Health Informatics News

White Paper Offers Guidelines for IT-Supported Medical Home Posted: 28 Apr 2009 08:02 AM PDT The Washington, D.C.-based Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC) has issued a white paper identifying the capabilities and functionalities of eHealth applications that experts consider crucial to support the patient-centered medical home (PCMH).   The paper, entitled, Meaningful Connections: A resource guide for using health IT to support the patient centered medical home, aims to guide the development and implementation of health IT in a direction that supports the overarching principles of the PCMH, says the organization. Rather than focusing on specific products or vendors, it speaks in global terms about the capabilities and functionalities needed to build an information platform that will enable improvements in quality, safety, effectiveness and access, says PCPCC.   The document identifies five capabilities that map directly to the needs of the connected PCMH model:   ·          Ability to collect, store, manage and exchange relevant personal health information; ·          Ability of providers, patients and other members of a person’s health team to communicate among themselves and in the process of care delivery; ·          Ability to collect, store, measure and report on the processes and outcomes of individual and population performance and quality of care; ·          Ability of providers and their practices to engage in decision support for evidence-based treatments and tests; and ·          Ability of consumers and patients to be informed, literate about their health and medical conditions and appropriately self-manage with monitoring and coaching from providers.   The paper was produced by Health2 Resources and funded through a grant by Merck. To download it, visit www.pcpcc.net .   PCPCC is a coalition of more than 400 major employers, consumer groups, organizations representing primary care physicians, and other stakeholders who have joined to advance the patient centered medical home.

HIMSS Defines ‘Meaningful Use’ Posted: 28 Apr 2009 07:57 AM PDT The Chicago-based Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) has published its definitions of ‘meaningful use of certified EHR technologies,’ as outlined in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Definitions were provided both for both meaningful users of certified EHR technologies, and for meaningful use for hospitals to the National Coordinator of Health IT and the Acting CMS Commissioner, within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Approved by the HIMSS Board of Directors, the definitions resulted from consensus-building effort with input from HIMSS members as well as the public. Recommendations for meaningful use include the following: ·          To ensure continuity, recognize CCHIT as the certifying body of EHRs. ·          To achieve incremental maturation of “meaningful use,” adopt metrics that can be reasonably captured and reported beginning in FY11/2011, and then made increasingly stringent using intervals of not less than two years. HIMSS’ definitions include specific metrics to enact, in phases, over a multi-year period ·          To bridge existing gaps in interoperability of health information, coordinate with HITSP and IHE to create new harmonized standards and implementation guides. ·          Reconcile the gap between “certified EHR technologies,” “best of breed,” and “open source” technologies.   ARRA calls for multiple years of Medicare incentive payments to hospitals and physicians who meet the requirements of “meaningful use of certified EHR technology.” To be eligible for incentive payments, hospitals and physicians must use the technology in a meaningful manner, exchange electronic health information to improve the quality of care, and submit clinical quality measures as indicated by the Secretary of HHS. Hospitals and physicians must also meet the definition within a specified time frame, which, as described in ARRA , must be made increasingly stringent over time by the Secretary.             Please visit the HIMSS Web site for more information on the definition for meaningful use of technology in hospitals , the definition for meaningful users of EHR technology , and the HIMSS letter sent to ONC and CMS.

C2C, BridgeHead Unite to Offer Email Archiving Solution Posted: 28 Apr 2009 07:55 AM PDT United Kingdom-based C2C and Woburn, Mass.-based BridgeHead Software are partnering to offer a single solution for healthcare data archiving and management that will incorporate email archiving into a system that accommodates files, scanned documents, DICOM images and Microsoft SharePoint data. As part of the agreement, the two companies are integrating C2C’s Archive One for Exchange email archiving product into BridgeHead’s healthcare archiving and data management suite in order to enable organizations to reduce storage costs, enhance the disaster recovery process and create a single secure and protected data source, they say.   The solution, which will be sold as BH MailStore, and will be available exclusively through BridgeHead’s Value Added Reseller partners worldwide.

UHS Integrates Acute and Outpatient Care Posted: 27 Apr 2009 10:36 AM PDT United Hospital System (UHS) in Kenosha, Wis., has selected Atlanta-headquartered Eclipsys Corp. ’s suite of solutions. According to Eclipsys, in an effort to enhance both acute and outpatient care, the regional healthcare system chose clinical, ambulatory and performance management solutions. Eclipsys says UHS will implement its Sunrise Enterprise clinical solutions — Sunrise Clinical Manager, Sunrise Pharmacy, Sunrise Critical Care, Sunrise Emergency Care, Knowledge-Based Medication Administration and Knowledge-Based Charting. The clinical applications reside on its Eclipsys XA extended architecture platform, along with the PeakPractice PM practice management solution, it says. By transitioning from disparate information systems to an integrated technology platform that extends into the emergency department and outpatient settings, the company claims UHS can expect to see expanded, enterprise-wide clinical workflows and a seamless care environment. United Hospital System is a comprehensive regional healthcare system that has served southeastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois communities for more than 100 years. UHS provides services primarily through the Kenosha Medical Center Campus and the St. Catherine’s Medical Center Campus and several other clinic locations.

CDC testing FL flu samples Posted:  4/28/2009 © Orlando Sentinel State health officials have sent samples from several influenza patients in Florida -- including, reportedly, a Mexican tourist at Walt Disney World being treated at Florida Hospital -- to CDC for testing. It takes 48 hours for CDC to determine whether a patient has swine flu.  See also The Miami Herald's report on travelers canceling plans.

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