Health Data Management articles from February 2003

Health Data Management archives from February 2003

Publisher's Letter.
February 1, 2003... Not too long after I finished editing this month's comprehensive cover story on computerized physician order entry systems (see page 44), I stumbled upon a very appropriate analogy for my feelings on one of CPOE's most significant obstacles,...

Payers Can't Play Together.(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2003... When asking how MedUnite managed to turn $80 million in cash into a $24 million sale price in three short years (see page 28), it is easy to dismiss ProxyMed's bailout as simply the detonation of another "dot-bomb." An oversimplification like...

IHE Integration Effort Ready to Show Progress, Expand.(Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise to be unveiled at conference)
February 1, 2003... Five years ago, a group of health care information technology vendors joined forces to develop standards-based integration between imaging technologies and administrative and clinical information systems. Now, the vendors are ready to present...

The IHE Vendors.
February 1, 2003... Agfa Healthcare McKesson Algotech Systems Medcon Canon Medical Systems Medical Manager Cedara Software Mediface Cerner Merge Technologies Codonics Mitra...

Is the Internet as Good as the Couch?(cybertherapy pros and cons)
February 1, 2003... The mental health profession is starting to deliver some of its services via the Internet. Yet even as "e-therapy" sites sprout on the Web, few regulatory agencies or mental health professional societies have stepped in to monitor their...

Strong Quarter, Bad Year for Health Care I.T. Stocks.
February 1, 2003... A robust fourth-quarter performance in 2002 capped off an otherwise dreary year for health care information technology stocks. The price of a marketbasket of 23 health care information technology stocks tracked by New York-based Bear...

Ensuring Single-Source Success.
February 1, 2003... Like many CIOs, Frank Clark, senior vice president and CIO at Knoxville, Tenn.-based Covenant Health, realizes there are pros and cons to both single-source and best-of-breed information technology strategies. Clark, however, believes health...

Engineering Patient Safety.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Clinical engineering has played a role in solving medical device-related patient safety issues during the past three decades, says Bryanne M. Patail, a biomedical engineer with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' National Center for...

Integrating the Computer-Based Patient Record.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Using a computer-based patient records system to improve patient safety and operating efficiency is a great goal, says Diane M. Carr, associate executive director of health care information systems at Queens (N.Y.) Health Network. But that's...

Evidence Mounting for Bedside Tools.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Many health care organizations are talking about evidence-based practice, but are struggling with finding ways to support it at the bedside, says Diane Hanson, R.N., vice president of evidence-based clinical practice, CPM Resource Center, Grand...

Web-Enabling Patients.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Geisinger Health System patients have cozied up to using Web technology to access medical records and communicate with caregivers via e-mail, says James M. Walker, M.D., chief medical information officer at the Dan- ville, Pa.-based integrated...

Newsline Digest.
February 1, 2003... The following are based on stories featured on the Health Data Management Web site. For twice-daily news bulletins every Monday through Friday, visit www.healthdatamanagement.com. HIPAA Security Rule Delayed Again The Department of...

Health Care I.T. Stock Chart.
February 1, 2003... (part 1 of 2) Price Price as on a % of 52 Health care software companies 1/9/03 Wk High 1...

Going 'Live' in a Hurry: A small Arizona hospital reaps benefits from a single-source approach, including installing 90% of its applications in one month.(Navapache Regional Medical Center)
February 1, 2003... It may have taken Navapache Regional Medical Center years to acquire some new information technology, but about 90% of its implementation took the provider organization only a month. Nearly five years ago, the Show Low, Ariz.-based medical...

Watch Dog Sniffs Out Weak Links: A hospital uses Web-based vulnerability assessment technology to monitor electronic security and document HIPAA compliance.(Qualys, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act regulations)
February 1, 2003... A hospital's information systems are only as secure as their weakest links to the outside world. The trouble is, the weak links keep changing. Information systems using public or private networks become vulnerable to outside attacks every...

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
February 1, 2003... 340 Beds 5,000 Employees 6 Outpatient Facilities Specialties and Subspecialties: * Genetic disorders; kidney, liver and stem cell transplants * Only Pediatric Level 1 Trauma Center serving Southwestern Ohio, Northern...

CPOE Order From Chaos.(using electronic data entry to prevent medication errors)
February 1, 2003... A year after Alamance Regional Medical Center made available its computerized physician order entry system throughout the 238-bed hospital, administrators conducted a reality check. Physicians and other clinicians responsible for medication...

The Risks and Rewards.(using electronic data entry to prevent medication ordering errors)
February 1, 2003... Much of the challenge to implementing CPOE is cultural, and some of the keenest resistance can come from physicians reluctant to change the way they practice medicine. Ironically, most order entry implementations in hospitals are championed by...

Banking on Data.(First DataBank Inc.'s drug mapping applications)
February 1, 2003... In their most basic and common form today, computerized physician order entry systems automate the medication order entry process. Here, the fundamental benefit from CPOE is error reduction, fostered by elimination of illegible handwritten...

Is There Magic in the Air?(wireless LANs and physician care delivery)
February 1, 2003... More health care organizations are relying on wireless local area networks and reaping benefits. But some CIOs say the technology is more complex than many colleagues appreciate. It's very rare for an information technology to quickly take...

Hackers Go to War.(health care's wireless networks vulnerable)
February 1, 2003... Many health care CIOs eat, drink and sleep security, thanks in part to the security and privacy rules of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Wireless local area networks plop another heaping serving on their plates. A...

An 802.11 explanation.(wireless LANs and electromagenetic interference with medical equipment)
February 1, 2003... Wireless local area networks are based on standard protocols developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., a Piscataway, N.J.-based not-for-profit technological society. The first standard was the 802.11 wireless...

When Goliath Can't Help, David Does the Job.(physicians' use of personal digital assistants)
February 1, 2003... Health care is replete with niche PDA applications designed by companies or individual enthusiasts. And caregivers are using them to save time and improve care. Seventy-two percent of physicians responding to a recent survey say hand-held...

How Many Doctors Can You Fit in a PDA?(medical information resources for personal digital assistants)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... The answer? More than 3,000. Wellesley, Mass.-based UpToDate, a decision support software vendor, has begun making its application available in PDA format. The software-which includes more than 50,000 pages of information on more than...

Niche PDA Applications.(medical information resources for personal digital assistants)
February 1, 2003... Following is a small sampling of the myriad niche applications designed for use on personal digital assistants: BreastCa 1.0: An application designed to help predict the risk for breast cancer using two commonly used models of breast cancer...

Status Report: Time is Nigh for HIPAA Rules.(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996)
February 1, 2003... After much delay, activity on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's various rules is heating up. Here's a look at what's out and what's coming. Health care organizations already facing deadlines this year to comply with...

Provider: HIPAA Tough, But Doable.(HealthEssentials Solutions Inc.'s Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 compliance)
February 1, 2003... For HealthEssentials Solutions Inc., Louisville, Ky., HIPAA compliance has been relatively painless. The contractor of nurse practitioners for home health and long-term care organizations was formed in 1999, and has relatively new information...

Information Technology Fits Nurses Like a Glove.
February 1, 2003... Bringing critical thinking, problem-solving skills to the table, nurse information technology specialists are playing an increasingly prominent role in I.T. projects. When Kaweah Delta Hos-pital wanted to improve charge capture during...

What's in a Title?(two nurse I.T. specialists)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Annette Dopp, R.N., might not have the title to prove it, but she's a key player in developing and implementing information technology at Evanston (Ill.) Hospital. Although her title says she is director of perioperative services at the 420-bed...

Nursing I.T. specialists resources.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Nurses interested in pursuing information technology careers formally or informally have a number of options at hand. Following is a sample of available nursing I.T. resources. * Coursework is offered at some 46 colleges and universities...

Taking an I.T. Leap Pays Off: A family practice's bet on clinical systems comes up a winner after a trip down the learning curve and some tweaking.(Family Practice Associates)
February 1, 2003... Family Practice Associates of Lexington, Ky., didn't need to be sold on the merits of information technology when it started looking for clinical I.T. Its practice management system had helped streamline its billing and scheduling processes,...

Electronic Records Find Long-Term Use: Remote access to patient records enables Denver physicians to provide better services to long-term care patients.
February 1, 2003... In 2000, Kaiser Permanente of Colorado's continuing care department, much like other long-term care providers, was behind the information technology curve. Although the Denver-based organization's acute care clinics had been using a...

MDs OK CPRs, VPN and PDAs: A group practice uses a computer-based patient record in tandem with a virtual private network and personal digital assistants.
February 1, 2003... Highland Physicians, a rural group practice in Honesdale, Pa., has come full circle with information technology. In the mid-1980s, the practice was a pioneer in its I.T. efforts, implementing one of the first computer-based patient records...

Taking the Knife to Inefficiency: Integrating patient data in a centralized database helps a Mississippi surgical center eliminate efficiencies and accurately track costs.
February 1, 2003... Patients certainly are a captive audience when they're on an operating table at Mississippi Valley Surgery Center, a Davenport, Iowa-based outpatient surgical clinic. Their clinical and demographic data, however, is constantly on the move...

Contracts Update.
February 1, 2003... 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 via electronic mail to:...

Reader's Perspective.
February 1, 2003... Q. "Physicians will personally enter information into computerized physician order entry systems as more such systems are implemented nationwide. Do you agree or disagree?" AGREE. Vincent Miller Vice president, CIO The...