H.I.S.-tory by Vince Ciotti

Episode #65:

Keane Part 4:

INFOSTAT© 2011 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights

reserved.

Keane’s Acquired Products• This week we continue the story of Keane, looking at the other HIS

vendors besides Ferranti they acquired while building their own “Threshold” UNIX-based product. Using the deep pockets of their parent company in Boston, Ray Paris’ HSD Division also bought:– INFOSTAT – this week’s HIS-tory, which will include the story of

an LIS vendor who bought them just before Keane did; next:– Professional Hospital Systems - source of “PatCom,” the

premier revenue cycle system created by hospital chain AMI.• Many thanks to Arnie Caplan, my old friend from SMS for the story!

– First Coast – Charlie Gibb’s firm from Florida, whose “APaCS” HIS offered a full financial/clinical suite on IBM AS/400s.• Anyone know where Charlie is, or used to work for him? Please write!

– Source Data Systems - (SDS), from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, based on NCR’s “Mednet” HIS. Ran at over 100+ hospitals in the 90s…• Another vanished HIS vendor – can anyone help with inside details?

The INFOSTAT Story• Credit for the inside story of

INFOSTAT goes to an old friend: John Indrigo, whose resume also reads like a mini HIS-tory:– Sold for Burroughs in the late ‘60s,– Then worked with Bob Pagnotta at

MDS and Tymshare in the ‘70s,– Went to McAuto in the early ‘80s,– Joined INFOSTAT in their 2nd year.– Like me, today he is enjoying

Medicare & Social Security…

• Actually, John still works in the small vendor M&A space at:– JPI Enterprises, LLC– 813-503-0400– jindrigo@jpi-enterprises.com

INFOSTAT’S Founders• INFOSTAT was formed by 3 HIS veterans in Dallas, TX:

– Jerry Neal, President, former CFO at Dallas Methodist Hospital. How many early HIS vendors were formed by former hospital CFOs? Here’s 3:• Walt Huff of HBO was CFO at OSF in Peoria• Frank Poggio of HMDS was CFO at U of Wis.• Dave Pomerance of Dynamic Control Corp.

– Tom Easterly, EVP of Systems and Programming, who started at HBO, went to Cerner and Eclipsys, and is still working today as Senior VP of Client Services at HIS vendor QuadraMed in Reston, VA:

– Bob Flippin, VP and 3rd founder at INFOSTAT, who started out working for Lou Amoroso at Arthur Andersen, where I met him during my days at SMS. • Where are you, Bob? Call me! 505/466-4958

Technical Underpinnings• INFOSTAT’s first system ran on the PICK operating

system, which you may remember was the OS for McAuto’s Microdata minicomputer from the UK, which they used in MHS (Mini-based Hospital System), with software from from Skip Shippee’s MSA from NC (not the “MSA” IBM ERP giant!).

• The early INFOSTAT system was comprised of mainly financial apps and ran on Prime minis.

• However, INFOSTAT soon learned that Prime was not exactly a big name in the mini hardware market, dominated by IBM and DEC, and so struck a deal with AT&T when they were trying to penetrate the mini market with their “B3 XXX” series of minis, also known as the “killer bee” series!

Slight Problem…• INFOSTAT featured real-time processing

of both census and financial transactions, which sure beat the batch updates of shared vendors like SMS & McAuto…

• However, AT&T’s 3B line of minis turned out to be a tad slow at the end of day when all the files had to be backed up. This series of batch jobs usually started at midnight and was supposed to end before morning when hospitals stated entering the next day’s admissions...

• It seems the 3B was as slow at the day-end job as it was fast for real-time processing, and the night-end job ran until 10AM the next day!

• John Indrigo saved the day when he found these HP 9000 minis with RISC architecture, that cut the day-end processing job to 2 hours. John demo’d 6 clients the new HP box and all 6 switched to HP from AT&T! This also entailed switching from the PICK to the UNIX OS, which also gave the ability to run on DG and IBM minis too.

INFOSTAT + UNIX = HOT!!• UNIX’s growing popularity in the mid-80s created a wave that

INFOSTAT rode well, just when Keane was using it for Threshold!• Here’s some quotes from INFOSTAT execs in a 1989 interview:

– “We’ve always considered UNIX to be a plus because it runs on virtually any hardware” – John Indrigo, VP of Marketing. “We’ve found the new generation of high performance RISC-based machines have been specifically optimized for UNIX. And with its inherent portability, our customers can take advantage of new hardware innovations without changing software.”

– “Open systems has facilitated external reporting for the hospitals we work with and has also made it easier for them to interface with other clinical systems.” – Jerry Neal, President. “The fact that our management team has been intact for five out of our six years of existence has given customers the benefit of working with the same people on a continuous basis.”

– Jerry went on to expand on an innovative new clinical application: “Our work with St. Joseph’s Hospital in Minot, ND, resulted in the development of a patient care plan system that is being installed there now and will be available industry-wide before the end of the year.”

Sales Successes• With the new “open” line of minis, INFOSTAT sold very

well, and John Indrigo’s sales efforts netted over 50 hospitals all told, mostly in the small to mid-size range with under 250 beds, who were the bulk of mini sales back in the 80s. Larger sites still ran mainframes.

• John became the president of INFOSTAT during this transition from Prime to AT&T to HP. INFOSTAT grew so well, it attracted an offer from another mini-based vendor in Texas: Community Health Computing (CHC). Some day we’ll have to cover the whole world of LIS vendors, but CHC is a fascinating first dive into this niche world:

• CHC was founded by Baker Mitchell who cut his healthcare teeth at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Dallas where he headed up bioengineering in the 60s.

• In 1968, he formed CHC and built a high-end LIS that sold very well in the large hospital LIS market: 250 beds & up.

CHC’s LIS Pitch• Check out this classic 2-page ad on how well CHC pitched its LIS:

Wrong Size!?• IN 1991, CHC acquired INFOSTAT, CHC figuring that by

combining their LIS with INFOSTAT’s suite of HIS apps, financial and OE, they would have a world-beating “total HIS” offering, which does make sense on the surface.– Shades of LIS vendor Citation buying Frank Poggio’s HMDS

HIS when both ran on revolutionary PC platforms in the late 90s – creating a total HIS on PCs

• However, CHC’s client base were all large hospitals (250+ beds), while INFOSTAT’s were mostly small (<250), so the client bases just didn’t buy the other product…

• So in 1995, after 4 years of trying to sell the mis-matched systems, CHC gave up the chase and sold its INFOSTAT division to our friends at Keane. Keane did not try to sell the INFOSTAT’s HIS product, but rather its own Threshold and another one which runs to this very day that we’ll begin to tell the story of next week.

In case you missed any:• Just hop over to our web site and enjoy any episode: HISPros.com