Health Data Management articles from July 2003

Health Data Management archives from July 2003

Practical CPOE Advice.(advice on rolling out new application enterprise-wide)
July 1, 2003... Rolling out any new application enterprisewide is a tough task, as outlined in this month's cover story. Launching an enterprisewide project as complex as a computerized physician order entry system is a particularly daunting challenge. Just...

Getting a Second Opinion on HIPAA Compliance.(American Specialty Health Networks seeks to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
July 1, 2003... American Specialty Health Networks, the nation's largest "carve-out" payer of complementary health benefits, is pretty confident it's complying with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's medical privacy rule, which went into...

PDAs Help Medical Residents Work Fewer Hours.(as residents are limited to 80-hour work weeks, health care providers will turn to technology for staffing issues)
July 1, 2003... New rules from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education effective this month limit medical residents to 80-hour work weeks and 24 consecutive hours on duty. While residency hours have decreased in recent years, many residents...

Does Bluetooth Have a Place in Health Care?
July 1, 2003... Wireless networks have gained a firm foothold in the health care industry, and some of the technologies behind them have emerged as de facto industry standards. The question is: Is there room for one more? Infrared systems are widely used...

Take the Quick Poll...(Brief Article)
July 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...

HHS Sets HIPAA, FDA Rules Schedules.(Health and Human Services)(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Federal Drug Administration)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The Department of Health and Human Services issued its semi-annual regulatory agenda, which includes a schedule of when it expects to publish dozens of proposed and final rules. The schedule includes publication of four rules related to HIPAA's...

Study: Payers Spend Big on I.T.(managed care organizations' information technology investments)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Managed care organizations nearly doubled their investments in information technology between 1999 and 2002, according to a study of health plans by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young LLC, New York. Despite a massive move toward automation, however,...

AFEHCT Warns Industry to Prepare.(Association for Electronic Health Care Transactions)(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Many providers, payers and vendors are at serious risk of missing the Oct. 16, 2003, compliance date for the HIPAA transactions and code sets rule, the Association for Electronic Health Care Transactions told the National Committee on Vital and...

AHA: Contingency Plan Needed.(American Hospital Association)(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The American Hospital Association is asking the federal government for a contingency plan to ensure ongoing reimbursement in case providers and payers have difficulty exchanging claims information following the Oct. 16, 2003, compliance...

Newsline Digest.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... 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. Copyright...

NDC to Complete TechRx Takeover.(NDCHealth Corp.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... One year ago NDCHealth Corp. purchased a controlling interest in pharmacy information systems vendor TechRx Inc. for $40 million in cash and $12 million in stock. Atlanta-based NDCHealth now will spend approximately $110 million to acquire the...

Helping Nurses Be Two Places at Once.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... GE Medical Systems Information Technologies, Milwaukee, has introduced a patient monitor that enables a nurse at one bed to look up data about a patient in another bed whose alarm has gone off. The nurse then can decide if it is appropriate to...

A4 to Offer Electronic Prescriptions.(SureScripts Inc.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... A4 Health Systems, a Cary, N.C.-based vendor of electronic medical records software, will offer electronic prescription writing and routing software through an agreement with SureScripts Inc., Alexandria, Va. Terms of the partnership were not...

NextGen Gets A New Script.(NextGen Healthcare Information Systems Inc.)(RxHub.net)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... NextGen Healthcare Information Systems Inc., Horsham, Pa., will integrate electronic prescription and formulary review software into its physician practice management and electronic medical records systems. Terms of the technology partnership...

Vendor Breaks Out Rx Writing Module.(MicroFour Inc.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... MicroFour Inc., a vendor of physician practice management software, for a decade has had a prescription writing module embedded in its PracticeStudio product. The vendor now is selling the prescription software, called RxWriter, as a standalone...

Group Pitches e-health Definition.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... A special interest group of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society has developed a definition of e-health. The group recommends Chicago-based HIMSS advocate the definition for industrywide adoption; the recommendation now...

First Consulting Hits New Territory.(Coactive Systems Corp. )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... First Consulting Group Inc., Long Beach, Calif., is getting into business process outsourcing with its acquisition of Coactive Systems Corp., a vendor of call center services. First Consulting paid $638,000 in cash and assumed-and paid...

Software Tracks Data Disclosures.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... FullTilt Solutions Inc., King of Prussia, Pa., has introduced software to track disclosures of protected health information, as required by the HIPAA privacy rule. The DisclosureLog software, which runs on the Microsoft .NET platform, provides...

Palm to Buy Rival, Spin Off Subsidiary.(Palm Inc.)(Handspring Inc. )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Palm Inc., Milpitas, Calif., will acquire rival PDA vendor Handspring Inc., Mountain View, Calif., and spin off its PalmSource subsidiary, which has been responsible for the development and licensing of the Palm operating system. Palm's other...

AMA to Develop Electronic CPT.(American Medical Association)(Current Procedural Terminology)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The American Medical Association is developing an electronic version of the Current Procedural Terminology, or CPT, under a seven-year contract with Apelon Inc., a Ridgefield, Conn.-based vendor of health care vocabulary software and services....

Equity Firm Buys Payer Vendors.(Whitney and Co.)(Synertech Health System Solutions L.L.C.)(Amisys L.L.C.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Whitney & Co. LLC, a Stamford, Conn.-based private equity firm, has acquired payer-oriented software vendors Synertech Health System Solutions LLC and Amisys LLC. Los Angeles-based Platinum Equity Inc. owned both vendors. Terms were not...

Software Looks for Risks.(from BindView Corp.)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... BindView Corp., Houston, has launched software designed to enable organizations to identify computers and networks that are not compliant with their risk management guidelines. The Compliance Center software provides remediation guidance to...

Broadlane Gets New Leader.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Broadlane Inc., a San Francisco-based vendor of supply management software and services for provider organizations and suppliers, has named Charles Saunders, M.D., its new CEO. He succeeds Trevor Fetter, who resigned last November to become...

Larson Takes the Lead at 3M.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... 3M Health Information Systems, Salt Lake City, has named Nancy Larson as general manager. She succeeds James Burgess, who resigned to take a job in Oklahoma City closer to his family. Larson spent five years with 3M Health Information Systems,...

Stock Chart.(health care technology)(Illustration)
July 1, 2003... (part 1 of 3) Price Price as on a % of 52 Health care software companies 6/5/03 Wk High ...

Enterprisewide Implementations: Helpful Tips for CIOs Who Take On the Universe: The success of enterprisewide implementations often depends on CIOs following a few simple steps.
July 1, 2003... Whisper the words "enterprisewide implementation" to a health care CIO and you'll see even the strongest go weak in the knees. No information technology challenge is more daunting, or fraught with more technological and political danger,...

Slow and Steady, or Fast and Furious?(a discussion of project management during an enterprise-wide implementation)
July 1, 2003... At some point during an enterprisewide implementation, project leaders have to decide just how quickly they want to roll out an application, experts say. Enterprisewide implementations seem, by their very nature, to require a "go slow"...

Payers Are From Mars, Providers Are From Venus.(systems implementation needs of health care industry organizations)
July 1, 2003... Enterprisewide implementations are not easy on any health care organization. But payers and providers have vastly different goals and methods when it comes to enterprisewide applications, some experts say. In a sense, it's like comparing...

A Familiar Solution to Hardware Equation: Software requirements and cost are the dominant purchasing factors as computer hardware approaches commodity status.
July 1, 2003... Change seems perpetual in health care. There was a time, though, when computer hardware purchasing was a rare event. When Paul Peabody started with William Beaumont Hospitals in 1980, hospitals didn't casually buy hardware. "In the '80s you...

Clustered Apps Cut Server Costs.(multiple applications on single device)
July 1, 2003... Provider and payer organizations constantly look to do more with less. One technique that is enabling some organizations to reduce the number of servers in their information systems involves "clustering" multiple applications on a single...

Mobile Hardware Stays the Course.(purchasing mobile technologies in hospitals)
July 1, 2003... As the popularity of hand-held hardware increases, provider organization CIOs are spending more time considering various issues surrounding the purchasing of mobile hardware. In many cases, though, they wind up approaching mobile hardware...

Hardware Vendors Moving the Marketplace.(technology longevity major concern of purchasers)
July 1, 2003... Aggressive sales tactics and product improvements characterize today's computer hardware vendor environment. Many of the changes are positive, CIOs and consultants say, resulting in lower equipment prices and higher computing capacity. In the...

The Best Defense is a Good Offense: Authentication technology and enterprisewide policies-in addition to defensive tools-are key.
July 1, 2003... As part of early data security efforts during the 1990s, health care organizations implemented a variety of defensive technologies. These security tools included auditing, anti-virus, intrusion detection, firewall and vulnerability...

Is Mobile Technology Secure?(hospitals' use of wireless networks raises concerns)
July 1, 2003... While mobile technology has picked up speed in health care, many industry experts say tools to secure such devices have not. Day Kimball Hospital, Putnam, Conn., uses wireless networking technology from Cisco Systems Inc., San Jose, Calif.,...

Vendors See a Wireless Revolution: Emerging wireless networks in hospitals are only a starting point, vendor executives contend.
July 1, 2003... Wireless networks are becoming a "must have" information technology in the health care industry and will only grow in importance as hospitals look for ways to get more clinical data out of computer systems and into physicians' hands. That's the...

When Push Comes to Pull: A portal lets hospital employees help themselves to policies, procedures, requisitions and more.
July 1, 2003... Two years ago, Northwestern Memorial Hospital decided to stop pushing information such as policies and procedures, supply ordering forms, and financial reports to employees. Instead, it started making employees do the pulling. The 750-bed...

Keeping Patients at Home: Telemonitoring technologies help chronic disease patients receive care at home.
July 1, 2003... Grace Busse Clinic knows 'big' things can come in small packages-especially when it comes to telemedicine. About three-and-a-half years ago, the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in Mobile received a grant that enabled the...

I.T. Helps Ensure Fraud Doesn't Pay: Independence Blue Cross uses software to fight fraud and abuse-and reclaims $20 million.(fraud control software )
July 1, 2003... Independence Blue Cross knows providers put in long hours. But it also knows even the hardest working caregiver can't squeeze 36 hours of work into a 24-hour day. That implausible total triggered an audit of the seemingly superhuman...

Advertiser Index.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Advertiser Site Page # ACER www.acer.com/us 23 AHIMA www.ahima.org/convention 37 Baxter www.baxterpatientcare.com 7 CPSI www.cpsinet.com 25 Cardinal Health www.cardinal.com 4,5...

Contracts Update.
July 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...

Readers' Perspectives.(opinions on use of personal digital assistants by healthcare professionals)
July 1, 2003... Q. "As provider organizations implement an increasing number of mobile health care applications, more caregivers will choose personal digital assistants than tablet computers as their mobile hardware." AGREE Russ Pittman Marketing...