Monday, February 8, 2010

Health Informatics News

Health Informatics News

Appalachian Regional Rolls Out Enterprise Software Solution

Posted: 05 Feb 2010 08:17 AM PST

Appalachian Regional Healthcare System (Boone, N.C.) completed an organization-wide deployment of St. Paul, Minn.-based Lawson ’s QuickStep Healthcare. The enterprise software package, which was implemented in less than six months, includes the Lawson Business Intelligence, Human Resource Management, Enterprise Financial Management and Supply Chain Management suites. According to Lawson, the health system is its first customer to complete a system-wide deployment of Lawson Point of Use, which helps automate the supply chain, financial and patient billing processes connected with chargeable patient supplies. Appalachian Regional Healthcare System is a 262-bed health system that includes three hospitals: Blowing Rock Hospital, Charles A. Cannon, Jr. Memorial Hospital and Watauga Medical Center.

Concerro Purchases RES-Q

Posted: 04 Feb 2010 06:14 AM PST

San Diego-based Concerro, Inc. , a Software-as-a-Service company, has acquired RES-Q Healthcare Systems (Calabasas, Calif.), a provider of staff/nurse scheduling software. RES-Q President Michael Meisel will join Concerro’s executive management team as vice president of product management and marketing, says the company. Concerro will continue to support RES-Q’s product suite of resource management and scheduling software, which includes applications for personnel management, enterprise-wide employee scheduling and staffing, surgery department management and case scheduling, patient acuity classification and productivity management and reporting. All RES-Q employees and its office will be retained, it says.

IBM to Acquire Initiate Systems

Posted: 04 Feb 2010 06:09 AM PST

Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Initiate Systems , a vendor of data integrity software for information sharing among healthcare and government organizations.   Initiate Systems is a privately held company based in Chicago, and marks the 30th acquisition IBM has made to advance its capabilities in information and analytics. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory clearance and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2010. IBM intends to integrate the Initiate organization with its Information Management business after the closing.  Financial details were not disclosed.

SunCrest Signs Philips for Telehealth

Posted: 04 Feb 2010 06:06 AM PST

SunCrest Healthcare, Inc. , a regional provider of home health, private duty, companion care and therapy services based in Nashville, Tenn. has selected Philips (Andover, Mass.) to provide telehealth monitors for its home care patients. According to the company, Suncrest will use the service to remotely monitor patients with chronic diseases. Telemonitoring equipment will be installed in patient homes, enabling patients, caregivers and nurses to daily monitor weight, blood pressure and other vital signs, it says.

Banner Health Gets Web-based Labor Solution

Posted: 04 Feb 2010 06:01 AM PST

Phoenix-based Banner Health is expanding its relationship with the Premier (Charlotte, N.C.) healthcare alliance to include its Web-based labor benchmarking solution. According to Premier, its LaborConnect program is an integrated product and service offering that combines productivity, benchmarking, management engineering and executive consulting. The program is aimed at addressing the pressing labor challenges facing hospitals and healthcare organizations today, it adds. All 22 hospitals in the Banner system will utilize the program. Banner Health’s facilities offer an array of services including hospital care, home care, hospice care, nursing registries, surgery centers, laboratories and rehabilitation services. These facilities are located in seven states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming.

New Career Development Site Launched

Posted: 04 Feb 2010 05:57 AM PST

HealthcareITCentral.com , an online career center based in Fayetteville, Ark., has launched HealthcareITToday.com, a blogging channel that will focus exclusively on healthcare IT workforce and career development topics and discussions. The site features posts from the HITT SQUAD, a team of industry experts who provide an insider’s look at all aspects of healthcare IT workforce and career development, according to CEO Gwen Darling, who is also a writer and blogger for Healthcare Informatics . HealthcareITToday.com was created to provide answers for professionals who are either already working in healthcare IT and looking for a new opportunity, or are interested in becoming part of the industry, according to Darling. In addition to providing insight into the best way for candidates or employers to approach topics such as sourcing, recruiting, interviews, resumes, and career development, the HITT SQUAD will cover content such as educational options, social media strategies, and available job opportunities. Also featured on the site are: Tim Tolan, a senior executive search consultant who specializes in healthcare IT (and is also a blogger for HCI); Jacob Rhoades, the director of talent management for a healthcare IT staffing firm; Erin Kennedy, a certified resume writer; Shirley Corsey, an EPIC consultant and online EMR trainer; Joe Lavelle, a consulting executive and business coach; and Joshua Waldman, a social media consultant and trainer.

AT&T Launches Mobile Paging for Healthcare

Posted: 03 Feb 2010 07:25 AM PST

Dallas-based AT&T is teaming with Toronto-based Wallace Wireless , Inc. to offer Wallace Information Communicator (WIC) Pager, a premium group alert notification solution for hospitals and healthcare organizations to help address their productivity, security and coverage needs. According to the company, the solution provides tightly integrated communication between healthcare professionals and hospital departments by enabling centralized administration, group notification and real-time delivery statuses identifying when alerts have been sent, received, opened and responded to.

Survey: Privacy compliance has declined

Posted: 14 May 2006 01:56 AM PDT

Three years after federal rules governing the privacy of patients' medical records went into effect, compliance seems to have declined for 6 percent, according to an annual survey conducted by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). Read more about this at here.

E-book: Making E-Health Work

Posted: 14 May 2006 01:53 AM PDT

E-Health has become an integral part of present-day healthcare delivery. With healthcare consumers, increasingly the focus of most health systems, the widespread implementation of health information and communications technologies offers cost-effective opportunities to meet their increasingly sophisticated healthcare needs.Bankix Systems Ltd has released its latest e-book. It is a 200-page in-depth analysis of the issues involved in "Making E-Health Work," the e-book's title. Read more about this e-book at here.

Consumer tools: UCompareHealthCare Offers Free Reports on Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Physicians

Posted: 11 Mar 2006 01:01 AM PST

"UCompareHealthCare has just unveiled its Web site, ucomparehealthcare.com, which features free reports on the nation's nursing homes, hospitals and physicians to help consumers make informed healthcare decisions. I checked the web site and found it very informative for health consumers to help them make informed decision about their choices of doctors, hospitals and others." Read more about this at UCompareHealthCare

Articles: Direct to Consumer: Women are a powerful, but untapped, audience

Posted: 03 Feb 2006 12:04 AM PST

"Women influence many family decisions—from choosing what's for dinner to selecting the medications their children take. In fact, nearly two-thirds of women are responsible for family healthcare decisions, according to a 2004 national survey conducted by Plan for Your Health. Many women also assume the care-giving role outside their nuclear families. Today's middle-aged woman may also look after her parents and in-laws too, often determining how long they can live on their own and how to best care for them. In addition, she often influences the important health decisions of grandchildren, co-workers, and friends." Read more at PharmExec.

Consumer tools: Really Personal PHRs

Posted: 27 Jan 2006 01:05 AM PST

"If we're committed to fostering the adoption of personal health records, we should take a page out of the consumer marketing textbooks — not the primers of health IT marketers. This was my conclusion after attending a recent meeting in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Markle Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Agency for Healthcare Quality Research and Quality. " Read more about this at iHealthBeat .

Consumer trends: Manhattan Predicts Online Health Trends

Posted: 27 Jan 2006 12:06 AM PST

"US healthcare specialist Manhattan Research has published a summary of the major trends for health and pharmaceutical marketers to consider in 2006. The trends chart the increased use of the web and other new technologies as a health information and communication tool for both patients and physicians." Read more at Daily Research News Online.

News: Wall Street Journal Looks at Tools That Identify Low-Cost Care Options

Posted: 26 Jan 2006 01:07 AM PST

"The Wall Street Journal on Thursday looked at efforts by insurers to provide patients with tools - including a cell phone Web browsing service - to help them find low-cost treatment options. Lumenos, a unit of WellPoint, in February will launch the cell phone service, which lets patients type drug names into their cell phones' Web browsers and get lists of lower-cost alternatives. The program is designed so that patients can ask their physicians about cost-effective alternatives while they still are at their appointments." Read more at iHealthBeat.

Consumer tools: Consumer Health Complete Now Available from EBSCO Publishing

Posted: 25 Jan 2006 12:09 AM PST

"In continuing with the company's goal of providing the most comprehensive collection of online health and wellness resources, EBSCO Publishing has announced the release of Consumer Health Complete (CHC). This full text database is designed to support consumer and patients' information needs as well as foster an overall
understanding of health-related topics." Read more at Managing Information News.

Some defend DOH secrecy

Posted:

By Carol Gentry
2/8/2010 © Health News Florida 
The state Department of Health's decision to withhold information on its consumer web site about pending actions against health professionals -- including arrests -- is entirely appropriate, say attorneys who defend doctors. Their reaction was quite different from that of the public.
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