Health Informatics News

NAHIT Offers Virtual Idea Exchange Posted: 16 Apr 2009 09:08 AM PDT The Chicago-based National Alliance for Health Information Technology (NAHIT) has developed written summaries and posted complete replays on its Web site for its Virtual Idea Exchanges (VIEs). VIEs are live online forums in which senior healthcare executives discuss their experiences in various aspects of planning and implementing health information technology to achieve strategic goals, with interchanges and questions from participating colleagues. The replays, summaries and registration for upcoming VIEs are available at www.nahit.org .

U.S. Transportation Command Deploys Patient Tracking Posted: 16 Apr 2009 09:05 AM PDT The United States Transportation Command (Scott Air Force Base, Ill.) is working with New York-based Information Builders to devise patient movement plans based on urgent medical needs, available facilities, in-transit visibility and enterprise-wide cost and performance analytics, it says. The deployment of a pervasive operational business intelligence system is designed to enable the Command to be more efficient in evacuation and care activities, minimizing suffering and improving care, says the company. Authorized users can generate detailed reports to monitor the status of patients from the beginning of transport to the outcome of treatment, potentially saving the lives of thousands of soldiers, it touts. The U.S. Transportation Command, working under the Department of Defense, is a joint command responsible for creating and implementing global asset deployment and distribution solutions.

DoD Pays Educational Visit to Cleveland Clinic Posted: 16 Apr 2009 08:45 AM PDT The Cleveland Clinic (Ohio) will host current and future healthcare decision-making leaders from the Army, Navy and Air Force as part of the Falls Church, Va.-based Military Health System ’s (MHS) Traveling Fellowship Program. According to the hospital, Cleveland Clinic was selected for its care model, patient-centered infrastructure, and emphasis on the patient experience. The hospital has also worked closely with the Department of Defense on various programs to benefit soldiers. The goal of the Fellowship program is to better prepare MHS senior leaders to discuss and collaborate with their colleagues in the civilian sector. Themes covered during the visit will include transformational leadership and culture, reengineered clinical and administrative processes and infrastructure. Earlier this week, the MHS Fellows were on site at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. A Department of Defense enterprise, MHS is a partnership of medical educators, researchers, and healthcare providers and their support personnel worldwide.

Ochsner Posts ER Wait Times Online Posted: 15 Apr 2009 08:06 AM PDT New Orleans-based Ochsner Medical Center is now posting online, real-time wait times for its four New Orleans area emergency rooms, thereby allowing patients the option to be treated more quickly at another Ochsner hospital for non-life-threatening conditions, it says. According to the organization, Ochsner is offering this information to patients in an effort to improve healthcare for the community and meet patients’ growing requests for information about their care. Ochsner Health System is a non-profit, academic health system that includes seven hospitals and more than over 35 health centers located throughout Southeast Louisiana. Ochsner employs more than 600 physicians in 80 medical specialties and subspecialties and more than 300 clinical research trials annually.

Sam’s Club Launches EMR Package Posted: 14 Apr 2009 10:55 AM PDT Sam’s Club, a division of Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , is partnering with eClinicalWorks (Westborough, Mass.) and Dell (Round Rock, Texas) to launch a turnkey EMR and practice management package targeted toward small physician practices.   According to the companies, the solution is designed to be scalable for growing practices. The eClinicalWorks software will be delivered through a Software as a Service model, enabling physicians to access the system via a secure Internet connection. Dell will provide hardware and site assessment, onsite technical set-up and training as well as integration of the eClinicalWorks software with the operating system, and hardware warranty support, they say.   The EMR package is now available in Virginia, Illinois and Georgia as part of a phased implementation, and is expected to be available to physicians nationwide this year, say the companies.   For more information about the package, healthcare professionals can visit www.samsclub.com/health or call 866-653-1933.

InSite One, IBM Partner to Expand Medical Imaging Data Capabilities Posted: 10 Apr 2009 06:57 AM PDT InSite One, Inc. , a cloud provider for medical image data archiving, storage, and disaster-recovery solutions based in Wallingford, Conn., is utilizing technologies from IBM (Armonk, N.Y.) to help healthcare facilities store and manage medical imaging data. According to InSite One, IBM is its vendor of choice for its primary datacenter expansion and storage device upgrades. Under terms of the agreement, the company is purchasing IBM storage and servers in its primary data center. Over the next few years, InSite One will also replace its existing storage and servers, with the total amount of storage purchased exceeding 1 petabyte, it says. The data center will use IBM System x Servers and DS3200 Storage systems. IBM and InSite One will also collaborate on client enterprise storage and archiving opportunities where InSite One sells its services and IBM sells its storage and   infrastructure solutions. The company expects the total value of the agreement to exceed $15 million.

Painkiller shortage triggers concern Posted: By Carol Gentry and David Gulliver 4/17/2009 © Health News Florida An FDA order has triggered a nationwide shortage of opium-based painkillers that has forced some cancer patients to search frantically for pharmacies that have it in stock and forced doctors to prescribe alternatives. Now some of those substitutes – morphine, hydromorphone, and Dilaudid – are about to become scarce as well.

Broward couple sentenced in Medicare fraud Posted: 3/17/2009 © Miami Herald David Hernandez's family business involved setting up shell companies to bill Medicare for non-existent equipment. Medicare patients made that easier by selling Hernandez the right to use their Medicare ID numbers.

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