“H.I.S.-tory” by Vince Ciotti

© 2011 H.I.S. Professionals, LLC

Episode # 21:

Gerber

Alley,

Part I

Background• This one’s so weird, it’ll take two weeks; story starts at SMS in ‘75…

– Wait a minute: Urban & Terry formed Gerber Alley in 1979! • Trust me, it started when Bill Brehm joined SMS from AHS’ ISD.

– Your out of your mind, but I’ll listen anyway just for kicks.• Thanks, now here’s the story: Bill Brehm headed up one of the 4

regional shared systems that formed American Hospital Supply’s Information Services Division – I think his was Georgia Blue Cross…

• Bill, are you out there? Help us on this!• Bill was a unique guy & sharp techie: bright,

knowledgeable, yet a true southern gentleman.• That sure is a rare combination in the HIT world!• When he joined SMS, he had to attend my 2-

week education class in SMS’ version of SHAS.• Poor guy, how did he ever stay awake?

High “Spirits”• The ISD bunch was a rowdy crowd, as most like Bill were running

pretty sophisticated shared systems, so what could I teach them?• One session I’ll never forget was on SMS’ Payroll system

– SHAS has no Payroll– So we wrote our own– And ISD had to learn it– As they had no PR either. – Surprisingly, they are all in pretty good spirits during the class,

– Which frankly often bored me too even though I was teaching.• I told some pretty sick jokes to keep us all awake, and the ISD crowd

was laughing like crazy – too much laughter in my dull mind…• After a while, they offered me a glass of water – odd, but I had

been talking so much, I took a sip, and, wow, it was pure vodka!!!• So much for my ego about my jokes and great presentations…

The “Beige Manuals”• Any fellow oldies out there might remember SMS’ excellent set of

user manual, bound in handsome beige binders, my pride & joy!– (Remember, I was a frustrated English major at SMS…)

• They had chapters covering:– Sample reports, with distribution– Transaction by card code & column– Master file set-up instructions– Profile option & their implications– Even a controls & balancing section!

• Pictured on the right is Census– From my dusty garage shelf…– We gave them to the ISD gang,

who they seemed impressed:– One of the few things SMS

had done better than AHS!

Most Intoxicating Subject• The ISD gang seemed most interested in Phil Jackson’s class on:

– Four Phase Minis – Phil headed up SMS’ “ACTIon” team, formed when Harvey bought rights to Walt Huff’s MedPro OE/RR.

– The ISD crowd probably wished they had been bought by HBO rather than SMS, as the whole world was going turnkey minis...

• SMS actually had two variants of ACTion (thanks to ex-SMSer Mike Cassidy for these details):

- ACTION 200, 400, and 600 - all of which were based on MedPro, ran on Four Phase minis; depending on hospital size, had ADT only or ADT + Order Entry + Results Reporting.  

- ACTION 1100 and 1500 – developed by SMS’ programmers, which ran on DEC PDP-11 minis at first, later supplanted by VAX “maxi-minis.”

• Bill Brehm seemed especially interest in these sessions (he barely hit the water pitchers…)

Exeunt Stage Right• So the class ended and the ISD gang went back to their regions:

– Gerry Mathys to the Midwest (later became president of Sentry Data)– Craig Leathers & Art Harris to SF (Art later joined AMI PHS’ PatCom)– Marv Cadwell back to the east coast (in the late 90’s became CEO of SMS!)– Bill Brehm back to his beloved south land (away from the damn Yankees!)

• SMS probably gained more from this infusion of brainpower than the scores of ISD hospital clients, who they soon converted!

• Circa 1979, Bill Brehm bolted SMS, teaming with some guy named Urban Gerber from Louisville, an equally smart & charming rebel.

- Urban had the vision of building a full financial system on a mini to compete/ complement HBO’s MedPro clinicals…

- And Bill Brehm had the detailed design in all those beautiful beige manuals we gave him (at least that’s the story I heard!?)

New Mini Entrant

• 16-bit memory and CISC processor,• HP’s proprietary dbms called Image,• And “MPE” Operating System.

First Introduced in 1973, this amazing mini had a production run lasting 30 years, before being phased out for HP’s “e3000” in 2003. Support for HP 3000s was still being offered as of December, 2010!

• Urban had a predilection for a new hardware mini in HIS:• Hewlett Packard – a monster firm in technology, famous for

its engineering-centric world of cubicles only (no offices!)

- Even for founders Messrs. Hewlett & Packard themselves…• Their mini entrant was the HP 3000, new to healthcare, with:

Birth of “IFAS”• Gerber Brehm & Associates (GBA) named their HIS:

– Integrated Financial & Administrative System – IFAS for short.– It contained all the financial modules in SMS’ beige manuals:

• Patient Accounting – ADT, Billing, Account Receivable, Bad Debt…• General Accounting – AP, GL, PR, HR, MM (“ERP” to moderns…)

– Being southern boys, they soon met Walt Huff of HBO circa 1982, who by then had moved from Peoria to “Hot-lanta.”

– As would be the case for the next few decades, HBO bought Gerber/Brehm (their version of “R&D”!) to round out MedPro,

– Which lacked precisely the financial & admin apps in IFAS!– Now a hospital could buy a total HIS on (2) minis from HBO!

• Allowing HBO to compete with DCC, DATX, JS Data, et al.– HBO sold IFAS to hundreds of hospitals, many with MedPro,

displacing many SMS & McAuto shared financial clients.

Sound Familiar?• Remember how Walt Huff left OSF with HFC for McAuto:

– He moved from Peoria to St. Louis with Barrington & Owens, setting up HSD’s huge shared system empire that battled SMS.

– Ever the leading-edge pioneer, Walt joined Mac’s “HDC” team, building an Order/Results system on a DEC/Four Phase combo

– Walt, Bruce & Dick thought the Four Phase could do it alone without the added cost and complexity of a DEC “back-end.”

– So Walt left in one, formed HBO and proved it could be done! • When Urban Gerber joined HBO, he

wanted to keep developing on HP, but the HBO guys insisted on DG minis,

• Having started on “ClinStar,” MedPro’s successor, and had no interest in HP.

• So Urban left Walt in a huff (oooh…)

“Get Back in the Alley…”• Urban left HBO along with

Terry Alley, who had worked with him on IFAS at GBA.

• Terry was an equally bright & talented techie, and he and Urban took a year off to let their non-competes expire,

• Then started Gerber-Alley in a rented office with about 10 original employees, including– Terry’s wife Michelle as keypuncher!

• Stay tuned for Part II next week!

So Where Did Bill Brehm Go?• I couldn’t shake this guy! After selling GBA to HBO, Bill bought

several shrimp boats in his beloved Louisiana, and left the HIS industry for a while, hooked on decidedly low-tech fishing…

• But after a few years, ho got bored, and joined McAuto in 1981;• Here’s the only shot I have of Bill, at a McAuto Managers’ meeting:• Recognize any

of these other faces? They were the heart of McAuto (and any vendor!) the middle-managers who got “IT” done!

McAuto Middle-Manager Hall of Fame• Here’s the “who-who” of McAuto’s field managers circa 1981:

(Saving a picture is one thing, remembering names is another!)

John SullivanOne of the Mac originals!

Gary Veinhaus(SP?) CSR heavy

Joe MasonMidwest Maven

Stephanie MassengillStill going strong today!

Yours TrulyUgly one of the bunch!

Charlie KeanSoutheast Mgr

Jim PesceNE CSR Mgr

Joe Kessel NE Sales

Larry EvansSE Sales

Support Guru

Jud ForemanSMS turncoatlike me, ran

West coast sales

Did I Finally Shake Bill Brehm?• Not quite! In an upcoming episode

of HIS-tory, I’ll confess one of my most dastardly deeds: selling an HIS system that didn’t exist!

• Where? Well, you’ve heard about “Selling the Brooklyn Bridge?”

• Well, I headed the sales team for a non-existing IBM mainframe system from Brooklyn…

• I left after 2 years, and guess who stepped in to fill my shoes?

• You guessed it: Bill Brehm!

Thanks In Advance…• Gerber Alley seems to be one of the closest knit bunch of

veterans in HIS-tory, equal to SMS and Saint! Thanks to:– Mr. HIStalk who found a LinkedIn connection for them:

• http://www.linkedin.com/groupsDirectory?itemaction=mclk&anetid=2784299&impid=&pgkey=anet_search_results&actpref=anetsrch_name&trk=anetsrch_name&goback=.gdr_1314098789592

• And many G-A veterans still in HIS who relayed the gory details:

• Karen See – G-A’s Marketing Director, who trusted me with precious original ads & brochures, now with Clarity Close

• Brian Robson – sent emails and told stories with tons of details on early GBA and G-A days – now with HP.

• Karl Kiss – 10th person hired by G-A in 1984, filled my ears with great stories – he’s now Siemens’ Southeast Regional VP

Help for Part II of Gerber-Alley!?• Thanks again to the many G-A veterans who sent emails:

– Gary Lakin – with MS in Australia hooked me up with G/A vets– Gary Salazar – VP at Merge, who volunteered more connections– Mark Edelstein – 10th employee in ‘84, now VP at Relay Health– Brian Curnutt – corrected my “Irwin” boo-boo into “Urban!”

• Only help that would be great is if anyone has pictures of Urban?– Have tons of shots of Mike Brown, later CEO, who was a

photographer at heart (runs a camera shop now!), but poor Urban who built the whole thing and passed away much to early in 1984 remains jpeg/tiff anonymous…

• Please send any contributions to: vciott@hispros.com