matthewk

There is a significant error in this article. It refers to the journalist as "an American journalist". He is not an "American", he is a Saudi born citizen of Saudi Arabia, who self-imposed his own exile a very short time ago (September 2017). He was here on an "O Visa" sponsored by the Washington Post. He had not been in the country long enough to apply for citizenship nor had he applied for permanent residency. He in no way indicated that he was interested in becoming an American, and legally he absolutely was not an American by any sense of the word. 

It would be great if you would correct your article. 

Respect your position, however while in China on a similar Visa, I am entitled to similar protections. Nobody would assume I am Chinese. The hair isn't as fine as you suggest in my opinion. Thank you for letting us have the discussion. 

Mike Wuerthele said:

matthewk said:

There is a significant error in this article. It refers to the journalist as "an American journalist". He is not an "American", he is a Saudi born citizen of Saudi Arabia, who self-imposed his own exile a very short time ago (September 2017). He was here on an "O Visa" sponsored by the Washington Post. He had not been in the country long enough to apply for citizenship nor had he applied for permanent residency. He in no way indicated that he was interested in becoming an American, and legally he absolutely was not an American by any sense of the word. 

It would be great if you would correct your article. 

This is a very fine hair to split. I understand what you are saying, but with the green card O-1 he is entitled to all of the legal protections of a citizen.

In this case, the term "American" is not referring to his nationality, but the fact that he worked for the Post. We address his citizen status a few paragraphs in.

They are prioritizing devices for healthcare organizations. 

I am a hospital CIO and have implemented Epic at multiple sites (big systems, not small regional facilities). I hold no interest in any EHR company, nor do I receive any compensation from any of them, these are just my observations having been in this industry for a long time. When it comes to EHR's, in my humble opinion Epic is the best of them, but none are perfect. A couple comments about all the comments on this thread. 

1. In my opinion most comments here are inaccurate, and demonstrate a lack of understanding of the platform or EHR systems in general. 

2. Epic isn't about "wealthcare", I meet with Judy, Carl and the rest of the Epic leadership several times a year, and the fact is they always put patient outcomes first. Yes, they are expensive, but they have a very comprehensive solution which they spend a considerable amount of their revenues into R&D. Their ratio of income to R&D is likely the highest of any software vendor in any industry.

3. Absolutely physician fatigue with the EHR is real, this usually isn't a result of "bad software". There are massive CMS and other regulatory mandates which dramatically increase the data collection requirement burden on the physicians. These mandates are typically formed by large committees of academics and politicians who have little to no bedside experience. See the details for the 724 page regulation HHS just put out on data sharing. https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/hhs-unwraps-new-information-blocking-rule

4. Secondly, poor implementations riddled with years of customizations are very real issue and dramatically increase keyboard time and flow of the UI. These poor implementations are the result of bad decisions relating to need, design and scope, not bad software. (this is largely consistent in all large package software platforms regardless of industry) 

5. Adding to the poor usability of the application stems from technology decisions as health systems rationalize many specialized systems onto the Epic platform, while not learning about the epic functionality and trying to rebuild their legacy applications on to their new EHR platform. 

6. Epic, just as all EHR companies are constantly evolving and innovating within their projects. Unfortunately many hospitals tend to try and build it rather than evolve with their vendor's roadmap. This leads to a huge administrative burden and a UX that doesn't flow through the platform. (this isn't just common to EHR platforms, ERP, HR, CRM and SFA all suffer similarly) It really is a lick of discipline..

7. Those critical of MUMPS again seem not to understand the application on the language in high volume transaction environments. It's very powerful when it's used appropriately. It's widely used in the financial sector. Ameritrade's entire platform is based on it. Epic has long been converting their legacy modules to browser based the complete conversion will be complete in probably 3 more years. 

Epic has come a long way since it's inception. It's not perfect, but when implemented by people who understand it, it has the ability to drive better care. For as long as I have been around there have been printed and hung all over their campus "Epic's 10 Commandments"; Number one is "Do not go public", number two is "Do not be acquired". Judy wasn't patting herself on the back, she was just saying what has been at their core since their inception "we're not for sale".