Nashville Technology Council

HCA will buy Denver joint venture for $1.45 billion

NASHVILLE — Hospital chain HCA Inc. has agreed to pay $1.45 billion to gain full control of a joint venture that runs hospitals and surgery centers in the Denver metropolitan area.

The company said late Wednesday that it will buy The Colorado Health Foundation’s 40-percent stake in HCA-Health One LLC.

The foundation and HCA formed the joint venture in 1995, and HCA said it operates seven hospitals and 13 surgery centers in metro Denver, with 8,700 employees and 3,000 affiliated physicians.

HCA said it has invested more than $2 billion in HCA-HealthOne since it was created.

HCA said it expects the deal to close in the third quarter assuming regulators approve. It plans to pay for HCA-HealthOne using funds from its revolving credit facility.

As of March 31, HCA ran 163 hospitals and 107 surgery centers.

Read more about HCA acquiring HealthOne

Nashville, TN—May 23, 2011 –The Nashville Technology Council Board of Directors announced today the resignation of J. Tod Fetherling as President/CEO of the Nashville Technology Council, a position he held for two and a half years. Fetherling will be leaving to pursue a new entrepreneurial venture. He will remain with the organization through June 30, 2011 and will continue to be involved with the Technology Council. The Board of Directors has initiated a search to secure Fetherling’s replacement and will work closely with the staff to ensure a smooth transition.

During his tenure, Fetherling built upon previous efforts to create many new programs and take the organization to higher levels of achievement and expand the council’s involvement and reach. “I want to personally thank Tod for his hard work over the past two and a half years. We are approaching $1million in annual revenues and serve a membership base of around 400 companies across a wide spectrum of industries and company sizes in Middle Tennessee with a goal of reaching 500 companies soon”, said Andy Flatt, Board Chair. Flatt added, “The NTC is on solid footing as a result of Tod’s leadership and strategic vision. We wish him every success in his new venture.”

Like many companies in the U.S., HCCA has had to reposition their business strategy and learn to diversify in an unstable economy in order to stay afloat.  After launching four new companies last year, a $5 million venture capital collaboration hopes to bring more healthcare IT jobs to the Middle Tennessee area with the rising growth in EMRs.  President of HCCA, David Bartholomew, said that HCCA’s new businesses are making money, while the business of bringing nurses here has been losing money.

To read more about this story, visit the Tennessean.

TedxNashville is tomorrow at TPAC’s Polk Theater.  Leaders in technology, entertainment , healthcare, and so many other fields that represent Nashville will be presenting their innovative  ideas on making the world a better place.  So many of our wonderful members and volunteers are contributing to this wonderful event.

To learn more about TedxNashville or to buy tickets, click here.

For  those of you on the fence about attending, check out the final agenda with speakers and topics for tomorrow’s 2nd “Naked Hospital” event being held in Jamison Hall at The Factory at Franklin.  The best and the brightest in our healthcare community will be hosting a frank, revealing discussion about transparency and eHealth.

Interested in attending?  We’ll have limited walk ups, so ensure your seat at the event by registering now! If you can’t attend tomorrow, be sure to follow us on Twitter (@nashtechcouncil, hashtag #nakedhospital) for pics and discussion highlights.

Special thanks to our Titan Sponsors HealthSpring and Peak 10 for underwriting tomorrow’s event. We hope to see you there!

Today we are very pleased to have David Jarrard, President and CEO of Nashville Technology Council member company Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock, give us a sneak preview on some of the compelling discussion we will be having at our upcoming Naked Hospital event on August 26th at The Factory at Franklin.  We sold out last year, so be sure to register now to reserve your spot!

Facebook is changing the way we run hospitals. Or, it ought to, if we want to keep our best people, provide the best care, and remain, you know, in business.

Here’s a proposition from the world of the obvious: The “new normal” of information transparency has changed the way we live, how we work together, and what we expect from each other.

It’s also changing the way effective leaders lead today.

At the upcoming Naked Hospital conference, I suspect you’ll rightly hear how healthcare “reform” has made attaining information transparency especially urgent to America’s hospitals — even as it strains rusty IT systems and the sanity of CIOs. Quality of care and quality of balance sheets all hinge on success here, and it impacts just about every operational decision.

But while transparency is changing the healthcare industry, it’s also worth considering how transparency is changing us.

An example: In its 2010 Pulse Report, Press Ganey reported on its survey of 235,000 employees at 383 hospitals. Among its findings:

“Gen X employees (born between1965 to 1983) want frequent and real-time conversations and Gen Y (1984 or later) wants to continuously receive real-time information. They both want to be involved in decisions. Gen X employees place more importance on managing themselves while Gen Y employees have high expectations for full participation and collaboration.”

Sound familiar? It’s a short path between the power of social media (where dialogue and transparency and collaboration is king) to the expectations of today’s workforce. Those Gen X and Gen Y employees want a relationship with leadership; they want engagement; they want information and honesty; they even want some measure of control.

The good news: When hospital leadership engages with these employees in this way, the results can be astounding. We’ve seen hospitals transformed by the power of real transparency and honest engagement with their workforce. A comatose workforce can become an army of leaders and advocates. Market share shifts. Satisfaction scores rise. Votes come in.

Wait…they want some control? Yikes. This can be a very scary proposition for hospitals, by nature conservative and skeptical. But the successful “naked hospital” – the ones that truly embrace transparency in every aspect – will tap a powerful resource that can transform their organization.

How powerful? Ask your Facebook friends.

7:00 – 7:50 – Continental Breakfast/Coffee in Curb Center

7:50 – 8:00 – Welcome & Announcements

  8:00– 8:20 – Mike McWherter, Gubernatorial Candidate

Hear from a Gubernatorial Candidate who will discuss the pressing issues of technology, and the platform for Technology in Tennessee. Issues to be discussed:

-affordable energy costs for data centers
-continuation of strong economic development initiatives to attract new technology companies region
-creation of new economic development initiatives to attract new individuals to the region in technology jobs 
-Continuation of Internet Tax Credits on sales tax
-Security/Privacy for all citizens
-Broadband growth and wireless incentives
-Tax credits for incumbent workers who need to be retrained for technology jobs

8:20 – 8:30 – Nashville Technology Community Update (Jobs, Wifi, Professional Development)

Tod Fetherling, President & CEO, Nashville Technology Council

8:30 – 8:50 – State of Tennessee Update

Mark Bengel, Chief Information Officer, State of Tennessee

8:50 – 9:30 – CEO Panel

Don Enfinger, Managing Director/ Production Services – Technology Services Group, BNYMellon
Ron Samuels, CEO, Avenue Bank
Tim DuBois, VP & Managing Executive, ASCAP
Jason Grant, Healthways

Moderator: Steven Howard Smith, President & CEO, Zycron

Hear from four Enterprise Level CEO’s representing four key industries: Health Care, Music & Publishing, Retail and Transactions. The purpose of this panel is to tell the Nashville Technology Story. The panel will answer questions such as:-What impact does the economic environment in Nashville have on your business?

-As a CEO, what challenges do you have in the technology industry, and how have you overcome them? 
-As a CEO, how do you ensure your business is innovative, while maintaining a profit margin? Is innovation about building new or creating efficiencies in operations? 
-From your perspective, how is the technological landscape changing in Nashville?

9:30 – 9:45 – Exhibitors/Break

9:45 – 10:30 – Breakout Groups

Listen as one entrepreneur and one enterprise level CTO or CIO from each of the 4 key industries share their perspective on technology in Nashville. This will be a “deeper dive” into each industry, and the challenges associated with technology in that respective industry. Choose from: Health Care, Music & Publishing, Retail and Transactions.

Healthcare
Scott Blanchette, CIO, Healthways 
Christopher Parks, Co-Founder & CEO, change:healthcare

Music/Publishing
Rachel Barnhard, Founder, Big Data Marketing
TBD

Retail
Ed O’Kelley, Director of Information Systems, Goodwill Industries
Jeff Orton, CIO, Genesco

Transactions
Todd Joseph, CIO, Comdata
Darwin Melnyk, President/CEO Iron Solutions

10:30 – 10:50 A Platform for Tennessee

Zach Wamp, US Congressman and Gubernatorial Candidate

Hear from a Gubernatorial Candidate who will discuss the pressing issues of technology, and the platform for Technology in Tennessee. Issues to be discussed:

-affordable energy costs for data centers
-continuation of strong economic development initiatives to attract new technology companies region
-creation of new economic development initiatives to attract new individuals to the region in technology jobs 
-Continuation of Internet Tax Credits on sales tax
-Security/Privacy for all citizens
-Broadband growth and wireless incentives
-Tax credits for incumbent workers who need to be retrained for technology jobs

10:50 – 10:55 T3 Update

David Suply, Student Congress Representative

10:55 – 11:30 Higher Education Panel

Dr. Curtis Armstrong, Tennessee Technological University
David Welch, Nashville State Technical Community College
Dr. Edward Anthony, Trevecca Nazarene University
Glenn Acree, Belmont University

Moderator: John Kepley, CEO, Teknetex

Hear from a panel of University Presidents and Business Leaders as we discuss the following:

-How do get more students into the technology field?
-How do we retain college graduates in Nashville?
-How do we make sure Universities are teaching students the right skill set, so when they graduate they are ready for employment?
-What programs and applications skills are most needed in the technology industry today?

11:30 – 11:45 Exhibitors/Break

11:45 –12:00 – Lunch

12:00 – 1:00 Lunch Keynote: Music Mash-Up – Artists, Writers, Media & Digital discussing new opportunities for growth in Nashville’s Music Business

Cory Gierman, Founder of MuzikMafia
Mark Montgomery, Entrepreneur, Founder Echo Music
David Mead, Professional Writer, Recording Artist, and Music Journalist

1:00 Buses to Reception at Cha Chas (Reception is 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.)

2:00 Shotgun Start/Golf at Legends Golf Course

3:00 Party Bus returns Curb Center/Cha Chas

The Nashville Tech Story (1/11/10)

Social Fresh rolls into town today. This is the first time it has been to Nashville and promises a stellar line up of main stream brands and their stories of social media.

Why all the fuss over social media? According to the Pew Foundation, 46% of adults are now on social media sites and 65% of teens. By the way, the total number of adults in America on the Internet is now at 80%. Who’s left? Unlike the Internet in its early days, there is less racial differences in who is using Social Media. This is a very positive trend as we look to the next evolution of the Web and communication online. Women are more likely than men to use Social Media sites.

Our own Tod Fetherling will be moderating a panel on Social Media in Healthcare today. Tod will be joined by Tracey Van Der Spuy from HealthSpring, Chris Fenoglio from LifePoint Hospitals, Bayard Saunders from i7, and Steve Parker from Level Wing Media. Social Media can be a great way to innovate and see into the lives of patients, especially those with chronic diseases.

“Social media is simply the current expression of patient activation and engagement,” said Susannah Fox from Pew Foundation. “But this time e-patients are part of a larger cultural change that assumes access to information, enables communication among disparate groups, and expects progress.”

Nashville Tech Story (12/23/09)

If you haven’t noticed, the role of the CIO is changing rapidly.  Spurred by the recession, IT shops are being asked to do more with less, like everyone else, but they are also taking on more business processes than before.  These are the results from the recent 2010 State of the CIO report from CIO Magazine.

CIOs reported their Top Priorities of 2010 to be following:

• Aligning IT and business goals
• Controlling IT costs
• IT governance and portfolio management
• Business process redesign
• Leadership development/staff training
• Marketing IT’s business contribution
• Rationalizing or centralizing the application portfolio
• Protecting customer data privacy
• Scaling IT globally
• Regulatory compliance

Most CIOs are thinking today about how are they going to get the job done with less resources?  The answer so far has come from outsourcing and contract service providers.  “21% is the average percentage of IT labor provided by outsourcers or contract service providers,” according to CIO Magazine.  In Nashville, this industry has continued to grow with local leaders like Emids, Wipro, Zycron, and Syntel leading the way.  In addition, the contract labor market is strong with companies like Vaco, Teknetex, and Tek Systems.

One of the more interesting statistics is the decrease in average salaries.  Average salaries are dropping 10-20% in certain industries.  Below is the average salary data for CIOs.
’06 . . . . $185,863
’07 . . . . $185,240
’08 . . . . $237,360
’09 . . . . $247,900
’10 . . . . $219,300

Of local interest, the percentage of IT spend of Total Revenues in Healthcare is 3.9%.  The overall national average across all industries is 5.7%.

For more information, click here.

-Abbie Lundberg, former Editor & Chief of CIO Magazine will be with on January 19th and 20th to discuss trends for the technology industry.  Click here to register.

Nashville Tech Story (12/1/09)

“Having spent 20 years in hospitals and health technology, the Nashville Medical Trade Center represents an opportunity to substantially cut costs in healthcare by bringing products and technologies together in one place for buyers to compare and contrast,” said J. Tod Fetherling, President, Nashville Technology Council.  “Equally important is the opportunity to have technology demonstration projects that are based here in Nashville that represent the best of digital healthcare.” 

EMRs and EHRs will converge over the next 10 years.  Some elements will come quicker, but Healthcare IT is poised to be a leading sector for many years.  Nashville should be leading way in community demonstration projects and in consumer directed value-based healthcare.  This project is another opportunity for us to lead the country in healthcare innovation, not reform.  The city, state, and country need our leadership, now.

Market Center Management Company (MCMC), the management company of leading international trade centers and trade events around the world, today announced the location for its $250 million Nashville Medical Trade Center project: the site of the current Nashville Convention Center at 601 Commerce Street in downtown Nashville.

“This project will create a large number of new jobs in our city right when we need them most,” said Nashville Mayor Karl Dean. “In addition to building on Nashville’s preeminence in the health care industry, the reuse of the Convention Center and the proposed improvements to the center’s physical structure will be a significant contribution to our vital and robust downtown.”

The Nashville Medical Trade Center, the world’s first global health care marketplace, will meet the changing needs of the international medical community by featuring permanent manufacturer showrooms, temporary exhibition space, and conference facilities within a 2 million square foot complex.

“Nashville is the perfect home for this dynamic marketplace,” said Bill Winsor, president and CEO, MCMC. “Its pro-business environment, a convenient location, and leadership in health care are unmatched. Health care suppliers and providers from around the world will travel to Nashville to access the latest medical technology and services.”

Market Center Management Company will begin construction as early as mid-2010 on a new 12-story tower on top of the existing convention center site, as well as develop a new plaza across the street from the historic Ryman Auditorium. In addition, the Broadway-facing side of the property will undergo a redesign.

“This announcement means Tennessee will be home to an important new concept in the marketing and procurement of medical equipment, technology and services,” said Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen. “The health care industry is a significant economic engine for our state and this project expands that footprint, representing a major investment in our state’s health care economy.”

Custom space for more than 600 medical companies will be available at the Nashville Medical Trade Center, creating an efficient, transparent marketplace for health care providers and attracting more than 150,000 estimated annual visitors to Nashville.

The project is being designed by Nashville-based Gresham, Smith and Partners, a leading multi-disciplinary design and consulting firm. Construction will be managed by the Nashville office of Turner.