Friday, May 14, 2010

Health Informatics News

Health Informatics News

Collaboration Extends eICU Telehealth Services to Rural Hospitals

Posted: 14 May 2010 08:27 AM PDT

As part of a growing trend, rural hospitals from across the country are collaborating with larger tertiary care facilities and independent critical care monitoring providers to bring eICU telehealth services and support to their local rural communities. Royal Philips Electronics (Stamford, Conn.) is supporting this trend and addressing clinician shortages by expanding access to critical care support in rural communities with the eICU® Program from Philips VISICU. According to the Office of Rural Health Policy, while nearly one-fourth of the US population resides in rural areas and approximately one-third of the country's hospitals are located in these communities, only one in ten physicians practice in rural America. The following hospitals have recently taken the initiative to partner with eICU service providers to increase patients’ access to critical care specialists in their local communities: Grinnell Regional Medical Center (Grinnell, Iowa) with Mercy Health Network - Mercy eICU® Connect (Des Moines, Iowa) Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center (Kodiak, Alaska) with Providence Alaska Medical Center - Providence eICU (Anchorage, Alaska) Union Hospital (Clinton, Ind.) with Advanced ICU Care (St. Louis, Mo.) Since implementing the eICU Program through Advanced ICU Care, Union Hospital has reduced ICU length of stay by 26 percent, allowing for an 18 percent increase in ICU admissions.

Cottage Implements Eclipsys for eHealth Partnership

Posted: 14 May 2010 08:08 AM PDT

The Atlanta-based  Eclipsys Corporation has announced that  Cottage Health System of Santa Babara, Calif., will utilize a combination of the company's ambulatory and health information exchange (HIE) solutions in support of its eHealth Partnership initiative to link participating community physicians with Cottage's Sunrise Enterprise inpatient technology environment. The eHealth Partnership will utilize Eclipsys' PeakPractice electronic medical record (EMR)/practice management (PM) solution, along with Eclipsys HealthXchange, powered by Medicity. In an effort to accelerate physician participation in the eHealth Partnership, Cottage will subsidize the purchase, maintenance and support of the PeakPractice EMR for medical staff members of the healthcare system. Participating in the initiative also will serve to aid both Cottage and local physicians in achieving the expected "Meaningful Use" criteria of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.

UPH Utilizes EmergisoftED

Posted: 14 May 2010 07:19 AM PDT

Arlington, Texas-based  Emergisoft has announced that the University Physicians Hospital (UPH) in Tucson, Arizona will implement Emergisoft ED , the company’s emergency department information system, with services including patient tracking, nursing and physician documentation, real-time management reporting, and discharge instructions. Emergisoft's emergency department software is a completely Web based solution that automates every step of the patient management and patient documentation process in the emergency department. With the implementation of Emergisoft ED , UPH hopes to streamline processes, increase patient care, and enable the hospital to meet meaningful use requirements for stimulus benefits under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. UPH is a nonprofit corporation created in 1985 as the medical practice of the physicians of the UA College of Medicine. Together, UPH, The University of Arizona, and University Medical Center combine to care for patients, educate medical students, train young physicians and conduct clinical research. With over 400 physicians and 2000 staff, UPH is Arizona's largest physicians group.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Publishes HCR Report

Posted: 13 May 2010 08:11 AM PDT

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute  (New York) has published a new report detailing the major changes that will occur in the healthcare industry under reform, and a resulting healthcare environment where current practices and markets may no longer be relevant. Health organizations will face more than 60 regulatory deadlines over the next 10 years, and while reform offers many opportunities to prosper from the new changes, executives will need to reassess their businesses, find new market prospects, and be willing to make allies of former adversaries. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ report, titled Health Reform: Prospering in a Post Reform World , outlines in detail the implications of reform for each of the health sectors, including insurance companies, hospitals, physicians and other providers, pharmaceutical companies and life sciences companies. Hospitals and physicians will find that payment will largely be based on quality of care; insurers will be more tightly regulated but have access to new customers through health exchanges; pharmaceutical companies will see new customers along with increased pricing pressures; and individuals and businesses will have to pay for or provide health coverage, or pay penalties. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the best opportunity to prosper will be at the cross-sector level. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Industries Group is an advisor to public and private organizations across the health industry, with a network of over 4,000 professionals worldwide.

Faith Regional Adopts Soarian

Posted: 12 May 2010 08:54 AM PDT

Siemens Healthcare  has announced that their longstanding customer, Faith Regional Health Services , has signed a new multi-year deal to begin migrating to Soarian, Siemens’ latest Healthcare Information System.  Denver Health and Wentworth-Douglass Hospital , two other Siemens customers, also have recently launched additional Soarian applications as part of their construction of an electronic health record. Faith Regional Health Services aims to have all of its physicians utilizing computerized physician order entry in conjunction with the opening of its new patient bed tower in spring 2010, in order to fulfill a major component of the proposed meaningful use of EHRs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Siemens reports other significant milestones achieved for other providers adopting the Soarian System. Denver Health, a Siemens health IT customer since 1996, went fully live with Soarian Clinicals in December 2009, and have other Soarian products scheduled to launch shortly. The Dover, N.H.-based Wentworth-Douglass Hospital marked the completion of their Phase 1 Soarian migration strategy in October of 2009.

Premier Receives Environmental Award

Posted: 12 May 2010 07:42 AM PDT

The Premier healthcare alliance  (Charlotte, N.C.) and 61 of its alliance member hospitals have been honored by Practice Greenhealth in recognition of their environmentally sustainable healthcare practices. For the eighth year in a row, Premier received the “Champion for Change” award, given to organizations that demonstrate success in greening their enterprises and leadership in helping others improve their own environmental initiatives. Premier’s GreenHealthy environmental leadership program specifically contributed to their recognition by Practice Greenhealth. According to Gina Pugliese, RN, MS, and vice president of the Premier Safety Institute, member hospitals have saved “more than $10 million in energy procurement” and have avoided “14,000 tons of CO2 emissions with the purchase of renewable energy” because of the SPHERE collaboration, a piece of the Greenhealthy initiative focused on reducing industry energy costs, usage  and greenhouse gas emissions. All resources and tools for Premier’s leadership program are publicly available on the Safety Institute website at http://www.premierinc.com/greenhealthy .

Jackson lawsuit can proceed

Posted:

5/14/2010 © Miami Herald The union says Jackson offers two standards of care. For example, one clinic has an ``Express Day'' one day a week in which only insured patients get treated. And international patients get service reps who make sure they are taken care of quickly.

Are patient visits necessary?

Posted:

5/14/2010 © Associated Press Four home heath care providers, two with facilities in Florida, are under scrutiny by the Senate Finance Committee after an analysis showed their patients increased to 10 or above, which is the threshold in which Medicare reimburses providers and additional $2,200.
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