Tgk1946's Blog

From Healthscope taps ex-Telstra executive to nurse it back to health

Like Cooke, Ballantyne wants to play a leading role in the health policy debate that Healthscope believes has been hijacked by side issues, such as the high cost of prosthetic devices. It is also worried about public hospitals poaching private patients and the shift away from private health insurance as premiums continue to soar.

From a Comment in 2006

Teki said…

I bought a few shares in Symbion, just to get me a chance to ask a question at their AGM. I was intrigued by the brief mention in the Annual Report about their in-house expert system, trade-marked as MedSmart, which was designed to be an aid to their pathologists in interpreting laboratory results.

Symbion is a “health and wellness” conglomerate, a mixed business of pathology, imaging, medical centres, retail pharmacies and niche consumer products.

I was curious to know how their various IT systems were integrated, whether they conformed to national data standards and how they secured their remote access to the imaging system.

Since I was the only one to ask a question under the general business item, I kept it short and polite. I referred to MedSmart, as it was the only mention of IT in the AR, and asked “Who sponsors IT at Board level, and does the company have an investment target for IT?”

The Chairman replied that IT matters were shared across the Board, but the CEO (Robert Cooke) had the main responsibility. He said the Board had not set budget specifically for IT. Mr Cooke followed in reply. He said the company was on the verge of a strategic review of IT needs, and they would be having the first meeting on this next Monday (Nov27). He said they had various systems, some ‘antiquated’, that did not communicate with each other. He mentioned the 3 or 4 GP software packages they had to deal with.

On the way out, the Chief Medical Officer spoke with me, being enthusiastic about MedSmart. What he told was, in fact, alarming to my ears, but, unfortunately, typical of in-house medical software.

I wish Mr Cooke all the best as he struggles to bring all this together. I know how difficult it is to get GPs onto Medical Director, and he has a battle if he thinks he can get reluctant users to switch to something else.

But their biggest problem will be with their pathology section, that brings in 48% of their revenue. I don’t know that they want to change their existing system, but whatever is otherwise intended, the laboratory system will have to export data by standard messaging, and that, I think, means HL7. Medical software, in general, seems to be designed to lock the client in. If it was routine to store all data in a form that enabled packaging and export without loss and corruption, most of the current vendors would lose their customers. As it is, the business model seems to be built around the concept that every enhancement comes at a steep cost. Worse that that, though, systems seem to have been designed to make addition of ‘bolt-on’ modules a difficult, if not impossible, task. Being locked into a product that can’t be developed to meet emerging needs, and paying good money for “improvements” that only further locks in the client, is like being in purgatory.

I’m not keeping my shares, but shareholders would do themselves a favour by making vigorous enquiry about the plans for IT. As it stands, I don’t think it is an attractive target for a big US health care company, say, Kaiser, to acquire. In my opinion, bits of it will have to fall off, until they know whether they are selling herbs and potions, or dealing with the life-and-death issues in the pathology business.

Perhaps significant parties in the company believe the prevailing mode of running pathology by maximising turnover is protected by divine gift. If so, they are in for a shock, as the changes in health insurance will drive cutting of costs, and the USFTA lets in the big HMOs. If Tony Abbott hasn’t figured out how to bring the pathology industry under control, he should be moved onto another job.

November 24, 2006 5:52 PM