Healthcare IT Podcast

Working with the CMIO & Tackling Readmissions

Spencer — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 05:06:21 +0000

Two topics in this week’s podcast. First, a quick discussion about the CIO / CMIO relationship. The second and extremely urgent topic is the necessity for hospitals to gain control of their readmission rates or risk penalization in the form of reduced Medicare payments.

Chief Information Officers (CIOs) in hospitals are still learning how to work with their Chief Medical Information Officers (CMIOs). The relationship in some organizations is wonderful, in others the relationship is tenuous, and at some the relationship is non-existent. On this show, I talk a bit about the CIO / CMIO relationship, and the necessity of the CIO learning to work with, not against, their CMIO. I also devote significant time discussing what is going to be a hot topic in 2012 and 2013, right up there with achieving Meaningful Use, the evolution of HIPAA 5010 compliance, and ICD-10 implementations – reducing hospital readmissions.

I am continually surprised how many CIOs are unaware of the penalties that will face hospitals with high Medicare readmission rates beginning in 2013. Penalties in federal fiscal year (FFY) 2013 will begin at 1% of all IPPS payments to offending hospitals, climbing to 2% in 2014 and up to 3% in 2015.

CIOs need to work closely with their CMIOs to begin addressing these issues now, if work has not already begun. With the clinical process redesign activities hospitals are undertaking as part of their Meaningful Use initiatives, right now is the perfect time to begin incorporating changes that can positively impact readmission rates.

I hope you enjoy this podcast. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at spencer@itpodcast.org or log into this website and post your own comments. I guarantee that I will personally respond to anyone who emails or posts comments.

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Useful Links:

Thank you for listening!

Spencer Hamons
ITPodcast.org

Differences between Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs

Spencer — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 05:51:46 +0000

In this week’s show, we explore the differences between the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs. Yes, there are significant differences between the two programs, ranging from how much the incentives are worth, who is considered an eligible provider (EP), and even the deadlines for filing. One of the most significant differences between the two programs is that while the Medicare EHR incentive program requires an eligible provider to demonstrate meaningful use to receive payment, the Medicaid program requires the EP only to sign a contract for a certified EHR. Yes, you read that correctly. The podcast about this and other differences is below, and further down in this post is a matrix detailing the differences between the two programs, along with other useful links.

You can listen to the podcast streaming directly from this site, or add the feed to your iTunes or RSS consolidator using these links:

Below is the matrix detailing the high-level differences between the two programs. Further down are the links that I mention in this episode’s podcast.

Useful Links:

As always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments. Please feel free to email me at spencer@itpodcast.org and I will get back with you. I answer all listener emails.

Thank you again for listening,

Spencer Hamons

USAC Funding for Rural Healthcare Telecommunications

Spencer — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:14:53 +0000

On today’s show, we talk about USAC’s rural health program and the process that healthcare providers must undertake to receive subsidies for critical telecommunications links to rural facilities. Even if you work in a large metropolitan area, if your hospital or clinic is partnering with smaller facilities or has outreach facilities located in rural parts of the country, you should listen to today’s show. The potential to have the cost between the rural rate and the urban rate for telecommunications and Internet service for healthcare providers is substantial. The services that USAC commonly subsidizes are ATM, Centrex, DSL, Ethernet, Fiber, Fractional T1′s, Frame Relay, Internet, ISDN, Mileage related charges, MPLS, Network Reconfiguration Services (NRS), OC-1, OC-3, Redundant Circuits, Satellite Services, Telephony Services, T1′s, T3′s, and DS3′s.

Background

The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) funds the FCC’s Universal Service Fund. There are four programs that USAC administers, the high cost program, the low income program, the E-Rate program for schools and libraries, and the rural health program. You can find out how much money was disbursed to telecommunication providers in various states in 2010 here.

Important information about how to go about applying for universal service fund subsidies, as well as information essential to developing a selection process is available in the podcast, as well as in the links below.

I hope this short primer on USAC helps some of you gain access to funds that may help you improve the healthcare infrastructure of your rural and outreach facilities. If you have any questions, or if you have additional tips, you are welcome to add them here, or email me at spencer@itpodcast.org.

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Spencer Hamons

More Information Available

Spencer — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 20:27:41 +0000

I received two emails over the weekend asking if I would consider posting more information about my work experiences. Although I replied to the two individuals that wrote, I decided to let everyone know that I have this type of information available on two pages here on the website. You can find out more “about me” in a general sense, including where I live and some personal information, at the “About” link at the top of the page. For those interested in my career experience, that information is available at my “Career” page, also listed at the top of the page. Of course, you can click on the links embedded in this post to go directly to those pages.

Thank you for your interest.

Spencer Hamons

New Managers First 30 Days

Spencer — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 20:54:39 +0000

This week, we talk about the “Peter Principle” and the tendency for people to obtain promotions until they reach their own level of incompetence. With that in mind, we discuss some very simple time management techniques that brand-new managers can use to help get their feet underneath them in that first or second management job. Even if you aren’t a brand new manager, it is never too late for all of us to learn some new techniques. I’m not going to spoil the podcast for you…instead, I will let you listen to the show and decide how valuable the content is on your own.

Mentioned during the show today is the blog Time Management Ninja by fellow blogger Craig Jarrow. You know my feelings about the importance of life-long learning. Regardless of how long you have been a manager or leader, there is always something new to learn that has the potential to make you even more effective at your job. Craig’s site is full of excellent time management tips presented in a very concise format. I encourage you all to visit.

As always, I welcome your comments either here on the blog, or by emailing me directly at spencer@itpodcast.org.

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Spencer Hamons

How do you use your metrics?

Spencer — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 08:30:19 +0000

As I close on the last few weeks of my graduate degree program, I finally have some time to produce this podcast once again. I would like to thank all of you that wrote me over the past months asking where I was, checking to be sure I was okay, and for all of the well-wishes you have sent to me. Talk about making a guy who loves technology and operations feel like a rock-star.

This week, I revisit the necessity for all leaders in healthcare to work to improve communications with all of the various stakeholders that we serve. Not only the hospital staff, but our providers, the Board, and yes…our patients. Unfortunately, a recent study suggests that while transparency is taking hold in the healthcare market, technology staff has not embraced the concept to its fullest potential.

A recent Dell survey illustrates some of this disconnect. This study focuses on electronic medical record implementations, but I contest that the concept of open and honest communication of strategy, tactics, and realistic goals expands much further than just how EMRs will be used in healthcare. To see Dell’s report, click here.

The same concept of using your performance data to enlist the assistance of stakeholders whose value as partners is many times overlooked because of the perception of “being too hard to work with”, can be found here. Specifically, this report confirms what we have been talking about on this show for a number of years…the necessity of involving physicians and other professional clinicians in the decision making, design, and implementation of successful solutions. To clarify, I’m not just talking about technology solutions, but process re-engineering solutions as well.

I graduate from Colorado State on April 16th. I promise, I will strive to deliver more timely podcasts once I complete this program.

As always, I welcome your comments either here on the blog, or by emailing me directly at spencer@itpodcast.org.

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Analysis of ARRA Funding for Health IT

Spencer — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:04:38 +0000

For today’s podcast, I did some research at http://www.recovery.gov , looking for recipient reports for “Health IT”. The results were pretty interesting. In the show, I talk about some of the information that I found, some trends that I saw, and talk about a few of the more humorous projects (like one for the study of the efficacy of lifestyle changes for obese men with erectile dysfunction).

One of the common themes that I found was that a significant amount of the ARRA money that was supposed to be used to change the face of healthcare IT is really only being used to augment systems that are already in place. This means that a lot of the money is being used for tactical purposes in organizations, and not fulfilling strategic needs.

This podcast is being used for my feature at ADVANCE for Health Information Executives for the month of April as well.

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Spencer Hamons

FCC National Broadband Plan Report Analysis

Spencer — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:23:43 +0000

As many of you are no doubt aware, the Federal Communications Commission released their much anticipated National Broadband Plan on Tuesday, March 16, 2010. The plan is about 360 pages long and includes a lot of good information about the current state of broadband in the United States, as well as some ideas on what needs to be improved in the coming years to increase penetration and allow growth in both the wireline and wireless delivery networks. In today’s podcast, I review the plan’s highlights, specifically how it relates to the health IT.

If you are so inclined, I suggest that you download a copy of the entire plan by clicking this link. The plan is very well written, and has a lot of potential uses with your project sponsors, physicians and other providers, and the executive team.

This podcast is being used for my feature at ADVANCE for Health Information Executives for the month of March as well.

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Are IT Certifications Worth Anything?

Spencer — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 02:14:14 +0000

On this podcast, I talk about various technology certifications and their value to the IT organization. Everyone wants to know, “what is the best IT certification to get”. Personally, I think that certifications have lost some of their luster over the years, primarily because the role of the IT organization has changed from being a group of geeks sitting in a room staring at screens, trying to improve the speed of the Linux box they were able to get running on that old 386 that they found…to a group of people whose job is to solve business problems. Unfortunately, most certification programs have not taken this change into account, and still favor the geek in a t-shirt to the technology professional who is comfortable in a suit.

I don’t get into a lot of detail in the podcast, but I do give a quick tutorial of the different levels of various certifications from Cisco and Microsoft, as well as talk about the pros and cons of some of the current certifications that are out there. A word of warning though, if you are one of the many MCSE’s (Microsoft Certified System Engineers) out there that hasn’t fully embraced the MCITP and the Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) programs, you might not like what I have to say.

As always, I invite you to look at the data and make your own decisions. You can look at the IT professional certifications offered my Microsoft, Cisco and VMWare by clicking the appropriate links.

This podcast is being used for my feature at ADVANCE for Health Information Executives as well.

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Spencer Hamons

Tactics versus Strategy – Continued Discussion

Spencer — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:44:15 +0000

Last month’s podcast regarding transitioning from a tactical to strategic organization received a number of emails. However, one email was a from a CIO of a mid-sized, multi-facility institution that recently lost his job, because of all things…he was too focused to strategy. After spending some time writing back and forth, I decided that I wanted to revisit the concepts we discussed last month, and briefly talk about how…although we strive to learn how to manage strategically, we cannot allow ourselves to lose sight of the tactical responsibilities that we carry with us. This podcast is being used for my feature at ADVANCE for Health Information Executives as well.

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Spencer Hamons

Transitioning from a Tactical to Strategic Technology Organization

Spencer — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:43:52 +0000

Todays show talks about a topic that I get a lot of inquiries from young managers about, and just so happens to be a topic of discussion in one of my classes at Colorado State…how to help move your technology organization from a tactically focused organization to a strategically focused organization. For those of you that have listened to this show for a while, you know that I believe that the success of an organization is held within the people that make up the organization. In today’s discussion, I talk about some ways to encourage your staff to perform in a more strategically significant manner.

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As always, if you have any questions, you are welcome to contact me directly at spencer@itpodcast.org. I respond to all emails and posts to this blog directly.

As always, I am looking for ideas for new shows. If you have topics that interest you that you would like to see tackled, please let me know. You can email those ideas to me, click on the link at the top of this post, then scroll down and click on “comment”. I will admit that I get a lot of inquiries from vendors about being on the show, so if you are a vendor, be forewarned that I do not accept any advertising on this blog for a reason, and that reason is that I reserve the right to ask any questions of my guests that I want, and publish the answers to those questions. If you are a vendor looking for someone to tout the wonders of your product, there are other websites you can look at. If you want an honest discussion of the pros and cons of a product, please contact me.

Spencer Hamons

How Do You Use Consultants?

Spencer — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:37:29 +0000

I would like that thank all of you that have listened to the podcast with Maj McClung and LTC Curee from Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center in Ft. Gordon, GA. That podcast’s topic was “who owns the EHR / EMR”, and it has by far been the most popular show here at ITPodcast.org since we started. Currently, there are over 5200 downloads and online listeners, and the list is growing. I anticipate doing a follow-up to this topic in the near future.

Today’s show is a short one, but one that is important. I want to know…how do you use consultants? Are you pulling consultants in for only the most imporant of tasks, or are you using them to hedge your investment bets? How do you guarantee you can support yourself without having to go back to the well for more consultant dollars later?

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As always, if you have any questions, you are welcome to contact me directly at spencer@itpodcast.org.

Also, I am looking for ideas for new shows (I feel a little like Mike Rowe asking for new dirty jobs). If you have topics that interest you that you would like to see tackled, please let me know. You can email those ideas to me, or, you can click on the link at the top of this post, then scroll down and click on “comment”.

Spencer Hamons

Who owns the EMR / EHR

Spencer — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:11:28 +0000

On this show, I have an interview with U.S. Army Major Eric McClung and Lieutenant Colonel Robert Curee. Maj. McClung is the Chief Information Officer for Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center at Ft. Gordon, GA. LTC Curee is the Regional CIO for the Southeast Regional Medical Command (SERMC).

Our discussion is about who owns the EMR and EHR process in military medical facilities, as well as discussions around how the military’s medical facility operations parallel many of the operational fundamentals found in civilian healthcare facilities now. We also discuss some of Maj McClung’s and LTC Curee’s thoughts about leadership certifications for CIO’s.

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As always, if you have any questions, you are welcome to contact me directly at spencer@itpodcast.org. If you have questions for Maj. McClung or LTC Curee, please direct them to me and I will be sure to forward them on.

Also, I am looking for ideas for new shows. If you have topics that interest you that you would like to see tackled, please let me know. You can email those ideas to me, click on the link at the top of this post, then scroll down and click on “comment”.

Spencer Hamons

ARRA and “Meaningful Use”

Spencer — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:34:10 +0000

As I said on the last show, the Kuskokwim River break up here in Bethel, Alaska brought around some great fishing and hunting, and it has been a busy project season at work as well. The best part is the sunset at 1:00am, with the perpetual dusk and dawn, there is always enough light outside to play by. It is extremely nice to get off work at 6:00pm and still have hours of daylight to play.

Before I get down to business about today’s podcast, I do have to show off a picture of my son and his King Salmon from the Kuskokwim River.

On todays show, I talk about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and how we can expect to see it impact our industry. Don’t worry, I keep it short…less than 10 minutes even with bumper music.

In the podcast, I talk about a presentation provided by the working group. A link to the Meaningful Use Presentation can be found here.

To view a report by the American Health Information Management Association regarding physician incentive payments, you can follow this link.

For another article on HITECH and Meaningful Use, specifically about the physician incentives for meaningful use, follow this link.

And here, you will find some updated and very comprehensive information about meaningful use and physician incentives.

Meaningful Use Objectives	Corresponding EHR Software Features	Meaningful Use Measures
Use Computer Provider Order Entry (CPOE)	Enable a user to electronically record, store, retrieve, and manage, at a minimum, the following order types: Medications; Laboratory; Radiology/imaging; Provider referrals; Blood bank; Physical therapy; Occupational therapy; Respiratory therapy; Rehabilitation therapy; Dialysis; Provider consults; and Discharge and transfer.	CPOE is used for at least 80% of all orders; 10% for hospitals
Implement drug/allergy checks	(1) Real-time, alerts at the point of care for drug-drug and drug-allergy contraindications; (2) Electronically check if drugs are in a formulary or preferred drug list; (3) Provide certain users rights to deactivate, modify, and add rules for drug-drug and drug-allergy checking; (4) Track number of alerts users respond to	Function is enabled
Maintain an up-to-date problem list of current and active diagnoses based on ICD-9-CM or SNOMED CT®	Electronically record, modify, and retrieve a patient’s problem list over multiple visits	At least 80% of all unique patients have at least one entry or an indication of none recorded.
E-prescribing (EP only)	Electronically transmit prescriptions	At least 75% of all permissible prescriptions written by the EP are transmitted electronically
Maintain active medication/allergy list	Electronically record, modify, and retrieve a patient’s active medication/allergy list	At least 80% of all unique patients have at least one entry or an indication of “none”
Record demographics	Electronically record, modify, and retrieve patient demographic data	At least 80% of all unique patients have demographics recorded
Record and chart changes in vital signs	(1) Enable a user to electronically record, modify, and retrieve a patient’s vital signs; (2) Automatically calculate and display body mass index (BMI); (3) Plot and electronically display, upon request, growth charts for patients 2-20 years old.	For at least 80 percent of all unique patients age 2 and over seen by the EP or admitted to the eligible hospital, record blood pressure and BMI; additionally, plot growth chart for children age 2 to 20
Record smoking status for patients 13 years old or older	Electronically record, modify, and retrieve the smoking status of a patient	At least 80% of all unique patients 13 years old or older have “smoking status” recorded
Incorporate clinical lab-test results into EHR as structured data	(1) Electronically receive clinical laboratory test results and display such results in human readable format; (2) Electronically display in human readable format any clinical laboratory tests that have been received with LOINC® codes; (3) Electronically display all the information for a test report; (4) Electronically update a patient’s record based upon received laboratory test results	At least 50% of all clinical lab tests results are incorporated as structured data
Generate lists of patients by specific conditions	Electronically select, sort, retrieve, and output a list of patients and patients’ clinical information	Generate at least one report listing patients with a specific condition
Report ambulatory quality measures to CMS or the States (EP only)	(1) Calculate and electronically display quality measure results as specified by CMS or states; (2) Electronically submit calculated quality measures	For 2011, an EP/hospital would attest this has been done
Send reminders to patients for preventive/follow-up care	Electronically generate a patient reminder list for preventive or follow-up care	Reminders sent to at least 50% of all unique patients that are 50 and over
Implement five clinical decision support rules relevant to specialty or high clinical priority	(1) Implement automated, electronic clinical decision support rules according to specialty or clinical priorities; (2) Automatically and electronically generate real-time alerts and care suggestions based upon clinical decision support rules and evidence grade; (3) Automatically and electronically track, record, and generate reports on the number of alerts responded to by a user	Implement five clinical decision support rules relevant to the clinical quality metrics the EP/Eligible Hospital is responsible for
Check insurance eligibility electronically	Electronically record and display patients’ insurance eligibility, and submit insurance eligibility queries	Insurance eligibility checked electronically for at least 80% of all unique patients
Submit claims electronically to public and private payers.	Electronically submit claims	At least 80 % of all claims filed electronically
Provide patients with an electronic copy of their health information upon request	Enable a user to create an electronic copy of a patient’s clinical information and provide to a patient on electronic media, or through some other electronic means	At least 80% of all patients who request an electronic copy of their health information are provided it within 48 hours
Provide patients with an electronic copy of their discharge instructions and procedures at time of discharge, upon request (Hospital only)	Enable a user to create an electronic copy of the discharge instructions and procedures for a patient, in human readable format, at the time of discharge to provide to a patient on electronic media, or through some other electronic means	At least 80% of all patients who are discharged from an eligible hospital and who request an electronic copy of their discharge instructions and procedures are provided it
Provide patients with electronic access to their health information within 96 hours of the information being available (EP only)	Enable a user to provide patients with online access to their clinical information	At least 10% of all unique patients are provided timely electronic access to their health information
Provide clinical summaries to patients for each office visit. (EP only)	(1) Enable a user to provide clinical summaries to patients (in paper or electronic form) for each office visit; (2) If the clinical summary is provided electronically (i.e., not printed), it must be provided in: 1) human readable format; and 2) and on electronic media, or through some other electronic means.	Clinical summaries provided to patients for at least 80% of all office visits
Exchange key clinical information among providers of care and patient authorized entities electronically and provide summary care record	(1) Electronically receive a patient summary record, from other providers and organizations; (2) Electronically transmit a patient summary record, to other providers and organizations	Provide summary of care record for at least 80 % of transitions of care and referrals; Perform at least one test of certified EHR technology’s capacity to electronically exchange key clinical information
Perform medication reconciliation at relevant encounters and each transition of care and referral	Electronically complete medication reconciliation of two or more medication lists into a single medication list that can be electronically displayed in real-time	Perform medication reconciliation for at least 80 % of relevant encounters and transitions of care
Submit electronic data to immunization registries and actual submission where required and accepted	Electronically record, retrieve, and transmit immunization information to immunization registries	Performed at least one test submission to immunization registries and public health agencies
Provide electronic submission of reportable lab results to public health agencies and actual submission where it can be received (Hospital only)	Electronically record, retrieve, and transmit reportable clinical lab results to public health agencies	Performed at least one test of certified EHR technology capacity to provide electronic submission of reportable lab results to public health agencies
Provide electronic syndromic surveillance data to public health agencies and actual transmission according to applicable law and practice	Electronically record, retrieve, and transmit syndrome-based (e.g., influenza like illness) public health surveillance information to public health agencies	Performed at least one test of certified EHR technology’s capacity to provide electronic syndromic surveillance data to public health agencies
Protect electronic health information through the implementation of appropriate technical capabilities	(1) Assign unique user names; (2) Permit certain users to access health information in an emergency; (3) Terminate an electronic session after a predetermined time of inactivity; (4) Encrypt and decrypt electronic health information that is stored and exchangd; (5) Record actions (e.g., deletion) related to electronic health information; (6) Track alterations of electronic health information; (7) Set up user verification measures; (8) Record disclosures made for treatment, payment, and health care operations	Conduct or review a security risk analysis and implement security updates as necessary

To summarize, the government now has told physicians and hospitals what tasks they should be using their EHR for (meaningful use); what EHR software features are needed to accomplish those tasks (certified EHR technology); and how the government is going to measure those tasks to determine whether or not they are being performed to their satisfaction.

I hope you enjoyed this month’s show. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.

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Thank you for listening.

Spencer

Geography vs. Generational Differences

Spencer — Fri, 08 May 2009 03:43:10 +0000

Well, the Kuskokwim River is starting to break up here in Bethel, Alaska…the geese and ducks are here for the summer, and we are getting our sunset around 11:30pm. I knew I needed to get a podcast out soon, because I know it will be tough as soon as the salmon runs start.

On this show, I talk about whether some of the differences that we see in our different employees is really “generational”, or are some of the differences “geographical”. It’s a little different take on the typical discussions about the generational differences found in our employees and the U.S. workforce in general.

As always, I have links to the technology news that I talk about in the podcast. In this segment, we talk about these items in the news:

Siemens Medical Malvern, PA facility raided by the Pentagon Criminal Investigation Unit.

United States Electrical Grid Penetrated by Spies – China and Russia use Malware to get into the U.S. power grid.

Domestic Terrorism in the U.S. – Fiber Optic Cuts in California cut 911 and other services.

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Spencer

Who’s it gonna be for HHS Secretary?

Spencer — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:43:52 +0000

On this podcast, I talk about who will be selected as the nominee for the Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary now that Senator Dascle has withdrawn from the process. If you listen to this show, then you are probably watching this selection as closely as I am. This whole show is dedicated to the “short list” of candidates as I see it, along with the people at ADVANCE for Health Information Executives.

On a different note, Coryee and I made it to Bethel, Alaska and we have finally gotten setup at home with all of our things and all of my recording equipment. Things have been a bit tough getting everything ready to go, so I am cheating on this week’s podcast.

Normally, I do a podcast ever two weeks for this website as well as a monthly podcast for the magazine ADVANCE For Health Information Executives. This week, I am putting my podcast for ADVANCE here on this website. If you have not visited my other podcast, you can find it on the ADVANCE editorial page.

For the podcast, I am talking about those on the short list (not the short bus). Those people are:

Governor Phil Bredesen, (D) Tennessee

Governor Charlie Crist, (R) Florida

Governor Jennifer Granholm,(D) Michigan

Governor Ed Rendell, (D) Pennsylvania

Governor Kathleen Sebelius, (D) Kansas

Senator Ron Wyden, (D) Oregon

Howard Dean (I was unable to find an “official” website for Mr. Dean, but I did find this site).

Newt Gingrich

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Spencer

Express Scripts Gets an Extortion Letter

Spencer — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:38:07 +0000

On today’s show, I go through our typical overview of some of the most pressing stories that have the potential to affect what is happening in the world of healthcare IT, and I talk a bit about what recently happened to Express Scripts and the attempt to extort money from the company as their patient data is potentially held hostage.

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Articles referenced during the podcast:

Healthcare IT News and their take on the Express Scripts extortion attempt

WPA hacked

Massive web hack

FCC approves Verizon’s acquisition of Alltel

Finally, when you listen to the podcast you will find that my wife Coryee and I are about to embark on a new adventure in Bethel, Alaska where we will be working for the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation. Also, the ending music for the podcast is provided courtesy of Kate MacLeod, a wonderful artist out of Utah. If you like her music, you can find more of it at her website at www.katemacleod.com.

Since we will be moving to Alaska over the next couple of months, I am not sure when I will have the next podcast online. I promise to make it available as soon as I possibly can. I will be checking emails and managing posts to this blog from my laptop, so please keep in touch! I can’t wait to share some pictures of what we are going to be experiencing in Alaska.

Thank you for listening.

Spencer Hamons

A talk with Nuance’s Keith Belton

Spencer — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 23:06:26 +0000

On today’s show, I talk about alignment of IT initiatives and your organization’s long-term strategic plan and short-term tactical goals.

I also have a talk with Nuance Communication’s Keith Belton about Nuance’s new Dragon Medical product and where Keith feels that speech recognition will continue to be in the future of healthcare IT.

As always, I welcome your comments either here on the blog, or by emailing me directly at spencer@itpodcast.org. If you would like to email Keith, you can reach him at Keith.Belton@Nuance.com. For more information about Dragon Medical, you can click here and a new window will open and you will be taken to their page.

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This week, I did not have any news because the show was getting a little long.

If you would like to comment on this podcast, you can either email me at spencer@itpodcast.org, or you can click on the title of this post and on the new page, scroll down to “comment”.

The next podcast will be available on November 1, 2008.

A talk with Practice Partner’s Chad Hendricks

Spencer — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 11:44:31 +0000

Chad Hendricks, a part of the Practice Partner, Paragon and McKesson family comes on today’s show to talk about how Practice Partner and Paragon want to change how hospital’s and providers interact.

As always, I welcome your comments either here on the blog, or by emailing me directly at spencer@itpodcast.org. If you would like to email Chad, you can reach him at Chad.Hendricks@McKesson.com. For more information about Practice Partner, you can click here and a new window will open and you will be taken to their page.

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The articles that I reference in the podcast are linked below:

GDS International Puts on Excellent CIO Summit for Healthcare

Hacking Implantable Defibrillators

Sarah Palin’s Yahoo! Mail account hacked

12,000 Laptops Lost Every Day in U.S. Airports

I thank you for listening to this podcast, and as always I welcome your comments either directly to this blog (you can do this by clicking on the title of this post and adding your comments on the new page)…or you can email me directly at spencer@itpodcast.org.The next podcast will be available on October 4, 2008

Environmentally Sound IT with a Realistic ROI

Spencer — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:52:36 +0000

In this week’s podcast I want to talk about how to be environmentally conscious in your IT operations, without spending a million dollars, and while making good business sense.

As always, I welcome your comments either here on the blog, or by emailing me directly at spencer@itpodcast.org.

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The articles that I reference in the podcast are linked below:

IEEE ratifies 802.11r standard to enhance VoIP over Wi-Fi handoffs

Comcast puts the screws to customers downloading over 250GB per month

Google Chrome?

I thank you for listening to this podcast, and as always I welcome your comments either directly to this blog…or you can email me directly at spencer@itpodcast.org.The next podcast will be available on September 20, 2008

So You are Too Busy for Data?

Spencer — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:12:31 +0000

In this week’s podcast, in addition to our normal news topics, we discuss what I call DRIP (Data Rich and Information Poor), Data Analysis and we also touch on the topic of disaster recovery and business continuity.

As always, I welcome your comments either here on the blog, or by emailing me directly at spencer@itpodcast.org.

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The articles that I reference in the podcast are linked below:

Consumer off-site data store LinkUp fails

19 Hour Laptop

You never know what may show up in those search engine cached pages

Privacy vs. Geography

Spencer — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 10:26:47 +0000

In this week’s podcast, we get back to our standard format with some interesting news articles that were out over the past week, and I talk specifically about the allegations the China has been forcing hotels to install Internet eavesdropping equipment in preparation for the Olympics.

As always, I welcome your comments either here on the blog, or by emailing me directly at spencer@itpodcast.org.

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The articles that I reference in the podcast are linked below:

FCC finds that Comcast cannot limit peer-to-peer traffic on its network

VMware annouces that ESXi Hypervisor is now free

Alfresco announces open source Microsoft SharePoint Competetor

8 Reasons why a developer would NEVER want to be CIO

China accused of installing Internet eavesdropping devices for Olympics

I thank you for listening to this podcast, and as always I welcome your comments either directly to this blog…or you can email me directly at spencer@itpodcast.org.

The next podcast will be available on August 16, 2008.

Keeping the CIO Position Relevant continued

Spencer — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:30:36 +0000

This week’s podcast is short and sweet, pretty much because I didn’t do my typical research that I do for my news section. But hey, it was summer and we just had our biggest hospital foundation fundraiser of the year on July 18th.

Today’s show is continued discussion from show 114 about how to keep the CIO position relevant as technology becomes more of a commodity in today’s business world. This post is a bit old now that we are in 2011, but the information will likely hold value for many of you struggling with this topic today.

As always, I welcome your comments either here on the blog, or by emailing me directly at spencer@itpodcast.org.

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The next show will be released on August 2, 2008.

Thank you,

Spencer

Keeping the CIO Position Relevant – Part 1

Spencer — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:30:59 +0000

Today, we talk about how to keep the CIO position relevant in your organization as information and technology becomes more of a commodity, and for those organizations without a CIO, why that is and how to change it. While this post is a couple of years old now that it is 2011, much of the information can still hold value for you.

As always, I want to hear your comments and any thoughts you have on how to make technology a true part of the executive table, so please email me at spencer@itpodcast.org or post your comments right here.

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On our “In the News” Segment, I reference the following articles:

Universal Music Group Sues and Looses

Google has to turn over 12TB of data to Viacom

Microsoft Critical Patches for Server and SQL

New 2009 Joint Commission Standards

The next show will be released July 19, 2008.

Telecommuting and Golf

Spencer — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:50:35 +0000

On today’s show, we focus on a lot of interesting tech articles that have come out this week, spending a little more time on two of them. The first is a discussion about telecommuting and how things differ a bit in different environments, the second is a quick discussion about golf and your career (and having a little fun at the same time). As always, I want to hear your comments so please feel free to email me at spencer@itpodcast.org or post them here on the site.

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During our “In the News” segment on today’s podcast, here are the links to the articles I referenced.

Internet Service Provider Spat between Cogent and TeliaSonera

$499 1.5m Cat6 RJ45 Cable???

Information about Associated Press going after Blogs

San Francisco Chronicle Article

MSNBC Article

Actual court decision documents

Glassdoor.com Website

Oracle Increases Prices

IT Workers Willing to Take 10% Pay Cut to Telecommute

CIO Magazine Article written by John Halamka about Telecommuting

Can Playing Golf Help Your Career?

I hope you enjoy this week’s show, the next podcast will be released right around July 5th…perhaps a day or two early since I will probably be camping the mountains over the weekend.By the way opening bumper music on the podcast was my 8 year old son playing his harmonica.

Thank you for listening.