“H.I.S.-tory” by Vince Ciotti

© 2011 H.I.S. Professionals, LLC

Episode # 24:

Intermountain

Health Care (IHC)’s

& “Med/38” - Part II

IHC’s Management Team, 1987

Scott HolbrookVice President

Cory HallDirector of Planning

Gaye PrewittClient Support

Robert WalkerPresident

Jan MichelInstallations

Kent GaleSales & Marketing

Rex MaughanDevelopment

IHC Recap• We left off last week with IHC selling more

Med/38s than Carter has little liver pills!– (Anyone old enough to remember that line?)

• In a 1987 interview, CEO Scott Holbrook dropped some impressive Med/38 tidbits:- Programmed in native RPG III for the Sys/38- System/38s ranged in size from 4 to 32 Megs- Disk drive space ran from 387 Meg to 14 Gig- Client base eventually included 14 multis- Client size ranged from 84 to 520 beds- 40 were in CA, and growth ran 25% per year

Gee…• Less than a year after those impressive tidbits were dropped in a

PR interview about how successful Med/38 had become, IHC’s president Scott Parker sold ASI in October, 1988 for $10M:– "We decided last year to re-focus our organization's efforts on providing

health care services in the Intermountain region, so we began to look for a buyer for the software programs," IHC president Scott S. Parker said.

• And who did they sell it to? Gee…, GTE!So what’s GTE got to do with Healthcare? Well, about as much as:– Revlon, who bought TDS (hardly a cosmetic change!)– American Express, who bought SAI, McAuto & G-A– Lockheed who first developed MIS at El Camino– AllTell who bought TDS a few years after Lockheed– Ashland Oil, Bell Atlantic, Martin-Marrietta, Dupont… – Ah well, you get the picture!

General Telephone Equipment• With a history going back to 1935 and ≈$28B in revenue, GTE was

a powerhouse name in corporate circles, and their takeover of Med/38 promised major improvements from deep R&D pockets.

• So what’s the first thing GTE did to this wonderful product?• Why the same thing as:

– Baxter, when they bought DCC – McAuto, when they bought MSA– SMS, when buying Computer Synergy– Technicon, when they bought MIS– HBOC, when they bought Mediflex– GE, when they bought IDX…

• Surely you’d pay more for a product with a new namenew name, – It’s just got to be better than that tired old system…

Sounds Better, Doesn’t it?

1st Owner

1st Name 2nd Owner

2nd Name

3rd Owner

3rd Name

4th Owner

4th Name

DCC HPMS Baxter Delta IBAX Series 4000

HBOC Series

MSA MSA McAuto MHS A4 ?

Computer Synergy

? SMS Spirit Choice

SMS Allegra

Lockheed MIS Techni-con

MIS AllTell TDS 7000

Eclipsys E7000

Medicus MediPac Mediflex

Medipac HBO Health-quest

McKess-on

HERM

Phamis Last-Word

IDS Last-Word

IDX Carecast GE Centricity

AMI’s PHS

PatCom Kea-Med

PatCom Keane EZ-Access

Keane Optimum

• To be fair, there was some real R&D with some of these name changes (eg: IDX’s LastWord to CareCast), but not always!

MedSeries4!• Wow, now that’s a better product,

eeerr.., I mean, name!• In fact, GTE has also acquired a

bunch of other products in case you can’t read the fine print in the ad on the right from 1990:– MedSeries4 – their renamed Med/38– EMC*Express – an EDI clearinghouse– Collect*Express – early e-payments– Q/Care – for HMOs & PPOS– PDMS – RX Data Management Service

• So off GTE went selling more hospitals with their billion-dollar size, high-tech expertise, etc.,

• For a few years until…

Going once, going twice… Sold!• Again, this time to SMS, whose shared $s slipped a bit in the early

90s, making them eager to get back on track in the new world of turnkey minis. They bought several leading mini-based firms:– Computer Synergy, a DG-based mini winner, in the mid-80s,– Then MedSeries4, which to SMS’ credit, it did not re-name!!

• Instead, SMS really put some honest R&D into MedSeries4, which by then had over 300 installs.- E.G.: “WebConnect” a

physician portal that makes the stogy old RPG code look positively modern!

- Plus many more clinical apps:- Med Reconciliation- Allergy Management…

Med/38 Today?• Lives on happily under Siemens tutelage as MedSeries4:

– ≈400 total clients, ranging in bed size from:• 27 Critical Access Hospitals (<25 beds) to 8 over 400 beds!

– “Vision” users group meets annually• In 2009 in Salt Lake City, Utah, birthplace of Med/38!

– Hardware platform is IBM’s “Power Server”• Successor to the original System/38

– Operating System is “IBM i V6.1”• (whatever that means…)

– Data Base is IBM’s “DB2”• As “Open” as most…

– Programming Language is still RPG• Augmented by Java, Power Serve, and C++

What’s Next?• Here’s some ideas from recent emails:

– Cornelius Mcloughlin – from NYU - Cornelius.McLoughlin@nyumc.org• Are you planning on reporting some of the first Laboratory Systems? • I am familiar with Clindata from BSL, Berkeley Scientific Labs, 1970.• Also: Spear (Sperry-Rand?) and DNA (Diversified Numeric Analysis)• Those of us still around from the late 60s-early 70s would be interested!

– Walter Tanenbaum - Walter.Tanenbaum@mcgladrey.com• Why don’t you do one on consulting firms. That would be a kick!• I was CIO (or whatever it was called then) at Montefiore in 1970; • Was recruited by KPMG in 1980 at the beginning of their HCIT practice; • Recruited back to Montefiore in 81/ 82; went back to KPMG in 1987; • Founded my own firm, The FLEX Group, in 1987

Thanks also to many others who have sent in encouraging emails on their HIS experiences. Keep those cards & letters coming in!

• Please send any contributions to: vciott@hispros.com