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?

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?

NextGen CIO

Dear Santer,

We all just love the many CPSI 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

once they’re opened, 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

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

this3rd class stamp gets my letter

there in time. As for a gift, 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,

Mr. HIS-talk