46. clinicom part 3

8/2/2019 46. CliniCom Part 3

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H.I.S.-tory byVince Ciotti

2011 H.I.S. Professionals, LLC

Episode # 46:

CliniComPart 3


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Another Insiders View As we saw the past 2 HIS-tory episodes, CliniCom was an amazing

start-up vendor of bedside nursing systems, that pioneered RF

telecom, bar-coding and handheld devices over 25 years ago.

After Don Gilchrists fascinating input last week, I received a

treasure-trove of pictures and insights from another early CliniCom

team member, Marjorie Rodell, who led software development:

- If you look at the CliniCare

terminal (on right) you'll see aprecursor to iPad 20 years earlier.

-(granted Apples software is incredible

more user-friendly, but the basic devicepictured on the right was amazingly

prescient. The stylus is even reminiscent

of Apples first breakthrough PDA the

Newton, killed by Jobs after

Doonesbury mocked its character non-


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Marjorie sum up the 3 main breakthroughs of CliniCom:

It is interesting to think back on this time when we had to

provide the terminal device, the RF network and the bar-

coding methodology, because none of it existed then. Wewere the first to recognized that nurses were mobile.

- There just weren't open

mobile solutions then and

we believed that you had

to provide the whole

solution. CliniCom had a

patent on a frequency-

hopping RF protocol, but

getting it to work inhospitals without lots of

interference was a real

challenge both to install

and for ongoing support.


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Other CliniCom Insights

CliniCom had courageous, creative and loyal customers who were

the visionaries and risk takers of that time. They stuck with usthrough the challenges with RF, barcode glue and early stage

software glitches that would not be tolerated today and pushed us

in directions that Peter Gombrich probably never dreamed of.

Medication administration, as we foundout, forced nursing and pharmacists in

hospitals to cooperate in ways they were

not accustomed to. For example, the

specific times associated with QID had to

be specified per nursing station. We also

had a great sales team (see next page)

and a great services team who made

sure that those of us in development

paid attention to our customer needs.


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CliniComs Sales TeamThe one guy I recognize below is Brian Higgins, in the middle of the

bottom row he went through my PEP class at McAuto in 1981!


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Bill Brehms Contribution As Don Glichrist mentioned last week, Peter Gombrich left CliniCom

early, and Bill Brehm of Gerber-Brehm (IFAS) fame then led the way. Bill led ClinCom

through an

amazing growth

spurt, resulting inits first profitable

year in 1992.

By 1994, CliniCom

had grown in 10

years to over 100

clients with an

annual revenue of

$35M, which

caught the eye of


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Another Acquisition! Charlie McCall of HBOC fame in Atlanta. HBO was riding incredibly

high on its stock in the 90s buying up HIS vendors, and CliniCom

became the basis of their Pathways line of clinical systems.

The Pathways Care Manager suite

expanded on CliniComs emphasis

on nursing functionality, which grew

over time to encompass almostevery aspect of nursing, from TPR,

I&O, Assessments to Care Plans.

Eventually renamed Horizon, the

pioneering nursing systems ofCliniCom still run today in hundreds

of hospitals who are reading the

latest press releases on HERM, and

wondering whats on the horizonfor this paragon of clinical systems.


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Thanks Marjorie! So whats Marjorie doing these days? I first met her when she was

running the consulting division of the Sisters of St. Francis Health

System in Indiana for CIO Bill Laker back in the late 90s. SSFHS was aheavy user of HBOCs Pathways, and pushed it to its limits, just as

Marjorie pushes her Kawasaki Ninja 250 (pictured below) to its!

Through her consulting

firm, SMG Inc, she helpsvendors learn from her

many years at both

CliniCom and

HBOC/McKesson, whereshe led clinical software

development, and can

be reached at:

970.948.5837

46. clinicom part 3

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