive health insurance, less likely to get sick or injured, and more likely to feel relatively invincible.  However, were an uninsured person, even a young one, to suffer a significant illness or injury, the resulting costs in our dysfunctional and extremely expensive health care system could drive them bankrupt.  This is all the more likely since the uninsured are likely to be charged "rack rates" for health care, while insurance companies negotiate discounts for their subscribers.  Furthermore, uninsured people may put off needed tests and treatments due to financial concerns, yet doing so may lead to worse health care results, or even death. An <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/business/columns/jim-gallagher/should-young-people-get-health-insurance/article_157c7d91-543b-5724-a560-c3f6eb34fae7.html">article</a> in the St Louis Post succinctly listed the costs associated with some unlucky outcomes for uninsured young people, for example,  <blockquote class="tr_bq">Suppose you twist your knee playing soccer. Without coverage, fixing it will be at least $20,000 to repair the ACL ligament, according to an estimate from <a href="http://health.costhelper.com/" title="http://health.costhelper.com/">Costhelper.com.</a> Can’t pay it? Buy some crutches. They run about $30. You’ll also take on the <a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007208.htm" title="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007208.htm">risk of tissue damage and early arthritis</a>.</blockquote> Personal finance columnist Jim Gallagher concluded, <blockquote class="tr_bq"> although the vast majority of young adults stay healthy, serious trouble is not rare. Those without insurance are playing the odds. If they win, they’ve saved the insurance premiums. If they lose, they’re ruined.</blockquote> Generation Opportunity may <a href="http://generationopportunity.org/who-we-are/">claim to be</a> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> a free-thinking, liberty-loving, national organization of young people promoting the best of Being American: opportunity, creativity and freedom. </blockquote> However, what it appears to be doing is urging bad health care choices  based on a false premise to serve an ideological agenda. Thus, its advertisements are a unique and uniquely bad mixture of marketing (of bad decisions) and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/stealth%20health%20policy%20advocacy">stealth health policy advocacy</a>.  If they want to publicly oppose ObamaCare, that is their right.  Fooling people into making bad decisions in the hopes that this will financially burden ObamaCare is completely unethical and amounts to <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/disinformation">disinformation</a>, in my humble opinion.  The leadership and funders of Generation Opportunity ought to be ashamed of themselves. The US has many major health care problems.  They deserve discussion and debate.  Disinformation that tries to confuse people into making bad personal health care decisions is likely to make our health care dysfunction even worse.   <div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"></div>

Marketing Bad Health Care Decisions as a New Form of Stealth Health Policy Advocacy

A remarkable set of video advertisements appeared a few weeks ago that seem designed to frighten people into making bad health care decisions.The "Bad Uncle Sam" Advertisements As described by Busines…

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07 Oct 2013

Use of Psychological Manipulation of Physicians to Sell Pharmaceuticals: The Drug Representative as "Den Mother"

We have discussed, most recently <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/09/vested-interests-and-their-influence-on.html">here</a>, how marketers of health care goods and services use <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/deception">deception</a> and psychological manipulation to sell their goods.  Physicians, of course, are particular targets of marketers of drugs and devices.  A vivid anecdote showing how this works just <a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/for-med-students-love-from-the-drug-rep/">appeared</a> on a New York Times blog.  It may be easier to recall that psychological theories: <blockquote class="tr_bq">In the social and culinary wasteland that was residency training, it had been easy for Cheryl, a bubbly brunette in her mid-30s, to become our den mother. She never tired of listening to our grousing, had unerring taste in take-out, made it a point to come to our parties when invited and every so often brought in a plate of her homemade brownies. But Cheryl was no den mother. She was a pharmaceutical rep. That she managed to slip a plug for her wares into every conversation or tuck copies of studies promoting her product into our white coat pockets as we polished off her brownies was awkward. But we always overlooked the salesmanship because it was such a familiar part of our residency routine. As trainees in a large teaching hospital, we knew numerous sales reps by name and the products they peddled; and it was odd, even disappointing, to go to an educational conference where one of them was not standing next to a table laden with tchotchkes, information brochures and free take-out.  But in retrospect, such docile acceptance was problematic. In an environment where no one, including senior doctors, ever questioned the presence of sales reps, we didn’t think too hard about why they might have been as friendly and helpful as they were. We didn’t ask where the money for all these giveaways was coming from and we were rarely curious about who these reps actually were (I only ever knew their first names). It wasn’t that I or the other residents preferentially prescribed their products. But I do know that more than once when faced with a decision about what to prescribe, the first thought that came to mind was not what I needed to do to find the latest evidence-based recommendation, but what Cheryl had just told us over lunch.  All of this became painfully clear after Cheryl suddenly disappeared. At first, the other trainees and I thought she had been fired, so we avoided bringing her absence up with the rep who replaced her. But when I ran into someone from her company at a national medical conference a year later, I learned otherwise. 'Oh, she got promoted,' the rep said, smiling broadly. 'Now she’s an executive in the central office.' </blockquote> Since Ahari and Fugh-Berman wrote and testified about the cynical tactics used in the marketing of drugs and other medical products years ago (look <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2007/05/fool-me-once-shame-on-you-fool-me-twice.html">here</a>, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2008/03/what-drug-reps-really-care-about.html">here</a>, and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2008/04/more-about-cynical-world-of-drug-reps.html">here</a>), it is now inexcusably naive for doctors to believe that drug (or device) representatives are their friends, no matter how friendly they appear.  Drug and device reps are trained to appear to be likable.  They may look like sympathetic friends, glamorous companions, or in this case, den mothers.  But as Sah and Fugh-Berman noted (look <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/09/vested-interests-and-their-influence-on.html">here</a>), likability is a ruse to sell products.  Brownies are supplied to give the appearance of warmth and comfort, and to generate feelings of reciprocity. How well it works appears above: "the first thought that came to mind was not what I needed to do to find the latest evidence-based recommendation, but what Cheryl had told us over lunch."  That it works well is demonstrated by Cheryl's promotion to an executive office. As long as physicians remain trusting, naive, or foolish in their approach to deceptive marketing, there will be more use of needlessly expensive, and sometimes needlessly toxic drugs, and more drug reps made into well-paid executives.

Use of Psychological Manipulation of Physicians to Sell Pharmaceuticals: The Drug Representative as "Den Mother"

We have discussed, most recently here, how marketers of health care goods and services use deception and psychological manipulation to sell their goods. Physicians, of course, are particular targets …

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04 Oct 2013

Words that Work: Singing Only Positive - And Often Unsubstantiated - EHR Praise As "Advised" At The University Of Arizona Health Network

When clinicians are told to promote a technology in no uncertain terms, that puts a chilling effect on critical thinking and discourse.  In effect, when under orders to only speak positively about a hospital or its technology, saying anything bad could very likely get clinicians labeled as 'troublemakers' or 'disruptive clinicians.'  Sometimes - in a sadly real example at Affinity Health - it may even get threats of having complaints plastered to one's forehead (see <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/07/hows-this-for-patient-rights-affinity.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/07/hows-this-for-patient-rights-affinity.html</a>), a threat answered to by a judge. The 'disruptive' label usually does not have a good effect on one's evaluations and job (or, for doctors, even career) longevity.  See, for example, the resources at <a href="http://www.aapsonline.org/index.php/article/sham_peer_review_resources_physicians/">http://www.aapsonline.org/index.php/article/sham_peer_review_resources_physicians/</a> on sham peer review. At <a href="http://www.uahealth.com/">University of Arizona Health Network (UAHN)</a>, clinicians are being told to promote the EPIC EHR. The campaign is under the aegis of executives who know, should know, or should have made it their business to know the mayhem caused at other medical centers by EPIC and other major clinical IT systems (see for example query links <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/EPIC">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/EPIC</a> and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/healthcare%20IT%20difficulties">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/healthcare%20IT%20difficulties</a>). Here's what clinicians are bring told in the Oct. 3, 2013 "Weekly update for UAHN employees": <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <h1 style="color: #606060 !important; display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 40px; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 125%; margin: 0; text-align: left;"> Words that Work </h1><div style="color: #505050; line-height: 13px;"> Talking positively to our patients about our new Electronic Health Record system is important! Here are some key words and phrases you can use to emphasize the many benefits of the new system:</div><ul><li style="color: #505050; line-height: 13px;"> Electronic health record (not ‘Epic’ or ‘EHR’)</li><li style="color: #505050; line-height: 13px;"> One comprehensive record</li><li style="color: #505050; line-height: 13px;"> Coordinated care</li><li style="color: #505050; line-height: 13px;"> Improves patient safety & quality</li><li style="color: #505050; line-height: 13px;"> Convenient, easy patient portal </li><li style="color: #505050; line-height: 13px;"> Private and secure</li></ul><div style="color: #505050; line-height: 13px;"><a href="https://www.uahealth.com/pdf/Epic_Words_That_Work.pdf" style="color: #1c3e71; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; word-wrap: break-word !important;" target="_self">Click here</a> for more words and behaviors to inspire confidence in our patients (and ourselves) as we transition to this new system.</div></blockquote> The link to "more words" produced this PDF: <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_OOVivF_6D2GEFgUm6ujfKdJjMf4UMwoxX7ZECU7351gCph46CpKY7tryUY2qq63Q7Snl9fy1SNKk9QOxUyXfhgON7lm2W2MO_Sgin5pPxl4Rf6OR78MIdzjuQrxPDCBQ4ri6BeN3YxKn/s1600/words+that+work.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_OOVivF_6D2GEFgUm6ujfKdJjMf4UMwoxX7ZECU7351gCph46CpKY7tryUY2qq63Q7Snl9fy1SNKk9QOxUyXfhgON7lm2W2MO_Sgin5pPxl4Rf6OR78MIdzjuQrxPDCBQ4ri6BeN3YxKn/s400/words+that+work.jpg" width="311" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Words that Work" - If I worked there, I would be concerned that that using "words that don't work" about a project that probably cost hundreds of millions of dollars would likely injure my career.  Click to enlarge.</td></tr></tbody></table> This is shameless.  Many of these claims are unsubstantiated or in significant doubt in the literature. First: They left out issues such as these: <blockquote class="tr_bq">• The software is tested and validated for safety by nobody, including traditional medical device safety testers. • No postmarket surveillance for problems, either. • Transparency about problems that can cause patient harm is severely impeded by systematic impediments to information flow (as per IOM's 2012 study of health IT safety at <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2012/03/doctors-and-ehrs-reframing-modernists-v.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2012/03/doctors-and-ehrs-reframing-modernists-v.html</a>, FDA via their leaked Internal Memo on HIT safety as at <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/08/smoking-gun-internal-fda-memorandum-of.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/08/smoking-gun-internal-fda-memorandum-of.html</a>, the Joint Commission in their Sentinel Events Alert on Health IT as at <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2008/12/joint-commission-sentinel-events-alert.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2008/12/joint-commission-sentinel-events-alert.html</a>, and others.) • Problems known are only the "tip of the iceberg" (FDA, ECRI Institute), as at <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/02/fda-on-health-it-adverse-consequences.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/02/fda-on-health-it-adverse-consequences.html</a> and <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/02/peering-underneath-icebergs-water-level.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/02/peering-underneath-icebergs-water-level.html</a> </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">(Mar. 2014 addendum: add to that list the revelations of med mal insurer CRICO, that EHR technology has contributed to a substantial fraction of the medical malpractice suits in Massachusetts: <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2014/02/patient-safety-quality-healthcare.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2014/02/patient-safety-quality-healthcare.html</a>)</blockquote> Of the claims they do make: <blockquote class="tr_bq">• Efficient - see aforementioned links as well as "Common Examples of Healthcare IT Difficulties" at <a href="http://cci.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/cases/">http://cci.drexel.edu/faculty/ssilverstein/cases/</a> • Convenient - as above.  According to whom?  Compared to what?  Pen and paper? • Improves patient safety and quality - see IOM report post at <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/11/iom-report-on-health-it-safety-nix-fda.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/11/iom-report-on-health-it-safety-nix-fda.html</a> .  We as a nation are only now studying safety of this technology, and the results are not looking entirely convincing, e.g. ECRI Deep Dive Study of health IT safety at <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/02/peering-underneath-icebergs-water-level.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/02/peering-underneath-icebergs-water-level.html</a>.  171 health IT mishaps in 36 hospitals, voluntarily reported over 9 weeks, with 8 reported injuries and 3 reported possible deaths is not what I would call something that "improves patient safety and quality" without qualifications. • The Cadillac of its kind - according to whom? • Patients at hospitals using this system love it -  Do most patients even know what it, or any EHR, looks like?  Have they provided informed consent to its use? • Exciting - clinician surveys such as by physicians at <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/01/honest-physician-survey-on-ehrs.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/01/honest-physician-survey-on-ehrs.html</a> and by nurses at <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/07/candid-nurse-opinions-on-ehrs-at.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/07/candid-nurse-opinions-on-ehrs-at.html</a> shed doubt on that assertion.  </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">(Addendum: also see what nurses think about these systems at "Another 'Survey' on EHRs - Affinity Medical Center (Ohio) Nurses Warn That Serious Patient Complications Only a Matter of Time in Open Letter", <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/11/another-survey-on-ehrs-affinity-medical.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/11/another-survey-on-ehrs-affinity-medical.html</a>) • The best thing for our patients - again, according to whom? • Sophisticated new system - "New"?  Not so much, just new for U. Arizona Health.  "Sophisticated", as if that's a virtue?  Too much "sophistication" is in part what causes clinician stress and burnout, raising risk; see this summary of a new, not-free JAMIA article "Electronic medical records and physician stress in primary care: results from the MEMO Study", J Am Med Inform Assoc amiajnl-2013-001875 at <a href="http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/the-relationship-between-emrs-and-physician-stress.html">http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/the-relationship-between-emrs-and-physician-stress.html</a>.   From that summary: <blockquote class="tr_bq">... Compared with physicians at clinics with low-function EMRs, physicians at clinics with moderate-function EMRs experienced significantly more stress and had a higher rate of burnout. Additionally, physicians at clinics with moderate- or high-function EMRs felt less satisfied with their current position overall. </blockquote>and: <blockquote class="tr_bq">... Results also showed a significant relationship between time pressure and physician stress in the cohort with high-function EMRs, and only in this cohort, suggesting physicians at these clinics may be particularly pressured for time during patient encounters in the face of a large number of EMR functions. "This 'made sense' to us in thinking about the possibility that those in the high-use group had more to do in the EMR" [say the authors]. </blockquote> • Smartest program out there - "Smartest" meaning what, exactly?  According to whom?  Who performed the comparison? • Streamlined - compared to what? • Thank you for your patience - even if the effects on clinicians gets you or your loved ones maimed or killed? • Safe and secure network - really?  No break ins, ever, considering multiple breach stories like those at <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/medical%20record%20privacy">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/medical%20record%20privacy</a>? • Keeping you informed is our priority - informed of what? • Specially trained staff - like these:  <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/08/epics-outrageous-recommendations-on.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/08/epics-outrageous-recommendations-on.html</a>?</blockquote> and this: <blockquote class="tr_bq">• Take Responsibility - I ask, should clinicians "take responsibility" for IT-related disruptions that impair care such as "use error" (as opposed to user error), i.e., what the National Institute of Standards and Technology has called operator error due to poor usability and other features of bad health IT?  (See "NIST on the EHR Mission Hostile User Experience" at <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/10/nist-on-ehr-mission-hostile-user.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/10/nist-on-ehr-mission-hostile-user.html</a>.)  What about "glitches" and bugs that corrupt or lose data?  Should clinicians also 'take responsibility' for those?  (See for example the posts on the wild things that happen when IT malpractice leads to clinical mayhem at <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/glitch">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/glitch</a>.)</blockquote> It appears to me that this vendor is using its client hospitals' management to enforce an "acceptable point of view" clinicians must proffer to patients about EHRs (which they must call "health" records), despite well-known contradictory findings.  This is, in effect, forced marketing of a device. Trying that for a drug or a conventional medical device (e.g., a particular stent) would be on its face unethical and likely illegal. Finally, critical thinking is what keeps patients alive and safe.  Marketing measures like this (some might call it "propaganda"), espousing and enforcing 'EHR exceptionalism', in my opinion, damage critical thinking and expression, and are thus unacceptable to push on clinicians and on patients. I add that requiring clinicians to promote deceptive propaganda the clinicians themselves know is untrue, from painful experience, is degrading, intimidating and destroys morale.  It is axiomatic that clinicians (or anyone) operating under such conditions cannot perform at their best. Thus the management geniuses who came up with these instructions (if not outright vendor-ghostwritten as at the Aug. 2012 "Health IT Vendor EPIC Caught Red-Handed: Ghostwriting And Using Customers as Stealth Lobbyists", <a href="http://www.tinyurl.com/epic-stealth">http://www.tinyurl.com/epic-stealth</a>) are by their actions increasing risk of patient harm. The nurses' unions at at <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/07/rns-say-sutters-new-electronic-system.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/07/rns-say-sutters-new-electronic-system.html</a> have it right, in my view:  complain about the disruptions this technology causes, and complain loudly, if at the very least to make sure the problems are out in the open. -- SS Note: also see the followup Nov. 2013 post "We’ve resolved 6,036 issues and have 3,517 open issues: extolling EPIC EHR virtues at University of Arizona Health System" at <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/11/weve-resolved-6036-issues-and-have-3517.html">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/11/weve-resolved-6036-issues-and-have-3517.html</a>

Words that Work: Singing Only Positive - And Often Unsubstantiated - EHR Praise As "Advised" At The University Of Arizona Health Network

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03 Oct 2013

Round and Round Spins the Revolving Door, Unimpeded by "Obamacare," Nor By Those Protesting "Obamacare"

On this day of government dysfunction in the US, it is time for our latest installment on the "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/revolving%20doors">revolving door</a>," the interchange of insiders among government legislative offices that affect health policy and agencies that implement it, and large health care corporations and the lobbyists and attorneys who represent them.  While we have been discussing this issue since March, 2011 (look <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/03/those-big-doors-keep-revolving.html">here</a>),  it got major media attention in the form of a New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/us/politics/reaping-profit-after-assisting-on-health-law.html?pagewanted=all">article</a> two weeks ago. We have accumulated several other relevant stories since late August, 2013, which we will group by the type of government offices and agencies affected, and within them, by the date the story first came out.. Regulatory and Law Enforcement Agencies Health Care Antitrust Leader at the Federal Trade Commission to Arnold & Porter  From the MainJustice.com <a href="http://www.mainjustice.com/2013/09/09/ftc-senior-antitrust-attorney-joins-arnold-porter/">site</a>, <blockquote class="tr_bq">Peter J Levitas, a former senior antiturst attorney at the Federal Trade Commission, is joining Arnold & Porter LLP in Washington, D.C.... Levitas has spent the past four years as deputy director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition and oversaw investigations and litigation for mergers and conduct cases in numerous industries.  </blockquote> So, <blockquote class="tr_bq">Levitas joins the firm's antitrust practice with experience3 addressing complex merger and conduct investigations, particularly in the healthcare, pharmaceutical and technology industries.</blockquote> Leader of Health Care Fraud Enforcement for US Attorney New Jersey Office to Lowenstein Sandler From the ComplianceWeek.com <a href="http://www.complianceweek.com/former-health-care-fraud-chief-rejoins-lowenstein-sandler/article/311549/">site</a>, <blockquote class="tr_bq">Maureen Ruane, a former health care fraud chief at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey, has rejoined the law firm Lowenstein Sandler to lead its new health care litigation, investigations and compliance practice. The new practice will help the firm's healthcare and life science clients strengthen their regulatory and compliance programs, as well as defend corporate and individual clients who become the subjects or targets of government investigations or enforcement actions.  Prior to rejoining Lowenstein Sandler, Ruane most recently served for more than three years as the Chief of the Health Care & Government Fraud Unit at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey.</blockquote> Health Policy Implementation Counsel for Department of Health and Human Services to Sidley Austin <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/us/politics/reaping-profit-after-assisting-on-health-law.html?pagewanted=all">Per</a> the NY Times,  <blockquote class="tr_bq">Dr. [Dora] Hughes, a former Obama administration official, has something Washington lawyers and lobbying shops covet: an insider’s understanding of the new health care law. After nearly four years as counselor to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, she left government last year to work for Sidley Austin, which represents insurers, pharmaceutical companies, device makers and others affected by the law. </blockquote> Previously, <blockquote class="tr_bq">she  began a decade ago, first as a health policy adviser to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and later to Mr. Obama, then a senator. </blockquote> Deputy Assistant Secretary of Department of Health and Human Services to Glover Park Group Also from the NY Times, <blockquote class="tr_bq"> Elizabeth Engel, who oversaw health legislation and served as a liaison to Congress when she was a deputy assistant health secretary under Ms. Sebelius, is now advising health care clients for the Glover Park Group. </blockquote> White House to Avenue Solutions <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/us/politics/reaping-profit-after-assisting-on-health-law.html">From</a> the NY Times, <blockquote class="tr_bq">Yvette Fontenot, a mother of three who began her Washington career in 1997, analyzing Medicare for the Office of Management and Budget. Ms. Fontenot worked on the health bill as a Finance Committee aide and later moved to the White House. Four months ago she joined Avenue Solutions, a boutique lobbying shop. </blockquote> White House "Health Czar" and Deputy Chief of Staff to Consonance Capital, and CVS While we <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-door-revolves-again-former-white.html">noted</a> this in August, 2013, the NY Times reported in September as part of its larger article,  <blockquote class="tr_bq">   <a href="http://m.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/aca-architect-returns-private-equity">Nancy-Ann DeParle</a>, Mr. Obama’s former 'health czar' and later his deputy chief of staff, now guides health care investments as a partner in a new private equity firm, Consonance Capital, with colleagues from her pre-White House days. </blockquote> Actually, as we <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/03/meet-new-boss-same-as-old-boss-health.html">discussed</a> in 2009, Ms DeParle has been oscillating back and forth through the revolving door for a while.  She  was the administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration in the Department of Health and Human Services under President Clinton from 1997-2000.  She left to become managing director of a private equity firm, CCMP Capital.  She also served on the boards of directors of Boston Scientific, Cerner, and Medco.  Then she went back to the executive branch as noted by the the Times above. Furthermore, as reported by AP, <a href="http://news.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/2013/09/cvs-caremark-board-adds-former-white-house-adviser.html">via</a> the Providence Journal, <blockquote class="tr_bq">Drugstore chain CVS Caremark has added to its board of directors a former top adviser to President Barack Obama on the health care overhaul. The Woonsocket, R.I., company said Wednesday after markets closed that Nancy-Ann M. DeParle, 56, will be an independent director who serves on the board's audit committee.</blockquote> White House to health care venture capital Also from the NY Times story, <blockquote class="tr_bq">Bob Kocher, a doctor, management consultant and former member of Mr. Obama’s economics team, is a California venture capitalist, helping finance health start-ups. </blockquote> Legislative Offices Senate Finance Committee Staff, then Department of Health and Human Services Staff to Avenue Solutions As <a href="http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/318577-architects-of-obamacare-reap-windfall-as-washington-lobbyists">reported </a>by The Hill bog, <blockquote class="tr_bq">The firm Avenue Solutions, for instance, recently hired Yvette Fontenot, a former staffer for both the Senate Finance Committee, which wrote ObamaCare’s tax-related provisions, and HHS's Office of Health Reform, which is assisting the implementation. Since her hire in April, the four-woman firm has picked up Health Care Service Corp. as a client, and Fontenot is now lobbying for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association</blockquote> Congress to Alston & Bird In the same report, <blockquote class="tr_bq">Former Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) joined Alston & Bird in 2011 after dealing with healthcare and tax issues as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. Now Pomeroy and his one-time chief of staff, Bob Siggins, are lobbying on ObamaCare for clients such as clients such as Vision Service Plan, the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans and Medicare — a health insurance provider.</blockquote> Health Counsel for Senate Finance Committee from WellPoint, Now to Johnson & Johnson Note that we touched on part of this story back in 2010<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/04/pay-for-hypocrisy-for-health-insurance.html"> here</a>.  Now <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/us/politics/reaping-profit-after-assisting-on-health-law.html?pagewanted=all">from</a> the New York Times,  <blockquote class="tr_bq"><div itemprop="articleBody">Liz Fowler, a onetime executive with WellPoint, the insurer, helped draft the legislation as the chief health counsel for the Senate Finance Committee and later joined the administration. Now she runs global health policy for Johnson & Johnson, the medical equipment and pharmaceutical giant, which strongly backed the health bill and stands to benefit from it. </div><div itemprop="articleBody"> </div><div itemprop="articleBody">Ms. Fowler is not a registered lobbyist, but she does provide in-house advice on the bill — work that has drawn criticism from publications like the British newspaper <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/dec/05/obamacare-fowler-lobbyist-industry1">The Guardian</a> and the Web sites <a href="http://www.salon.com/topic/liz_fowler/">Salon</a> and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-moyers/watch-washingtons-revolvi_b_2316245.html">The Huffington Post</a>, where the journalist Bill Moyers singled out Ms. Fowler, asserting that 'when push comes to shove, corporate interests will have the upper hand.'</div></blockquote><div itemprop="articleBody"> </div><div itemprop="articleBody">Summary</div><div itemprop="articleBody"> </div><div itemprop="articleBody"> It's enough to make one's head spin: all that traffic through the revolving door reported just in the last five weeks.</div><div itemprop="articleBody"> </div><div itemprop="articleBody">As we have said many times before, the constant interchange of health care insiders among government offices, lobbying and legal firms, and large health care corporations certainly suggests that health care, like many other sectors, seems to be run by an amorphous group of insiders who owe allegiance neither to government nor industry.  The NY Times tried to explain this in a benign way,</div><div itemprop="articleBody"> </div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div itemprop="articleBody">Yet the progression from government to the private sector is also predictable, a window into the peculiar rhythms of life in the capital. Young aides, often fresh out of college or graduate school, acquire highly specialized knowledge but eventually settle down, build lives and long for jobs that pay more and let them see their children at night. </div></blockquote><div itemprop="articleBody"> </div><div itemprop="articleBody">While the private sector may offer good pay, is it just for these poeples' skills and expertise?  Or are these offers only for those who while in government service evinced friendship to private vested interests?  Do government workers who think longingly of higher pay and shorter hours wonder what it would take to please those that might offer such opportunities?</div><div itemprop="articleBody"> </div><div itemprop="articleBody">Yet those who work in government are supposed to be working for the people, and those who work on health care within government are supposed to be working for patients' and the public health.  If they are constantly looking over their shoulders at potential private employers who might offer big checks, who indeed are they working for?</div><div itemprop="articleBody"> </div><div itemprop="articleBody">Attempts to turn government toward private gain and away from being of the people, by the people, and for the people have no doubt been going on since the beginning of government (and since the Constitution was signed, in the case of the US).  However, true health care reform  would require curtailing the severe sorts of conflicts of interest created by the revolving door.  This might require both improving pay and working conditions for government regulators, law enforcers, and legislative staffers; and specific laws to prevent immediate transitions from being a regulator, law enforcer, or legislator to handling corporate responses to or defenses against such regulation and enforcement. </div><div itemprop="articleBody"> </div><div itemprop="articleBody">That bit does not seem to be part of the current Affordable Care Act, yet it was hardly to enact such restrictions on conflict of interest that certain members of Congress have shut down the government.   </div><div itemprop="articleBody"> </div>

Round and Round Spins the Revolving Door, Unimpeded by "Obamacare," Nor By Those Protesting "Obamacare"

On this day of government dysfunction in the US, it is time for our latest installment on the "revolving door," the interchange of insiders among government legislative offices that affect health poli…

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02 Oct 2013

Another in the "Health IT Crashed, But Patient Care Was Not Compromised" Series - NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

We must have health IT to prevent stupid doctors and nurses from making mistakes.  Without it, patients are at the mercy of dreaded Paper Records, which by definition cannot ever be used to provide quality care. But when the IT goes down, Patient Care Has Not Been Compromised.  This line should be trademarked, as it's seen so often.  (I even have an indexing tag for it, see this query link: <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/Patient%20care%20has%20not%20been%20compromised">http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/Patient%20care%20has%20not%20been%20compromised</a>.) Care is never, never compromised when the IT goes belly up en masse due to information technology malpractice.  Care is only compromised by paper, no matter how good the paper records and its human stewards are. Here's the latest example that made it to the news, in Scotland: <blockquote class="tr_bq">1 October 2013 BBC News <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-24358107">Appointments postponed after major IT failure at NHSGGC</a> (NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde) Hundreds of outpatient appointments and a number of operations had to be postponed after computer systems failed at Scotland's biggest health board. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said technicians were working through the night to fix a "major IT problem" which occurred on Tuesday morning. It affected staff access to clinical and administrative systems. </blockquote> Delaying hundreds of appointments and delaying surgeries at up to 10 major hospitals seems on its face to represent "compromised care." <blockquote class="tr_bq">The health board apologised to patients and said all appointments would be rescheduled. In total, 288 outpatient appointments, four planned inpatient procedures, 23 day surgery cases and 40 chemotherapy sessions were postponed. There was also some delay in calls to the switchboard being answered. The problem may have affected up to 10 major hospitals across the health board area.</blockquote> One wonders how these appointments and surgeries were triaged for delay.  Clearly the downed computer was of no help. Here's that wonderful line: <blockquote class="tr_bq">But emergency operations were not compromised - neither were community services.</blockquote> So when does computer failure actually compromise patient care?  I'd like to see some hospital executive with a spine for once admit that IT malpractice does disrupt patient care, create distractions, and thus create safety risk.  Considering the domain, however, I doubt I'll ever see that. <blockquote class="tr_bq">A spokeswoman said: "Our technical staff are working flat out to resolve this.</blockquote> It should never have happened in the first place. <blockquote class="tr_bq">"The problem relates to our networks and the way staff can connect to some of our clinical and administrative systems.</blockquote> Well, sick patients really appreciate that explanation. <blockquote class="tr_bq">It was not clear how long the disruption would last. NHSGGC said if it did continue, people who were scheduled for treatment would be contacted directly. </blockquote> Per a computer guru from my past:  "Either you're in control of your information systems, or they're in control of you." In this instance, the latter clearly applies. In healthcare, having your information systems in control of you is, sooner or later, going to be deadly. -- SS

Another in the "Health IT Crashed, But Patient Care Was Not Compromised" Series - NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

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02 Oct 2013

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