1. By Vince Ciotti
H.I.S. (not very) Professionals, LLC

2.  At the risk of antagonizing the many HIS vendors who have
cooperated in over a hundred “strenuous” system selection
processes we put them through over the years, this year
features another special series of Xmas letters.
 To make your holiday a little merrier (and with some help from
Joseph Snowden), we managed to get copies of the private
letters sent to Santa from their client CIOs.
 So make sure your iPhone is charged (there are 12 leading
vendors), put your feet up on your keyboard, and enjoy these
“punny” missives that reveal what it’s like to be a client of
theirs, listed by order of revenue. Hope Yule like it!
(PS - our attorney can be reached at: 800/555-HELP)

3. Dear Santa,
Please give Cerner a copy of their
own billing system to generate their invoice
to us – it will give us many months delay
before receiving them (if ever), and even
more months before they can post our
payment.
Yours truly,
Cerner CIO

4. Dear Santa,
We’ve grown a bit tired
of Practicing with
McKesson’s Partner for our
“integrated” hospital &
ambulatory IDN. Can you
maybe get us the real thing

5. Dear Santa,
I’d like two things this year:
(1) thermal underwear for Epic’s user group
meetings, and
(2) (2) binoculars to see the stage.
I could pick them both up at their next
meeting near the north pole…
Yours truly,
Epic CIO

6. Santa,
For Xmas this year,
could you please give me
Paul Black’s phone #? I’m
not a Wall Street analyst, so
it’s been hard to get a hold
of him lately…
Sincerely,

7. Dear Santa,
We replaced our old
Invision system you gave us many
years ago for a brand new gift you
gave us just last year called
Soarian, Could we maybe swap it
for another system this year?
Sincerely,
Siemens CIO

8. Dear Santa,
It’s been getting
rather lonely at GE’s
hospital users group
meetings – could you send
some of your elves or
reindeer to liven things
up?

9. Dear Santa,
We’ve been having trouble
with the gift you gave us last
year called LSS: can’t seem
to open the package and get it
to work with other toys from
the same manufacturer. Can
you please send a new set
that all works together?

10. Dear Santa,
We just love the three wise men you
sent to our IDN:
- Opus for the hospital clinicals,
- Sphere for their financials, and
- NextGen for our physicians.
However, they don’t seem to talk very well
to each other. This year, could you send
us a translator?
Thanks,
NextGen CIO

11. Dear Santer,
We all just love the many little gift
apps you gave us over the years – none
of my friends have so many, let alone
all wrapped in the exact same way.
However, they’re difficult to open and
when we do get them open, not really
very nice. Don’t mean to be fussy, but
could you send us just one or two really
nice apps this year?
Y’all have a merry one!
CPSI IT Director

12. Dear Santa,
That system you gave us
last year for our ED was
superb - many thanks!
However, the one for the
hospital was only so-so…
Any chance we can get an
equally nice one for both

13. Santa San,
あなたは、米国の前に、今年東京で停
止を確認してください ありがとうご
ざいました 親愛なるサンタ.
NTT Data CIO

14. Dear Santa,
Wow, that QuadraMed EHR
that you sent us last year was
great – a somewhat dated style,
but real classy – our RNs and
MDs like it a lot. This year, we’d
like to spruce it up a bit to look
more modern – any chance?
Many thanks,
QuadraMed CIO

15. Dear Santa,
Sorry I couldn’t afford a first-
class stamp this year and I hope
the 3rd class stamp I used gets my
letter there in time. As far as a gift
goes, we’d be glad for anything
this year. Doesn’t have to be a
Classic, nor shipped via APS,
just please leave it in the Centriq

16. Dear Santa,
Please send Vince some
consulting business next year to
keep him out of my hair. I hoped I
was finally done with him when he
ended the HIS-tory series, but he
just never quits…
Fondest regards to you and the Mrs.,
Yours truly,