Health Data Management articles from February 2004

Health Data Management archives from February 2004

Start Building a Wireless Network ... Or Else.
February 1, 2004... I have a warning for all readers employed by a provider organization: Make sure your facility has a wireless local area network in place as soon as possible. Why? Because every day more providers are installing wireless networks, enabling...

Store, Burn or Shred: What to Do With Paper Records?
February 1, 2004... Hospital medical records departments have been bastions of paper for decades, but that's changing as facilities increase their use of clinical information systems. Evidence of the expanding interest in records automation abounds in...

Linux Takes Flight in Health Care.
February 1, 2004... In late 2002, medical transcription vendor Acusis LLC of Pittsburgh switched on two Linux-based servers, using them as back-up voice and text file storage devices. The vendor's three primary servers use the Microsoft Windows 2003 operating...

Take the Quick Poll...(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... 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 2004 Thomson...

Health Care I.T. Stocks Top Off Banner Year with Strong Finish.(information technology)
February 1, 2004... The fourth quarter of 2003 was full of good news for health care information technology vendors, companies that already had plenty to cheer about during the year. The price of a marketbasket of 23 health care I.T. stocks tracked by New...

Efforts to Wire Winona Alive and Kicking.
February 1, 2004... Amid much hoopla in September 2000, Winona, Minn., and Cerner Corp. launched Winona Health Online, an effort to electronically connect clinicians and consumers in the town of 27,000 residents. The goal was to automate clinical records in Winona...

New CPT Code Covers Online Consults.(Current Procedural Terminology)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... The American Medical Association has released a temporary Current Procedural Terminology, or CPT, code for online consultations. The code, 0074T, will be used for reimbursement of appropriate online patient-physician consultations. The code...

FDA Automates Drug Label Process.(Food and Drug Administration)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... The Food and Drug Administration has published a final rule requiring electronic submission to the agency of the labeling content for human prescription drugs and biological products. The rule covers proposed new labels or modified existing...

HHS Lays Out HIPAA Schedule.(Department of Health and Human Services)(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 )(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... In its semi-annual regulatory agenda, published Dec. 22 in the Federal Register, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it expects this year to publish a number of HIPAA rules. Keeping in mind that anticipated dates often change,...

Report: I.T. Improves Care Quality.(information technology)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Information technology is helping to measure and improve the quality of health care in the United States, but there's plenty of room for improvement, according to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare...

Final Bar Code Rule Expected Soon.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... The Food and Drug Administration expects this month to publish a final rule to mandate bar codes on human drug and biological products, according to an agency spokesperson. The proposed rule covered all prescription drug products, biological...

WebMD Names New Envoy Leader.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... WebMD Corp., Elmwood Park, N.J., has named Tony Holcombe president of its Envoy claims clearinghouse unit. He succeeds Thomas Apker, who led Nashville, Tenn.-based Envoy since May 2002 and now is a special advisor to WebMD CEO Roger Holstein....

ProxyMed Will Buy PPO.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Transactions processing firm ProxyMed Inc., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., will acquire PlanVista Corp., a Tampa, Fla.-based operator of PPO networks. The $101 million price includes about $58 million in ProxyMed stock, with the balance being the...

Newsline Digest.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Newsline Digest presents highlights of the latest health care I.T. news as reported on the Health Data Management Web site. For extended versions of these and many other original news stories, visit www.healthdatamanagement.com. ...

Hand-helds Aid in Disaster Relief.(using TracerPlus hand-held data collection software by Portable Technology Solutions LLC )(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Disaster relief teams in Michigan and Iowa have begun using PDAs to help speed data collection. Both teams are using TracerPlus hand-held data collection software from Manorville, N.Y.-based Portable Technology Solutions LLC and PDA-enabled...

Carolina Provider Targets Safety.(Carolinas HealthCare System )(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Charlotte, N.C.-based Carolinas HealthCare System has selected mobile software from Research Triangle Park, N.C.-based MercuryMD. The nine-hospital delivery system has begun implementing the vendor's MData Enterprise System across its...

Tablets Spring into Clinical Action.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Las Vegas-based Spring Valley Hospital Medical Center has enabled access to its new clinical documentation system via Tablet PCs. The hospital offers respiratory therapy clinicians Tablet PC access to OpusClinDoc, a Web-based system from Opus...

PalmSource, RIM Form Agreement.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Sunnyvale, Calif.-based PalmSource Inc. and Waterloo, Ontario-based Research In Motion have begun efforts to jointly develop software. The vendors will offer software that enables Research In Motion's Blackberry wireless devices to run on...

Companies Offer e-Script Bundle.(Security Biometrics Co. combine with Brother International Corp.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Vancouver, British Columbia-based Security Biometrics Co. and Bridgewater, N.J.-based Brother International Corp. have combined their products to offer an electronic prescription service that uses PDAs, mobile printers and biometric signature...

MoHCA Elects New Officers.(Becky Quammen, Peter Waegemann, Rob Brinson)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... The Washington-based Mobile Healthcare Alliance has elected its board of directors for 2004. The trade association, devoted to studying and advocating the use of mobile technologies in health care, has elected Becky Quammen as its 2004 chair....

Mobile Health News.
February 1, 2004... Mobile Health News presents highlights of the latest mobile health care stories reported on Mobile Health Data, the sister site to Health Data Management online. For extended versions of these and many other original news stories on mobile...

Stock Chart.(Illustration)
February 1, 2004... (part 1 of 3) Price Price as on a % of 52 Health care software companies 1/8/04 Wk High Allscripts...

The Ascent of Wireless Networks.
February 1, 2004... More providers are opting for the freedom offered by wireless networks and mobile hardware. However, some experts worry that many health care organizations implementing wireless LANs are doing so in a manner that can't handle the burgeoning...

Wireless networking going public.
February 1, 2004... Most health care organizations deploying wireless networks are focusing on building an infrastructure to take care of data traffic within their walls. But some pioneers are starting to use public wireless networks to exchange data with very...

Hospitals Bring Medical Devices into the I.T. Loop: Innovative providers are linking various medical devices to clinical information systems.(information technology)
February 1, 2004... Caregivers at Carilion Health System take up to 10,000 blood pressure readings across 100 locations every day. Not long ago, about 5,000 readings per day were entered manually into the Roanoke, Va.-based integrated delivery system's electronic...

Forget patient's bedside, try patient's insides.
February 1, 2004... Before Thomas Hengehold got his new pacemaker and defibrillator implants, he sometimes faced an 800-mile road trip from his summer home to a hospital near his home in Montgomery, Ill. But last June Hengehold received a device from Medtronic...

Vendors see opportunities.
February 1, 2004... As provider organizations ponder whether to link medical devices with their clinical information systems, vendors of both products see opportunities to assist. Those vendors who develop both data management software and diagnostic or testing...

Speech Recognition is Finding its Voice: Speech recognition is becoming a valuable tool for data entry, removing costs and speeding information to those who need it.
February 1, 2004... Two years ago Affinity Health System wanted to cut the costs and transcription backlog associated with the dictated clinical notes of 200 physicians in its medical group. Transcriptionists supporting the Affinity Medical Group were sometimes...

Speech Technology Reaps Productivity Gains.
February 1, 2004... The Veteran's Administration Medical Center in Denver installed a picture archiving and communication system to improve data access at its hospital and other off-campus sites. In deciding to implement speech recognition technology from Agfa...

Down the Beaten HIPAA Path: Complying with the HIPAA data security rule is no cakewalk, but providers and payers say they've been down this road before.(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 )
February 1, 2004... A common sales pitch for consultants and attorneys specializing in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's data security rule is that the rule's provisions are too complex for many provider and payer organizations to interpret...

PPOs get HIPAA security diplomas.(preferred provider organizations)(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996)
February 1, 2004... Two preferred provider organizations in late 2003 became the first covered entities to receive accreditation of their HIPAA security rule compliance programs from URAC, a Washington-based accreditation firm. American Specialty Health Inc.,...

The costs of security.(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 )
February 1, 2004... Following are the estimated technology costs of complying with the HIPAA security rule for 297-bed Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, N.M. Joshua Elicio, director of information security and privacy, emphasizes the figures below are the...

Small Hospitals Have Mighty I.T. Plans: Though short on resources, some small provider organizations manage to implement clinical I.T. and keep pace with their larger brethren.(information technology)
February 1, 2004... Geary Community Hospital may be small, but it likes to think big when it comes to information technology. The Junction City, Kan.-based hospital has 95 beds and a three-person information technology department. But it already has...

I.T. grows in small hospitals.(Information technology)
February 1, 2004... No matter what strategy they use, more small hospitals than ever are implementing up-to-date clinical systems and other I.T., some industry experts say. Despite their limited budgets, nearly 75% of hospitals under 100 beds have purchased...

Some CIOs Tired of Making the Same Old Requests.(Chief information officers)
February 1, 2004... CIOs and consultants say changing the processes for creating requests for proposals and information is the first step in purchasing more appropriate technology. In the case of requests for information and requests for proposals, if you've...

Vendors Want More Information, Too.
February 1, 2004... Providers and payers aren't the only organizations seeking to change requests for proposals and requests for information. Many health care information technology vendors say they also benefit from more detailed and process-oriented requests....

Special Section: Technologies and Trends in the Mobile Health Arena.
February 1, 2004... Small Devices, Big Obstacles 90 Do Mobile Phones Cause Interference? 96 Are Subnotebooks the Right Fit? 102 Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.thomsonmedia.com...

Small Devices, Big Obstacles: PDAs present some oft-cited hurdles, but technology and providers are clearing the way.(Personal digital assistants)
February 1, 2004... Online medical reference texts were the first PDA application to make waves in health care. That was around the turn of the century. Four years later there's a cornucopia of health care information systems designed for PDAs. However, online...

Do Mobile Phones Cause Interference?: Many providers still prohibit the use of mobile phones. Some experts, though, believe these facilities aren't seeing the forest for the trees.
February 1, 2004... In the world of wireless health care, mobile phones are the black sheep. Wireless local area networks and wireless hardware are becoming more common at provider organizations. However, just as common are signs that read, "Turn off all mobile...

Are Subnotebooks the Right Fit?: Some health care organizations are finding that subnotebook computers bridge the gap between size and functionality.
February 1, 2004... Two years ago, Lehigh Valley Hospital faced an increasingly common information technology conundrum. The hospital had purchased a computerized physician order entry system. It already had implemented a wireless local area network across its...

Pumped Up About IV System: A California hospital finds new IV pumps are not only easy to use, they help prevent medication errors.(intravenous)
February 1, 2004... Sometimes it really pays to shop. Two years ago, Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital nurses went looking for intravenous pumps to replace existing devices that were hard to set up and often broke down. They had a simple goal: find IV pumps that...

Embracing an Image of the Future.
February 1, 2004... Vendors of document imaging services say increased automation brings challenges, but also opportunities. Twenty-five years ago, Jeffrey Gilb got into the document imaging business despite being warned it might not be a good career move. "I...

I.T. Success Doesn't Come Overnight: A hospital uses steady I.T. approach and close relationship with software vendor to build up its suite of clinical applications.
February 1, 2004... Patience has paid off for Oaklawn Hospital. The Marshall, Mich.-based, 94-bed hospital doesn't have a large information technology budget. Its I.T. staff is a four-person team. And Oaklawn, like many provider organizations, has to contend...

Data Helps Foretell Customer Needs: A managed care organization uses data mining technology to anticipate health plan members' wishes.
February 1, 2004... In "The Lord of the Rings," the best-selling books turned blockbuster movies, when wizards or elves want to foresee the future they gaze into magic orbs or pools of enchanted water. When First Health Group Corp. executives want to foretell what...

Making Time For Scheduling: A delivery system integrates a scheduling application with its time and attendance software.(Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati)
February 1, 2004... Creating work schedules for nurses in the blood and marrow transplant department at the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati used to be a big chore for Carmen Pitman, clinical manager. Every six weeks, Pitman would circulate a paper...

Contracts Update.(contracts that health care information technology companies have signed with provider and payer organizations)(The University of Chicago Hospitals)
February 1, 2004... The Contracts Update Department features announcements of recent contracts that health care information technology companies have signed with provider and payer organizations. Please send contract announcement news releases via e-mail to Senior...

Do you agree or disagree?(electronic medical records will boost the automation of clinical data)
February 1, 2004... "The Nov. 20 Institute of Medicine patient safety report advocating a national health information infrastructure and electronic medical records will boost the automation of clinical data. Do you agree or disagree?" AGREE Paul Veregge,...