The booth that I was able to spend the most time in (ironically
since I live less than 15 minutes from their Innovation Campus and pass it on
my way to work every day – I hoped on two airplanes and a taxi to see them here)
was Cerner. Their Care Connect area
was very impressive. I am still a huge fan
of Mystation (even though it’s still not
on an IPad where is should be). I like
the concept of driving more patient understanding and engagement throughout
their care process. This is something
that could follow them home and be part of the home health model....not sure if
she said that but that’s where my mind went.
Ashleigh showed me the Care
Connect mobile device area. It’s not
easy to give a concise presentation that shows how really powerful a tool is and
she did a great job. If you have time
stop by and ask for her. The tool lets
you see not only your patients but their status it’s a really nice blend of EMR
with alarm notification information.
I popped into the Hil-Rom booth – and got the standard – “who
are you and why are you here” after
saying who I was I told them about the blog and one replied “yes only if you
write nice things about us….” (that
should be the number one thing not to say to a blogger – it just makes it
tempting to write less than flattering things….) I will do my best. The challenge with nurse call is since it’s
hardware and we live in a software world – it looks the same for a number of
years before a new system comes out….same is true for Hil-Rom – it looks the same
as it did the last couple of HIMSS.
However, they did make a statement which perked my interest – that “we
don’t need middleware” – I think I am going to work on a post called “the death
of middleware”. It’s true – most nurse
call light systems don’t need middleware but the implication from Hil-Rom is
that they were middleware with the ability to automate information from their
bed, their fetal link alert system, and their nurse call…..so that’s where you
get the ding…..it’s not about “your” anything in middleware it’s about “their”
everything. So long as you have a single
vendor ecosystem you can achieve what they described – kind of like how EMR
sells their interoperability.
I stopped briefly by Rauland - same as Hil-Rom the hardware just is what it has been for the last few years. However, their newest software addition is Responder SYNC. I have heard people call this single sign
on...which I say kind of. Sync claims to deliver on the
promise that the alarm notification world has been talking about for years – Single
Assignment. Middleware claims this
service by allowing a single point of assignment for multiple devices but
as everyone knows that doesn’t really “sign you in” to nurse call – the lights
and the tones do not follow the middleware assignment. From what I saw - the greatest benefit to SYNC is the ability to sign on using EMR. You are still limited in who can do this (Connexall and Cerner have made the interface) but evidently it's "open". Stop by and ask about it - it's worth the converstation.
In general the floor seemed very steady but not busy – not the
shoulder to shoulder crowd we sometime experience at HIMSS – but it was
steady. I did hear several vendors say
there were fewer people….
My evening ended at the HISTalkapalooza event – I was not
fashionably late. I saw some amazing
shoes (especially @TIMURDC which were my favorites) and was able to chat with lots
of interesting people including the folks from Dr. First – I am going to see
their booth today because it sounds amazing.
I chatted with Jonathan Bush about his lack of ability to score soccer tickets
while sitting next to Neal Patterson…. I
ended up on the front row of the prizes and was able to snap some fun
photos.... the one of @Farzad_ONC has
been retweeted a lot. As I left, once
again ran I into Judy from Epic. Thanks
for the invite Mr. H.
