Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Health Informatics News

Health Informatics News

Oregon Network Upgrades EMR

Posted: 13 Apr 2010 07:21 AM PDT

Providence Health & Services ’ Oregon-based health system is upgrading to U.K.-based GE Healthcare ’s Centricity EMR platform in all seven of its hospitals and clinics. According to the company, the Centricity EMR software provides workflow-based interoperability by creating a single record of problems, allergies, and medications across disparate applications. By embedding standards-based protocols, Centricity EMR aggregates and translates information from disparate systems to form a complete patient picture, it touts. Providence’s Oregon-based facilities, as well as outside local clinicians using Centricity EMR, will continue to collect, share and access patient data through a standards-based health information exchange that can be used across the system. Providence Health & Services is a not-for-profit health system serving communities in Alaska, Washington, Montana, Oregon and California. The system includes 27 hospitals, more than 35 non-acute facilities, physician clinics, a health plan, a liberal arts university, a high school, approximately 49,000 employees and numerous other health, housing and educational services.  

Summit Health Deploys ICD-10 Simulator

Posted: 13 Apr 2010 07:20 AM PDT

Summit Health (Chambersburg, Pa.), the non-profit parent organization of Chambersburg Hospital and Waynesboro Hospital, is implementing Reston, Va.-based QuadraMed Corp. ’s Quantim ICD-10 Coding Simulator to help coders prepare for the transition to ICD-10. Quantim ICD-10 is a component of the ICD-10 Countdown Program, a solution that duplicates the ICD-10 coding environment for accelerated training and practice purposes, according to the company. The Countdown Program includes an avatar-based, e-Learning tutorial that provides real-world scenarios to help coders get up to speed on the application. The Simulator comes with embedded coding guidelines, ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS code books, and general equivalence mapping bi-directional translation capabilities, it says. Summit Health is the south-central Pennsylvania region’s primary healthcare provider and largest non-governmental employer. Its services include family physicians, surgeons, specialists, diagnostic services, a women’s health center, a fitness center, and two hospitals.  

Despite Low Adoption, Study Finds PHRs Can Improve Health

Posted: 13 Apr 2010 07:15 AM PDT

Patients who access health information through personal health records (PHRs) report that they know more about their health, ask more questions, and take better care of themselves than when data is accessed only by paper records, according to a study released by the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF, Oakland). According to the survey, one in 14 Americans has used a PHR, which is double the number of users from a year earlier, and one in three respondents say they used the PHR to take a specific action to improve their health. Research shows that the benefits of PHR use are most valued in patients with multiple chronic conditions, less education, and lower incomes — populations that have been difficult for providers to engage. Privacy, however, is still somewhat of a barrier. Many of those surveyed expressed concern that their health information could be used by employers, health insurance plans, or others, and one third said they would consider hiding some information from their provider because of that fear. Still, two-thirds of those surveyed said privacy concerns should not stand in the way of learning how technology can help improve health care. The survey of 1,849 people was conducted by Lake Research Partners between December 18, 2009 and January 15, 2010. To view the full survey findings, visit www.chcf.org .  

St. Joseph’s Goes Wireless

Posted: 13 Apr 2010 07:10 AM PDT

St. Joseph Health System (Bryan, Texas) is deploying Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Meru Networks, Inc. ’s wireless LAN (WLAN) solutions to support critical care applications throughout its network of hospitals and clinics. As part of an effort to improve patient care and increase efficiency, the health system is also implementing Meditech bedside patient registration and medication administration carts, Ascom voice applications for nurse call systems, and Meru’s EzRF Location Manager for asset tracking throughout the four main hospitals. The rollout includes Meru’s Service Assurance Manager, which provides monitoring of the network 24x7 to identify potential problems. St. Joseph’s 300-bed network includes facilities across the Brazos Valley. It has approximately 2,500 employees and services more than 18,000 patients yearly.  

HHS Awards $267 for RECs

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 07:56 AM PDT

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is awarding more than $267 million to 28 additional non-profit organizations to establish Health Information Technology Regional Extension Centers (RECs), which enable healthcare professionals to reach out to a local resource for technical assistance, guidance, and information on best practices. This round of awards, which brings the total number of RECs to 60, will provide nationwide outreach and technical support services to at least 100,000 primary care providers and hospitals within two years, according to HHS. More than $375 million had been awarded earlier to RECs under this program. Additionally, all REC awardees can now apply for a two-year expansion supplemental award, which would ensure that health IT support services are available to more than 2,000 critical access hospitals and rural hospitals. Approximately $25 million is available through this supplemental expansion program, it says. For a list of the 28 organizations receiving funds, click here . For a complete listing of REC grant recipients and additional information about the Regional Extension Centers, see http://HealthIT.hhs.gov/programs/REC/.  

Best-Practices Library Created to Help EHR Implementations

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 07:51 AM PDT

Leaders from 160 not-for-profit hospitals teamed up to launch an EHR Meaningful Use Implementation best-practices library to help organizations implement electronic records. The library was developed as part of the Charlotte, N.C.-based Premier healthcare alliance Health Information Technology (HIT) Collaborative. According to Premier, the library offers actionable guidance designed to help providers meet the meaningful use objectives outlined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Led by Bill Spooner, CIO at Sharp HealthCare, and and Craig Richardville, CIO for the Carolinas HealthCare System (CHS) in Charlotte, N.C., the initiative features specific instruction on ways to speed implementation of CPOE; medication management; clinical documentation; reporting of measures; privacy; information exchange; and management of populations’ health and personal health records. Best practices also include strategies for securing executive leadership, culture change, communication and support for clinicians, it says.  

Study: Relaxing Meaningful Use Key to EMR Industry Growth

Posted: 09 Apr 2010 08:37 AM PDT

Relaxing meaningful use standards, as some industry leaders are urging HHS to do, would be a boon to the EMR industry, according to the New York-based research firm, Kalorama Information . In its latest report — EMR 2010 (Market Analysis, ARRA Incentives, Key Players, and Important Trends) — the firm predicts a $13.8 billion market that could grow in double digits if properly driven by incentives and encouragement of health systems.  While the authors of the report believe some requirements of CPOE adoption are needed to bolster EMR usage, they also believe that requiring 80 percent of orders via CPOE by 2011, or that half of patients get auto-reminders through an EMR system, is a possible barrier to the sales of EMR systems. The report also the largest obstacle to EMR use in the U.S. is physician compliance, noting that for EMR to grow in the way the federal government envisions, healthcare systems will have to develop incentives of their own, something that might be in jeopardy if standards are not easier to follow. For more information or to purchase the report, please click here .  

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.

Outbreak nurse still has license

Posted:

By Marty Clear 4/13/2010 Health News Florida The nurse who apparently infected seven patients in the Tampa Bay area with hepatitis C still has her Florida nursing license, and therefore may still be practicing. But where? There's no way of knowing because state health officials will not identify her.  
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