By Vince CiottiH.I.S. (not very) Professionals, LLC

At the risk of antagonizing the many HIS vendors who have cooperated in over a hundred “strenuous” system selection processes we put them through over the years, this year features another special series of Xmas letters.

To make your holiday a little merrier (and with some help from Joseph Snowden), we managed to get copies of the private letters sent to Santa from their client CIOs.

So make sure your iPhone is charged (there are 12 leading vendors), put your feet up on your keyboard, and enjoy these “punny” missives that reveal what it’s like to be a client of theirs, listed by order of revenue. Hope Yule like it!

(PS - our attorney can be reached at: 800/555-HELP)

Dear Santa,

Please give Cerner a copy of their

own billing system to generate their invoice

to us – it will give us many months delay

before receiving them (if ever), and even

more months before they can post our

payment.

Yours truly,

Cerner CIO

Dear Santa,

We’ve grown a bit tired

of Practicing with

McKesson’s Partner for our

“integrated” hospital &

ambulatory IDN. Can you

maybe get us the real thing

this year?

Dear Santa,

I’d like two things this year:

(1) thermal underwear for Epic’s user group

meetings, and

(2) (2) binoculars to see the stage.

I could pick them both up at their next

meeting near the north pole…

Yours truly,

Epic CIO

Santa,

For Xmas this year,

could you please give me

Paul Black’s phone #? I’m

not a Wall Street analyst, so

it’s been hard to get a hold

of him lately…

Sincerely,

Allscripts CIO

Dear Santa,

We replaced our old

Invision system you gave us many

years ago for a brand new gift you

gave us just last year called

Soarian, Could we maybe swap it

for another system this year?

Sincerely,

Siemens CIO

Dear Santa,

It’s been getting

rather lonely at GE’s

hospital users group

meetings – could you send

some of your elves or

reindeer to liven things

up?

Sincerely,

Dear Santa,

We’ve been having trouble

with the gift you gave us last

year called LSS: can’t seem

to open the package and get it

to work with other toys from

the same manufacturer. Can

you please send a new set

that all works together?

Thank you so much,

Dear Santa,

We just love the three wise men you

sent to our IDN:

- Opus for the hospital clinicals,

- Sphere for their financials, and

- NextGen for our physicians.

However, they don’t seem to talk very well

to each other. This year, could you send

us a translator?

Thanks,

NextGen CIO

Dear Santer,

We all just love the many little gift

apps you gave us over the years – none

of my friends have so many, let alone

all wrapped in the exact same way.

However, they’re difficult to open and

when we do get them open, not really

very nice. Don’t mean to be fussy, but

could you send us just one or two really

nice apps this year?

Y’all have a merry one!

CPSI IT Director

Dear Santa,

That system you gave us

last year for our ED was

superb - many thanks!

However, the one for the

hospital was only so-so…

Any chance we can get an

equally nice one for both

places?

Santa San,

あなたは、米国の前に、今年東京で停止を確認してください ありがとうございました 親愛なるサンタ.

NTT Data CIO

Dear Santa,

Wow, that QuadraMed EHR

that you sent us last year was

great – a somewhat dated style,

but real classy – our RNs and

MDs like it a lot. This year, we’d

like to spruce it up a bit to look

more modern – any chance?

Many thanks,

QuadraMed CIO

Dear Santa,

Sorry I couldn’t afford a first-

class stamp this year and I hope

the 3rd class stamp I used gets my

letter there in time. As far as a gift

goes, we’d be glad for anything

this year. Doesn’t have to be a

Classic, nor shipped via APS,

just please leave it in the Centriq

under our tree…

Dear Santa,

Please send Vince some

consulting business next year to

keep him out of my hair. I hoped I

was finally done with him when he

ended the HIS-tory series, but he

just never quits…

Fondest regards to you and the Mrs.,

Yours truly,

Mr. HIS-talk