Why is this news?

Pretty much all the e-mail news summaries I get—iHealthBeat, “SmartBriefs” from the eHealth Initiative and AHIP, etc.—picked up a May 30 Las Vegas Review-Journal story about a statewide electronic prescribing network in Nevada. It was a good feature piece for a general-interest newspaper.

For healthcare trade publications that like to stay timely, this is what we call a stale story. The Review-Journal reports that the Sierra Health Services–Allscripts program dates to December. That was six months ago, for those of you keeping score at home.

Actually, the partnership goes back even further than that. How do I know? I wrote a piece about this very same program in the Oct. 11, 2005, edition of Health-IT World. I know a lot of the trade press had the same story.

Moving the nation’s healthcare system into the 21st century is a tough job. We need to look forward, not backward.

Stay tuned for my next round of media bashing. I’ve got a good one in the works! I do, however, expect to be sidetracked by the National Health IT Week events in Washington next week.

Now if you will please excuse me, I have a flight to catch.