Archive for March, 2010
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0 Safety and Security in Health IT: Interview with Chris Drake, CEO of FireHost
Mar 31, 2010. Health Information Technology.While at HIMSS10, it was clear that the Health IT movement is progressing. Now that many major hospital systems and larger group physician practices have adopted EHR systems, how is their digitized health information going to move through the larger healthcare system? The HIMSS10 Interoperability Showcase focused on answering this very question. Vendors and other companies are now looking into creating the health information highway, so health information can leave silos and be seamlessly transported between healthcare entities and delivery systems.
However, with this advancement in Health IT interoperability and exchange, more questions about safety and security of Health IT arise. Many companies have emerged to offer services that will securely and safely share and exchange digitized health data.
One of these companies is FireHost, and I had the opportunity to speak with FireHost’s CEO, Chris Drake. Firehost is a secure web hosting company that provides affordable hosting solutions with enterprise level security to companies of all sizes. FireHost is heavily involved in the Health IT, as the security and privacy of digitized health information is an issue at the forefront of the national push for an interoperable health IT infrastructure. Chris spoke about some of the critical issues facing Health IT security with the growing popularity of web-based EHR systems.
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0 Richard Yonis Interviews Rohit Nayak, Vice President of Physician Technology Solutions at MedPlus
Mar 31, 2010. Health Information Technology.At HIMSS10, Richard Yonis, Executive Producer for EHRtv, had the pleasure of speaking with Rohit Nayak, Vice President of Physician Technology Solutions at MedPlus, the healthcare information technology subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics. Specifically, they had the opportunity to discuss how MedPlus’ unique market approach is bringing tremendous success to the company. Rohit shared that much of this success is attributed to MedPlus’ in-depth understanding of medical providers’ needs as digitization of electronic health data becomes more prevalent.
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0 Dr. Eric Fishman Featured on HIStalkPractice Blog
Mar 31, 2010. Health Information Technology.We will be hearing much more about Regional Extension Centers in the next few months. The HIStalkPractice Blog recently ran post, where 11 HIT vendor executives answered this question:
Now that the ONC has announced the initial grants for Regional Extension Centers, what will be the effect on EHR selection and implementation for both the industry and your company in particular?
Dr. Eric Fishman’s response is featured here.
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0 HHS Proposes Best Practices for EHR Security Breach Reporting
Mar 30, 2010. Health Information Technology.HHS is focusing its efforts on developing standards for handling security breaches of electronic health information. The Adoption/Certification Workgroup of the HHS Health Information Technology Policy Committee advisory workgroup has developed a draft proposal that outlines best practices for electronic reporting of patient safety hazards and near misses.
This draft proposal encourages physicians and hospitals to adopt an electronic reporting system for health information security breaches. It also encourages patients to be involved and to report errors, omissions and other mistakes in their health records. The recommendations involve EHR vendors as well, suggesting that they enhance EHR functionality so that “feedback” buttons can be used to quickly report data problems when using the EHR systems.
These best practices are expected to be included in the second phase of “meaningful use” of EHR systems, starting in the fiscal year 2013. The workgroup stated that the goal for incorporating these standards is to establish a “patient-centered” approach to health IT safety. This patient-centered approach would include confidential reporting, liability protections, whistle-blower protections, patients engaged in the system and transparency.
Click here for the original article and a link to the draft proposal.
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0 EHRtv Interview with Fraser Edward, Manager, Market Development – Healthcare at Research In Motion
Mar 26, 2010. Health Information Technology.Richard Yonis, Executive Producer for EHRtv, had the pleasure of speaking with Fraser Edward, Manager, Market Development – Healthcare at Research In Motion, at HIMSS 2010. Specifically, they had the opportunity to discuss RIM and how they are helping providers with communication and remote connectivity issues.
BlackBerry adoption has dramatically increased as technology, according to Fraser, is now “fun and functional”. Voice and text are now being used together to further the use and effectiveness of the BlackBerry solution. Fraser expressed that much of the success and adoption of BlackBerry was based on the BlackBerry Enterprise Server’s successful password and encryption technology which helps enable BlackBerry smartphone use in a HIPPA compliant environment. The BlackBerry enterprise solutions’ ability to manage privacy allow HIT vendors to deploy their solutions easily. RIM’s products are gentle on network bandwidth, making them extremely friendly to HIT.
According to Fraser, RIM is experiencing great success with its recent project affiliation with University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), through which doctors are receiving important patient information directly on their BlackBerry smartphones. The ability of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server to support multiple enterprise solutions for messaging, PBX and on-demand access to EHR data increases vendor and provider utilization, bringing technology and communication together for the benefit of the patient.
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0 EHRtv Interview with Brett Furst, Vice President of Healthcare for Covisint
Mar 25, 2010. Health Information Technology.At HIMSS10 in Atlanta, Eric Fishman, MD interviewed Brett Furst, Vice President of Healthcare for Covisint. Mr. Furst discussed Covisint’s web-based ‘cloud computing’ services. Covisint provides one uniform platform as a service to merge different applications within the ‘cloud’ to enhance interoperability and messaging of information pertinent to healthcare. Mr. Furst explained how Covisint’s ‘app cloud’ can help physicians assess lab data, disease registries, radiology/imaging, and other personal health information data. In addition, Covisint’s platform is also useful to health system administrators, with capabilities to capture data for revenue cycle management, as one example. Dr. Fishman and Mr. Furst also talked about Covisint’s recent partnerships with the AMA and AT&T. With these partnerships, Covisint’s platform as a service will assist both the AMA and AT&T promote Health IT and their individual products/services.
Find the full video interview here: http://www.ehrtv.com/covisint-brett-furst-mar-2010/
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0 Top 10 reasons to adopt an EHR early
Mar 18, 2010. Today.Despite the vast amount of money the federal government is offering as incentives, physicians are still not purchasing electronic health records (EHRs). Although EHRs offer many benefits, physicians as a group seem to be more risk-averse than motivated by gains. Many feel the consequences of purchasing an EHR that does not meet meaningful use requirements outweighs any benefits of early adoption.
However, it is in the best interest of every EHR vendor to make sure their software is compliant. There is no reason to believe any reputable system will fail to meet meaningful use requirements. With that in mind, we have compiled a list of top ten reasons why physicians should put aside their fears and adopt early.
- Physicians see a 25% increase in revenue due to appropriate E&M coding, industry wide.
- Insurance providers offer discounts up to 10% for purchasing an EHR with e-prescribing and order management.
- EHRs can save about $24,000 per year by reducing costs associated with paper, including materials and labor.
- Electronic prescribing can save lives. Every year 1.5 million people become sick, injured, or killed from misread handwritten prescriptions.
- EHRs allows you to document encounters in real time, eliminating the need to stay late catching up on your work.
- EHRs can save about $30,000 per year on dictation and transcription costs.
- EHRs eliminate illegible medical histories. Currently 15% of all histories are illegible.
- Order management can help your patients follow up on labs and procedures, which improves care and reduces your malpractice liability.
- EHRs allow you to backup and preserve data against catastrophes like fires or floods, which is impossible to do with paper charts.
- Electronic prescribing checks formulary eligibility for drugs – saving you the time and hassle of pharmacy call-backs.
These are just some of the many benefits EHRs can offer your practice. The longer physicians delay EHR implementation, the longer they forego these benefits. In these days of declining patient volumes and falling reimbursements, it makes sense to run a more efficient, healthy practice. After all, if physicians want to help their patients, they first have to ensure their own practice is healthy and strong.
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0 Ingenix Consulting’s Clinical Performance Management Services
Mar 17, 2010. Press Releases.Advanced Data Analytics, Clinical Consulting Expertise Enable Health Care Providers to Identify and Remedy Challenges to Delivering Better Quality and Patient Outcomes
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn., – March 16, 2010 – Ingenix Consulting has launched Clinical Performance Management Services, a new program that helps hospitals, health systems and physicians leverage underutilized clinical data to identify and remove barriers to better patient health and financial performance
Clinical Performance Management Services gives hospitals the tools they need to develop key performance metrics, benchmark against national trends and improve processes. Specific capabilities include:
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0 Reality EHRtv
Mar 15, 2010. Insight.Have you ever wondered what a real EHR implementation looks like? View the Reality EHRtv series on EHRtv.com to gain insider access into a live EHR implementation.
The IT Role in the Implementation Process: http://www.ehrtv.com/realityehrtv_it/
The “Office Tour” in Preparation for Going Paperless: http://www.ehrtv.com/realityehrtv_tour/
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0 Trouble on the Health Information Highway: VA Closes Off Access to the Defense Department's EHR System
Mar 8, 2010. Government Initiatives, Health Information Technology.Early last week, the Department of Veterans Affairs found errors in some patients’ medical data that clinicians downloaded from the Defense network. While these errors were not linked to any adverse events, such errors are raising flags that software glitches could compromise the accuracy of electronic medical records. Further, such inaccuracies in patient records could have serious implications for the planned National Health Information Infrastructure.
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