Health Data Management articles from June 2008

Health Data Management archives from June 2008

The Big Picture.(strategies of the hospitals and delivery systems)
June 1, 2008... Most health care is delivered outside the four walls of a hospital. Most hospitals have less than 150 beds. Thats why its important for a health care information technology magazine to cover more than just the strategies of the nations largest...

HDM On The Web.
June 1, 2008... THis month wed like to focus on our Related Items and Featured Content boxes. Late last year we completely overhauled our Web site, and a top priority of that effort was to enable our editors to connect the massive amount of HDM content in a...

Editorial/Ad Index.
June 1, 2008... A Accuro Healthcare Solutions Inc. 20, 34 A.D.A.M. 42 Aetna Inc. 66, 68 Affiliated Computer Services 39 Allina Hospitals and Clinics 72 American Health Information Management Assoc. 12 American...

Readers' Perspective.
June 1, 2008... Medicares forthcoming policy to not reimburse for treatment resulting from certain serious medical errors will result in a surge of investment in I.T. to improve patient safety. AGREE Genet Kidane Alpharetta, Ga. Hospitals...

What Will Stop Data Breaches?
June 1, 2008... A series of incidents in April called attention to the serious issue of data security. * A former employee of New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center was charged with accessing almost 50,000 patient records over two...

Pharmacies to Push E-Prescribing.(Website overview)
June 1, 2008... Ten major pharmacy chains are launching a national marketing campaign to raise consumer awareness about electronic prescriptions. The chains, which, along with participating independent pharmacies, represent 26,000 stores, are sponsoring a...

GAO: HHS Weak on Infection Data.
June 1, 2008... The Government Accountability Office is calling on the Department of Health and Human Services to prioritize efforts to improve data collection on hospital-acquired infections and ways to prevent them. The GAO is an investigative arm of...

Congress OKs Protection of Genetic Data.
June 1, 2008... Congress in early May passed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act and the White House said President Bush would sign the bill into law. The legislation prohibits discriminatory actions by employers and insurers based on an...

New Standard to Aid ID Processes.(identification)
June 1, 2008... The American National Standards Institute has approved the first part of new data standards to assist in positively identifying patients, drugs, devices and other processes in care delivery using bar code, radio frequency identification and...

Hospitals Cooperate for eICU.
June 1, 2008... Six community hospitals in Maryland will use grant funds to implement telemedicine technology that enables continuous remote monitoring of intensive care units. The hospitals have formed Maryland eCare LLC as an umbrella organization to...

Brailer Firm Invests in E-Prescribing.
June 1, 2008... Health Evolution Partners, a private equity firm led by David Brailer, M.D., former national coordinator for health information technology, has invested in Prematics Inc., a start-up electronic prescribing software vendor. Terms of the...

Nuance to Buy eScription.
June 1, 2008... Nuance Communications will acquire eScription Inc., a vendor of transcription, dictation and speech recognition systems, for cash and other considerations totaling $400 million. The acquisition is Nuances largest, surpassing its $357 million...

MedAssets to Acquire Accuro.
June 1, 2008... MedAssets Inc., a vendor of revenue cycle management software and operator of a group purchasing organization, will acquire Accuro Healthcare Solutions Inc., which sells complementary software. Under a definitive agreement, Atlanta-based...

Worker Indicted for Selling Data.(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The United States Attorneys Office in Los Angeles has indicted a former employee at UCLA Medical Center for selling patient medical information to a national media outlet. The indictment against Lawanda Jackson does not disclose the name of the...

FDA Head: We're Boosting I.T.
June 1, 2008... Updating the Food and Drug Administrations information systems is one of the top priorities of the agency, FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach, M.D., recently told Congress. He spoke April 22 before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee...

Leapfrog Group Revises Quality Survey.
June 1, 2008... The Washington-based Leapfrog Group has revised the tools and questions it plans to use in its 2008 annual safety and quality survey. The 2008 survey includes a computerized physician order entry evaluation tool designed to enable hospitals to...

Study: Hospitals Need More I.T. Staff.
June 1, 2008... U.S hospitals will need nearly 41,000 additional I.T. professionals38% more than nowas they move to higher levels of I.T. adoption, according to a new study. The study from the Oregon Health and Science University was presented in April at a...

Kaiser Completes EHR Rollout.
June 1, 2008... Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente has completed the implementation of an outpatient electronic health records system for its 8.7 million members. Kaiser began the HealthConnect initiative in 2004 to integrate electronic records across all...

FCC Decision Aids Telehealth.
June 1, 2008... The Federal Communications Commission has extended for three years the eligibility of certain rural health care provider organizations to receive subsidized funding of their telehealth/telemedicine initiatives under the federal...

CMS Expands Quality Initiative.
June 1, 2008... The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has expanded its 2008 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative to make it easier for health care organizations to participate. The program, which began in 2007, establishes a financial incentive...

Guidelines to Aid Transition of Care.
June 1, 2008... A coalition of industry stakeholders working to smooth the transition of patient care among provider organizations has developed consensus guidelines. The National Transitions of Care Coalition will make the guidelines available online at...

Effort to Promote Open Source Apps.
June 1, 2008... Organizations in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States have formed a new consortium to promote the use of open source software in health care. The initiative, called Open Health Tools Inc., is based on the model of the...

IOM: Technology Aids Senior Care.(Institute of Medicine )(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... The nations health care system is woefully unprepared to care for baby boomers, who will start to reach age 65 in just three years, according to a major new report from the Institute of Medicine. Among the reports many conclusions is that...

Site Lists Care Delivery Innovations.
June 1, 2008... The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has launched a Web site that explains more than 100 innovations in the delivery of health care services. The site, called the Health Care Innovations Exchange, also lists innovations that failed....

Nursing Home Online Reports Expanded.
June 1, 2008... The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services now will include on its Nursing Home Compare Web site whether facilities have been on its Special Focus Facility list. The agency last fall began the SFF initiative by publishing a list of...

Web Site Supports Genomics Research.
June 1, 2008... The Protein Structure Initiative, a National Institutes of Health-sponsored effort to research the protein structure of DNA, has launched a Web portal designed to help share such information. The new portal, the PSI Structural Genomics...

Sharing Misdiagnoses on the Web.(Website overview)(Brief article)
June 1, 2008... Franklin, Tenn.-based Premerus has launched a Web portal designed to enable patients and their families to share and learn about the impact of medical misdiagnoses. The site, yourmisdiagnosis.com, offers consumers opportunities to learn...

App Manages Contrast Agents.
June 1, 2008... Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc. has introduced an information system to manage use of contrast agents in diagnostic medical imaging procedures. The system, called VistaTrak, combines data management and decision support software and...

Correction.(Correction notice)
June 1, 2008... A story in the Newsline Digest section on page 17 of the April 2008 issue of Health Data Management on the sale of Enterprise Performance Systems Inc. contained an inaccurate acronym for the company. EPSi is the correct acronym for the...

Improving Ca$h Flow: For many providers, boosting collections requires building new processes in addition to implementing new technologies.
June 1, 2008... Lamenting the current state of collections in health care, I.T. consultant Steven Lazarus recalls his personal experience. I just went through outpatient surgery, and I was never asked for a dime during the whole process. Lazarus,...

Experts Offer Revenue Cycle Tips.
June 1, 2008... One key step to improving cash flow, many experts say, is to provide patients with an accurate estimate of their out-of-pocket expenses at registrationand then ask for payment. Providers need to educate patients upfront about payment...

Group Practices Face Their Own Challenges.
June 1, 2008... For group practices, a big challenge in the collections arena is making sure their thousands of claims contain all the right information to ensure payment. Many clinics rely on technology partners to scrub claims, using software that...

Consumers Drive Payers' I.T. Investments: Managed care organizations are enhancing the technology they use to support consumer-driven health.
June 1, 2008... Now that consumer-driven health plans are gaining enrollees, some payers are expanding their use of information technology to support these high-deductible plans. Forty-seven percent of 453 large U.S. employers surveyed in March indicated...

Turning To The ASP Model.
June 1, 2008... A few years ago, Ceridian Benefits Services Inc.s health plan began looking into supporting consumer-driven health plans. But the third-party administrator first had to get honest with where the company was with technologies for that market,...

CIO Series Part II: Triumphs and Trials: CIOs recall their biggest wins and losses, and describe the lessons they learned.(chief information officer)
June 1, 2008... When various departments within four-hospital Saint Clares Health System embark on an information technology initiative, they bring in the I.T. department early. Were not a back office; were a very important player, says Rich Temple, vice...

Buys Help Elsevier Fill Gaps.
June 1, 2008... The buys have helped the publisher expand into new areas. They continue a 5-year-old initiative to substantially remake Philalphia-based Elsevier, whose reputation was built on such reference titles as Grays Anatomy, Nelsons Pediatrics,...

What Comes First? Second? Third?(hospital management)
June 1, 2008... When it comes to clinical automation, theres certainly no checklist for which tasks come first, second and third. But many hospitals choose to implement some or all of the components of an electronic health records system before even attempting...

Making a Connection: Linking multiple clinics requires pragmatism and persistence.
June 1, 2008... Group practices that have multiple sites face an extra challenge when they tackle clinical automation projects. They must come up with a way to exchange data and images among the sites. And making that connection often requires some ingenuity....

Aetna's New Portal Strategy: The insurer drops its homegrown approach in favor of using a physician portal shared with other payers.
June 1, 2008... For years, Aetna Inc., like most major payers, had used its own physician Web portal to communicate with contracted providers. When executives determined they wanted to revamp the self-developed portal to offer a much broader range of secure...

Contracts Update.
June 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 the Big Bang Approach.
June 1, 2008... How do you take a bold vision and put the perfect plan in place to accomplish it? There is no perfect plan. But when things dont fall neatly into place, you must continue trying to accomplish the vision. You learn and keep going, keeping the...