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Death by a Thousand Clicks: Where Electronic Health Records Went Wrong

25 points by Yuval_Halevi 8y ago

sonnyblarney 8y ago
It would be nice if the next president were merely a professional bureaucrat, and not a politician - i.e. someone who will basically turf politics and say: "I'm going to fix healthcare, taxation and immigration". With a pragmatic deal on a few things, at least operationally, it can be fixed. Because warring over ideology is pointless if nothing works.
- Already__Taken 8y ago
  Their country can't even fill in a tax form without an ideological war field. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/04/03/709656642/episode-760-tax-hero https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/04/03/709656642/epis...
  - lotsofpulp 8y ago
    Some people in the US are even mad right now that the government didn’t take too much money from them and then give the extra back this year. Writing that sentence seems like nonsense, but I’ve witnessed it first hand.
    - EliRivers 8y ago
      Yet I bet the exact same people would be absolutely incandescent if the government took a portion of their earnings and put it into a savings account that they can't access for six months.
- tim333 8y ago
  The previous president was fairly down to earth and into fixing things but his opponents did their best to prevent all that.
  - sonnyblarney 8y ago
    Obama was a career politician, he had nothing to do with reforming the bureaucracy. The very article points to that: the massive wasteful spending on records was initiated largely by him. He was able to get some focus and funds, but politicians don't seem to be able to get the right people to lead coherent projects. Healthcare.gov is another, related, example - it was a $2B fiasco contract by CGI, based in Montreal. Google Engineers had to come in and 'fix it' - I heard they just re-wrote most of it. In 'regular world IT' there is still a massive disconnect between the executive layer and the Eng. and Product Leadership that has the competency and means to 'do it right'.
peterwwillis 8y ago
Discussion of the same article posted on Fortune: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19545264 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19545264
vesinisa 8y ago
Previously discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19545264 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19545264
- Yuval_Halevi 8y ago
  Thank you for letting me know. How can I check if an article i want to submit here in HN, never been submitted before?
  - tim333 8y ago
    Using the search feature on part of the title works quite well eg https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Death%20by%20a%20Thousand%20Clicks&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Death%20by%20a%20Thousand%20Cl... shows nine submissions of Death by a Thousand Clicks. though sometimes people have changed the title.
  - vesinisa 8y ago
    The previous article was published in Fortune, so it's particularly difficult to locate. It seems to be some sort of a syndicated publication where the same article is featured by multiple publications. BTW, HN guidelines[1] do not prohibit re-submissions. Good links often get posted year after year. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

25 points by Yuval_Halevi 8y ago

It would be nice if the next president were merely a professional bureaucrat, and not a politician - i.e. someone who will basically turf politics and say: "I'm going to fix healthcare, taxation and immigration". With a pragmatic deal on a few things, at least operationally, it can be fixed. Because warring over ideology is pointless if nothing works.

Already__Taken 8y ago
Their country can't even fill in a tax form without an ideological war field. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/04/03/709656642/episode-760-tax-hero https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/04/03/709656642/epis...
- lotsofpulp 8y ago
  Some people in the US are even mad right now that the government didn’t take too much money from them and then give the extra back this year. Writing that sentence seems like nonsense, but I’ve witnessed it first hand.
  - EliRivers 8y ago
    Yet I bet the exact same people would be absolutely incandescent if the government took a portion of their earnings and put it into a savings account that they can't access for six months.
tim333 8y ago
The previous president was fairly down to earth and into fixing things but his opponents did their best to prevent all that.
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
  Obama was a career politician, he had nothing to do with reforming the bureaucracy. The very article points to that: the massive wasteful spending on records was initiated largely by him. He was able to get some focus and funds, but politicians don't seem to be able to get the right people to lead coherent projects. Healthcare.gov is another, related, example - it was a $2B fiasco contract by CGI, based in Montreal. Google Engineers had to come in and 'fix it' - I heard they just re-wrote most of it. In 'regular world IT' there is still a massive disconnect between the executive layer and the Eng. and Product Leadership that has the competency and means to 'do it right'.

peterwwillis 8y ago

Discussion of the same article posted on Fortune: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19545264 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19545264

vesinisa 8y ago

Previously discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19545264 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19545264

Yuval_Halevi 8y ago
Thank you for letting me know. How can I check if an article i want to submit here in HN, never been submitted before?
- tim333 8y ago
  Using the search feature on part of the title works quite well eg https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Death%20by%20a%20Thousand%20Clicks&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Death%20by%20a%20Thousand%20Cl... shows nine submissions of Death by a Thousand Clicks. though sometimes people have changed the title.
- vesinisa 8y ago
  The previous article was published in Fortune, so it's particularly difficult to locate. It seems to be some sort of a syndicated publication where the same article is featured by multiple publications. BTW, HN guidelines[1] do not prohibit re-submissions. Good links often get posted year after year. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html