Health Data Management articles from April 2003

Health Data Management archives from April 2003

Don't Ignore Mobile Technology.(mobile technology will be coming to the health care industry)
April 1, 2003... Two months ago at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's mammoth annual conference, you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting mobile technology. There was hardware-including personal digital assistants, tablet computers...

February CPOE Cover Story Strikes a Chord with Readers.(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2003... Kudos to Health Data Management's Senior Editor Bill Briggs on the excellent February 2003 article, "CPOE: Order from Chaos." It captured the many issues relevant to CPOE. Our organization, Advocate HealthCare, an integrated delivery...

Error Reduction Tops Annual HIMSS Survey.(results of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Annual Leadership Survey)
April 1, 2003... Reducing medical errors and improving patient safety is the No. 1 information technology priority of provider organization CIOs for 2003 and 2004, according to the 14th Annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Annual...

Can Epic Handle the epic Kaiser Contract?(Epic Systems Corp. wins a $1.8 billion contract from Kaiser Permanente)
April 1, 2003... Epic Systems Corp. scored a huge win with its $1.8 billion contract to implement a slew of enterprisewide clinical and financial information systems for Kaiser Permanente. But the scope of the massive project begs the question: Is Epic big...

It's Time to 'Address' the Final Security Rule.(the final data security rule, authorized under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, contains changes)
April 1, 2003... February's final data security rule, authorized under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, contains significant changes from what federal officials first proposed almost five years ago. Many procedures or...

EDITOR'S NOTE.
April 1, 2003... This month's edition of Newsline Digest is devoted entirely to news from the recent 2003 Annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition in San Diego. For comprehensive show coverage, please visit www.healthdatamanagement.com and select Conference...

HIMSS Attendance Offers a Surprise.(strong attendance at the 2003 Annual Conference and Exhibition for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Officials of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society expected-and got-good attendance at the 2003 Annual Conference and Exhibition in San Diego. Some 19,482 industry professionals attended the show, an 11% increase compared...

GE CEO: I.T. Cure for 'Crisis'.(General Electric Co. chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt expects health care will become a top issue in the United States)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... During the next few years, health care will become a dominant issue in the United States, predicted Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric Co., at the 2003 HIMSS Conference. "If there were fewer crises in the world right now,...

Safety Group Offers Bar Code Aid.(surveys show that at least 50% of U.S. hospitals are considering using bar code technology)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Recent surveys indicate at least half of U.S. hospitals are strongly considering implementation of bar code technology. Because of growing interest, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices recently created a Web-based readiness assessment...

IDX CEO: Docs are Main Challenge.(provider organziations and software vendors need to change the workplace culture of physicians)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Changing the workplace culture of physicians is the primary challenge facing provider organizations and software vendors, said James H. Crook Jr., president and CEO of Burlington, Vt.-based IDX Systems Corp. "The information technology is...

Study: Outpatient CPOE = Savings.(computerized physician order entry systems)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... A new study contends national adoption of ambulatory computerized physician order entry systems could prevent more than 2 million medication errors and save about $44 billion annually. The Center for Information Technology Leadership, chartered...

Same Strategy, Different Century.(El Camino Hospital continues to focus on information systems)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Thirty years ago, El Camino Hospital, Mountain View, Calif., implemented one of the first clinical information systems. Since then, health care I.T. has changed immensely; however, the strategies for implementing such systems have remained the...

CIOs: Think Past I.T. to Lead.(a panel of experts say that health care CIOs need to convince others to follow their lead)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... To lead, health care CIOs must convince others to follow. To do so, they must extend beyond the information technology department to avoid being seen as resident "technocrats," said a panel of CIOs at the 2003 HIMSS Conference. All the...

WellSpan Gets to the Point.(uses wireless technology)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... WellSpan Health, York, Pa., has a simple reason for implementing wireless technology at the point of care. "It's where we save lives," said William Gillespie, vice president and CIO. He spoke at the 2003 HIMSS Conference. WellSpan is a delivery...

Analyst: Know Thy Vendors' Motives.(publicly held health care information technology vendors often make business decisions based on their stock price)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Publicly held health care information technology vendors often make business decisions with an eye on their stock price, not the well-being of their customers, argued David Francis, managing director at the investment firm Jefferies & Company...

Around the Clinic in 100 Days.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... When The Cleveland Clinic decided to implement a computer-based patient records system in 30 clinics, management wanted to get the job done as quickly as possible to minimize disruption. So it set the bar high at 100 days and achieved its...

CIO Wins HDM BMW Contest.(Peg Graham, CIO, wins sports car in giveaway sponsored by Health Data Management)
April 1, 2003... Peg Graham, CIO at VA Palo Alto (Calif.) Health Care System, won the BMW Z4 car giveaway sponsored by Health Data Management and NextGen Healthcare Information Systems Inc., Horsham, Pa. This year's BMW contest was held to celebrate the...

Vendor Announcements at HIMSS.
April 1, 2003... Health care information technology vendors made dozens of announcements of new products, enhancements and alliances at the 2003 HIMSS Conference. Among the announcements: * Greenway Medical Technologies Inc., Carrollton, Ga., a vendor of...

Stock Chart.
April 1, 2003... (part 1 of 3) Price Price as on a % of 52 Health care software companies 3/11/2003 Wk High ...

Choose Your Battles Wisely.
April 1, 2003... CIO Tom Martin has a simple formula for determining his sponsorship level for many information technology projects. He avoids it. Like many of his peers, though, when it comes to I.T. issues affecting the health care organization at the...

Medical Error Reduction Dominates CIOs' Plans.
April 1, 2003... CIOs at hospitals and integrated delivery systems who expect to increase their information technology spending in the current fiscal year will do so mainly to reduce medical errors and improve quality. That's one of the findings from the Health...

R-E-S-P-E-C-T Makes I.T. Staff Quite Happy: Many CIOs contend the key to keeping staff content is not money, but respect.
April 1, 2003... "We're all adults here," says Mimi Taylor, vice president of infor-mation technology at Baptist Health South Florida. It's a simple statement that nonetheless speaks volumes about why the Coral Gables-based delivery system has been named...

$howing They Care.(many CIOs note importance of competitive salaries for IT workers)
April 1, 2003... Money doesn't necessarily buy happiness. But ensuring I.T. workers are offered a competitive salary is important, many CIOs say. Compared with other industries, health care organizations typically can't pay top dollar for I.T. talent....

Being a Good 'Citizen' Can Pay Off.(for CIOs wanting to keep staff happy)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Some CIOs are finding the key to keeping staff happy is helping them balance personal and professional issues. Employees, however, often think not only of themselves but of the communities in which they live. As a result, more employees see...

Is There a Doctor in the I.T. Department?: Some CIOs rely on medical directors of I.T. to bridge gap between MDs and technology.
April 1, 2003... The doctor carefully examined his patient. The diagnosis was not encouraging. An aggressive treatment plan was needed if there was to be any chance of recovery. As an emergency and family medicine physician, Dick Gibson, M.D., had made the...

It Takes a Village.
April 1, 2003... Bill Beighe, CIO at Physicians Medical Group, a Santa Cruz, Calif.-based independent physicians association, doesn't have any problem getting input from physicians about information technology initiatives. The IPA, made up of 70 practices...

Web Sites Share 'The Look': Multiple sites help support delivery system's business plan.
April 1, 2003... If a Pennsylvania coal miner with black lung disease wants to know about getting treatment at Miners Memorial Hospital in Coaldale, he can log onto the hospital's Web site. In addition to learning about care options, he can find administrative...

Practice Talks Up Substantial ROI: Automated records and speech recognition pay big dividends for a New York group practice.
April 1, 2003... Nassau Orthopaedic Surgeons expected administrative savings when it implemented an electronic medical records system in late 2000. What the specialty group practice did not expect was $200,000 in savings in annual salaries, which resulted in...

Take the Quick Poll...
April 1, 2003... Visit the Health Data Management Web site and express your opinion on one of health care I.T.'s hot topics. Your comments may appear in a future Readers' Perspectives department. www.healthdatamanagement.com Copyright 2003 Thomson...

Where Does the Time Go?: Delivery system uses Web-enabled time and attendance software to analyze staffing and streamline payroll processing.
April 1, 2003... When employees punch out at The Methodist Hospital, the four-hospital delivery system's Web-enabled time and attendance system goes to work. The software collects time card information from electronic badge readers and sends it to a server via...

Contracts Update.
April 1, 2003... The Contracts Update Department features announcements of recent contracts that health care information technology companies have signed with provider and payer organization customers. Please send contract announcement news releases via e-mail...

Advertiser Index.
April 1, 2003... Advertiser Site Addresses Page # Baxter www.baxter.com 9,33 Cardinal Health www.cardinal.com 16a Cerner www.cerner.com/innovation3 31 Citrix www.citrixhealthcare.com/hmt 39 CMT ...

Do You Agree or Disagree?
April 1, 2003... Q. "The average health care CIO has sufficient clout within his or her organization to sway fellow executives and advance important I.T. projects." AGREE Larry Blevins Regional CIO Sisters of Mercy Health System, St. Louis...