Health Data Management articles from December 2008

Health Data Management archives from December 2008

When letting go, hold on.(clinician's wireless technology)(Editor's Notes)(Editorial)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Gary Baldwin Have you ever noticed that "computer problems" seem to disappear as soon as tech support shows up? It happened to me after I recently installed a home wireless network. When the installer was here, the system worked...

AHIMA: ICD-10 deadline doable.(American Health Information Management Association)(Newsline)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... The American Health Information Management Association continues to support the proposed October 2011 implementation date for the ICD-10 code sets. The Chicago-based association is one of only a few groups that have publicly endorsed the...

BCBS Mass. Pushes e-Prescribing.(Newsline Digest)
December 1, 2008... Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts will require that all doctors use electronic prescriptions to qualify for their physician incentive programs effective Jan. 1, 2011. Some 99% of primary care physicians in the HMO Blue Network and 78%...

Firms Envision Home Dialysis.(Newsline Digest)
December 1, 2008... Start-up vendor Home Dialysis Plus Ltd., Corvallis, Ore., will develop a portable home dialysis machine using technology from Hewlett-Packard Co., Palo Alto, Calif. The machine will use HP's inkjet and memory chip technologies to mix and...

Aetna to Use HealthVault for PHRs.(Newsline Digest)(Website overview)
December 1, 2008... Health insurer Aetna Inc. will use the HealthVault personal health record platform from Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Mass. The Hartford, Conn.-based payer will enable its members who use its CareEngine personal health record to transfer the...

Francisco Partners to Buy API.(Newsline Digest)
December 1, 2008... Private equity firm Francisco Partners is acquiring another health care information technology company. The San Francisco-based investor is buying API Software Inc., a Hartford, Wis.-based firm that sells labor management software. Earlier,...

Sunquest Information Systems Targets Europe for Sales.(Newsline Digest)
December 1, 2008... Sunquest Information Systems has signed a definitive agreement to acquire London-based Anglia Healthcare Systems Ltd. Tucson, Ariz.-based Sunquest sells laboratory and radiology information systems. The acquisition is part of the company's...

S.D. Licenses Provider Software.(Newsline Digest)
December 1, 2008... The South Dakota Department of Health's Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response has licensed disease recognition software for use in 82 provider sites across the state. The sites, including clinics and a majority of hospitals in South...

Blues Plan Pushes Medical Home Model.(Newsline Digest)
December 1, 2008... Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Dakota is launching an effort to help physicians adopt the medical home model. In the model, primary care practices serve as the focal point of patient care coordination. The model advocates extensive use of...

Lieber: Vendors Will Collaborate.(Newsline Digest)
December 1, 2008... The notion that private sector health care information technology vendors will not collaborate with one another is a myth, says Stephen Lieber, president and CEO of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. Speaking on a recent...

Leapfrog Seeks CPOE Best Practices.(Newsline Digest)
December 1, 2008... In an attempt to address the difficulties hospitals face in implementing computerized physician order entry systems, the Leapfrog Group is forming a CPOE Executive Consortium. The new group, which will include vendors that develop CPOE systems...

Readers' Perspective.
December 1, 2008... AGREE MaryAnn Weyer Practice Administrator Richard H. Weyer, M.D., Sierra Vista, Ariz. "How much more can we be squeezed? Medical supplies are up, medical gases are up and utilities are up. Health insurance for employees is...

HealthFusion Adds Practice Management.(Newsline Digest)
December 1, 2008... HealthFusion, a Solana Beach, Calif.-based company known for its health care transactions clearinghouse, is introducing practice management software. The company also plans to acquire an electronic health records vendor in the first quarter of...

NextGen Expands billing portfolio.(Newsline Digest)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... NextGen Healthcare Information Systems Inc. is increasing its ambulatory outsourced billing and collections business via an acquisition. The Horsham, Pa.-based vendor will acquire Practice Management Partners Inc. of Hunt Valley, Md. The...

30% of Practices Have EMRs.(Newsline Digest)
December 1, 2008... Adoption of electronic medical records at physician group practices is growing very slowly, a survey conducted in June shows. Some 30% of physician group practice administrators surveyed said they have functional components of an electronic...

Greenway Adds Support for Research.(Newsline Digest)
December 1, 2008... Physician practice management and electronic health records software vendor Greenway Medical Technologies Inc. has introduced a module to support physician and patient participation in clinical trials. The Carrolton, Ga.-based company's...

Ratings Web Site Adds Content.(Newsline Digest)(Website overview)
December 1, 2008... Health Grades Inc. has acquired for $6.2 million two medical content Web sites for consumers from Adviware Pty. Ltd. in Cairns, Australia. Golden, Colo.-based Health Grades' Web site offers ratings and profiles of hospitals, physicians and...

Report Offers Physician Apps Overview.(Newsline Digest)(Report)
December 1, 2008... Jewson Enterprises, an Austin, Texas-based research and consulting firm, is offering a free executive summary of its annual report on electronic health record and practice management software for physician group practices. Free to those who...

Is It Time to Cut The Cord? Group practices ponder whether wireless networks support their electronic records workflows.(Cover Story)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Howard J. Anderson, Executive Editor Some physician group practices that are reinventing their workflows as they adopt electronic health records are concluding that wireless networks fit in well with their new approaches. At...

Wireless? No thanks.(Cover Story)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Howard J. Anderson, Executive Editor As it implemented electronic health records, one group practice in Colorado carefully analyzed whether a wireless network and mobile computers would be the best approach. But the practice...

Closing the Medication Loop; Using information technology to track medications from prescribing to administering is challenging, but can help patients.(Special Report)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Joseph Goedert, News Editor Jefferson Community Health Center in Fairbury, Neb., in January went live with wireless, bar code enabled medication administration management software. The system from San Diego-based IntelliDOT...

Bar Code Users Praise FDA Rule.(Special Report)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Joseph Goedert, News Editor More than two years ago, regulations from the Food and Drug Administration requiring bar codes on most prescribed medications - including single dose packages - became effective. Simply put, those...

Beware the challenges of ICD-10.(A Closer Look)(Report)
December 1, 2008... Health information management departments should be working now to get ready for the ICD-10 code sets, says Rita Bowen, enterprise HIM director at Erlanger Health System in Chattanooga, Tenn. The Department of Health and Human Services called...

A New Twist to Cabinets.(Special Report)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Joseph Goedert, News Editor Many hospitals use automated dispensing cabinets that store various medications in separate bins and open a bin when a specific medication is to be administered. Rice Memorial Hospital in Willmar,...

EHRs Enabling Genetic Research; Large-scale research projects probing genetic links to diseases and outcomes are under way.(Feature)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Gary Baldwin, Editorial Director In two decades, the health care encounter between patients and physicians will bear little resemblance to its contemporary counterpart. That's the view of Dan Roden, M.D. First, the record will be...

Collaboration Tests EHR Value.(Feature)
December 1, 2008... A project funded by the National Human Genome Institute will examine the value of EHRs in supporting research across disparate systems. Participants include Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative; Marshfield (Wis.) Clinic; Rochester,...

Advantage payers?(Feature)(Report)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Gary Baldwin, Editorial Director When it comes to personalized medicine, Keith Batchelder, M.D., puts his genes where his mouth is. Batchelder is among the first 10 members of the Personal Genome Project, in which volunteers share...

Niche Player Eyes Bigger Market; Velos looks to expand its presence in the clinical trials segment.(Corporate Strategy)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Gary Baldwin, Editorial Director In the clinical information technology market, Velos is a niche player. Its clinical trials management software is predominately used by academic medical centers. Launched five years ago, the...

Contracts Update.
December 1, 2008... The Contracts Update section includes announcements of contracts that health care information technology companies have signed with customers in recent weeks. Contract news can be sent to Health Data Management by e-mail to:...

Taking things Into His Own Hands; A physician develops his own, low-cost alternative to dictating notes.(Group Pratices)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Howard J. Anderson, Executive Editor Thomas Rugino, M.D., really hates dictating notes about his patients for transcription. Until recently, he spent many hours every weekend catching up on the time-consuming, tedious task. The...

Looking to Toyota for Guidance; A rural hospital uses industrial time management techniques to address its ER woes.(Hospitals)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Howard J. Anderson, Executive Editor When a small hospital in rural Georgia needed help with relieving its clogged emergency department, it turned to an unusual source for strategic inspiration: Toyota. Meadows Regional Medical...

Data Management: Better Data; Humana deploys data integration software to reduce systems and boost data analysis.(Payers)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Joseph Goedert, News Editor Health insurer Humana Inc. has doubled its membership during the past six years through organic growth, acquisitions and increased Medicare business. During that time, the Louisville, Ky.-based payer...

P4P Lessons Learned; An EHR is essential to success.(My Two Cents)
December 1, 2008... Sacred Heart Medical Center joined the Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration project in the fall of 2003. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, in partnership with Premier Inc., a purchasing alliance, launched the pay-for-performance...

Small Vendor eyes Bigger Emageon.(Newsline)
December 1, 2008... New York-based Health Systems Solutions Inc. will acquire Emageon Inc., a vendor of picture archiving and communications systems and complementary software. Emageon is about six times bigger in terms of revenue than the acquiring company. Under...

FDA to ease adverse event reporting.(Newsline)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... The Food and Drug Administration is seeking comments on a new Web portal under development that would provide one location to file reports of adverse events associated with the use of regulated products. The FDA has launched the development...

CEO: I.T. vendors need annual reviews.(Newsline)(Report)
December 1, 2008... Group practices should conduct annual reviews of their information technology vendors just as they do for their own employees, one practice CEO advises. Practices should treat their I.T. vendors as an extension of their staffs, says Philip...

CMIO: Don't Wait around for RHIOs to Become Fully Functional.(Newsline)
December 1, 2008... Because regional health information organizations will take several years to become fully functional, hospitals should take other steps now to improve the exchange of data with area physicians, one chief medical information officer advises. ...

Nursing I.T. Award Nominations Sought.(Newsline)
December 1, 2008... Health Data Management is accepting nominations for its fourth annual Nursing Information Technology Innovation Award. The deadline for entries is Jan. 5, 2009. The award recognizes innovation and excellence in using information technology...

Eclipsys Reveals Network Project.(Newsline)
December 1, 2008... Now that it has acquired a Web-based electronic ambulatory records system, Eclipsys Corp. is developing software to support creation of hospital-centric networks linked to physician groups. The Atlanta-based company plans to introduce its...