Health Management Technology articles from April 2003

Health Management Technology archives from April 2003

IT reality show. (From The Editor).(Editorial)
April 1, 2003... Talk about validation. Talk about the virtuous self-restraint I exercised by not leaping across the HIMSS exhibit floor shouting, "I told you so." I rarely attend vendors' "news briefings" at HIMSS. Generally, they're not news, and they...

CPOE and bar coding are hottest techs. (CIO Survey).(computer-based practitioner order entry)
April 1, 2003... More than half of healthcare CIOs and IT executives rank patient safety as the top IT priority for their organizations in 2003, outpacing even HIPAA security and privacy requirements for attention this year, according to the leadership survey...

Searching for quality Web searches. (Internet).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... URAC and Consumer WebWatch, a nonprofit research project of Consumers Union, are collaborating to develop strategies to improve consumer health-related Internet searches. The first in-depth examination of the role of search engines in improving...

HHS lightens load in final security rules. (HIPAA Update).
April 1, 2003... After four years of development, proposal and comment, HHS issued final HIPAA security standards that are less prescriptive and more inviting of varied approaches to protect personal health information that is stored or transmitted...

New data helps evaluate coding. (Physician Practice).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Three new publications that summarize more than 42.5 million procedures by more than 10,000 providers into coding profiles can help medical practice administrators compare the coding behavior of their physicians to other doctors in the same...

Physicians plan open-source electronic record. (Physician Practice).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) announced plans to create a not-for-profit foundation to develop an open-source electronic health record (EHR). James C. Martin, M.D., and AAFP president says EHR systems are commercially...

Medical error case histories.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Viewing the Web as a platform to host an ongoing conference to help improve patient safety, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has launched a monthly peer-reviewed, Web-based medical journal that showcases patient safety...

AHA connects 50 Web sites.(American Hospital Association)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... The American Hospital Association in February completed its HospitalConnect Web portal, uniting 50 Internet sites from 22 organizations that serve healthcare providers. The new site, first prototyped in mid-2002, features an interactive...

Payer proactive online.(Blue Shield of California offers "Ask the Pharmacist" service on the Web)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Blue Shield of California, a 2.6 million-member not-for-profit health plan based in San Francisco, has launched "Ask the Pharmacist," a new service that allows members to query pharmacists at the University of California at San Francisco with...

Patient safety.(McKesson Admin-Rx handheld bar code scanner)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Pitt County Memorial Hospital (PCMH) of Greenville, NC, has licensed Admin-Rx from McKesson Corp. and begun deploying the wireless handheld bar code scanner system in all 40 of its patient care units. Caregivers use Admin-Rx at the point of...

Quality measures on the Web.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has launched a Web-based National Quality Measures Clearinghouse. The site is intended as a one-stop shop for physicians, hospitals, health plans and others interested in quality measures. It...

No more plain vanilla: choosing an HIS is a decision of epic proportion. While the system is still the proverbial workhouse, CIOs today look to the HIS for specific results and a demonstrable payoff in the future. (Healthcare Information Systems).
April 1, 2003... When picking a healthcare information system (HIS) or hospital information system, chief information officers are not swayed by vendors' lofty marketing campaigns. They know what they need--and what they want. Healthcare information...

Predicting levels of high risk: Minnesota health plan decreases hospital admission rates for high-risk members. (Disease management: case history).
April 1, 2003... One of the central questions in disease management (DM) today is whether it should address entire populations or target just those individuals at greatest health risk. HealthPartners, a nonprofit health plan that serves 680,000 members in...

Deploying secure, reliable wireless LANs in the healthcare environment. (Wireless).
April 1, 2003... For many healthcare institutions, wireless LANs (WLANs) have become a key component of the IT infrastructure. WLANs have moved into mainstream use by providing greater efficiency and accuracy to users of such mission-critical applications as...

Data analysis made easy: PBM provider improves its approach to streamlining customer queries. (Data warehousing: case history).(Pharmaceutical Benefit Management services)
April 1, 2003... Hidden in data collected from prescription drug claims are purchasing patterns that can help state agencies and insurance providers cut costs and improve spending efficiency. But collecting information from thousands of claims, compiling...

Bridging the gap: in-home monitoring device reduces cost of treating underserved populations in rural Alabama. (What works: telehealth/telemed).
April 1, 2003... Hypertension is more prevalent among Southerners than other Americans, according to the January 2000 issue of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. Rural residents are at an even greater risk. In the Third National Health and...

Efficient, accurate claims: Colorado healthcare organization maximizes its claims turnaround and accuracy with technology. (What works: document management).
April 1, 2003... Every organization involved in claims has two mandates for success: speed and accuracy. Our organization pursued and achieved those objectives by bringing the claims function in-house, securing the right counsel and purchasing the right...

Easy access: physicians and employees of Wichita healthcare organization gain the benefits of remote access. (Internet Security).
April 1, 2003... Michael Knocke was a man on a mission. As applications manager at Via Christi Regional Medical Center, a multicampus acute care facility in Wichita, KS, Knocke needed to provide 1,000 physicians with access to digitized radiological, filmless...

Opening the lines of communication: Blue Cross health plan uses the Internet to connect providers and streamline their transactions. (What works: managed care).
April 1, 2003... In today's paper- and phone-dependent healthcare industry, few managed care companies and health plans have properly taken advantage of the Internet to work with physician offices. Independence Blue Cross (IBC) in Philadelphia is an exception....

e-learning replaces classroom: Wisconsin healthcare network uses LMS to educate staff and to track federally mandated training. (Learning management systems: case history).
April 1, 2003... As healthcare facilities across the nation admit more patients, increase demands on doctors and face nursing shortages, they cannot afford to have their employees spend any more time taking federally mandated training than is necessary. They...

Healthcare information systems HotList.(Buyers Guide)
April 1, 2003... Information in the HotList is based on survey responses collected from companies with products in the category covered. The HotList is not intended to reflect the quality of products or services, nor is it intended to be an inclusive list of...

POC patient management. (New Products & Services).(MDeverywhere 7.0)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... MDeverywhere version 7.0 features improved solutions that adapt to different healthcare environments by further customizing the way physicians and administrators are able to manage information to fit individual needs, preferences and...

Medical costs analysis. (New Products & Services).(HealthWeaver 2.0)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... HealthWeaver 2.0 is the upgraded version of the integrated data warehousing/ business intelligence/ end-user reporting software system, providing greater power and ease of use for managers of organizations who need to monitor and control...

Invoice control, flexibility. (New Products & Services).(SmartStream Billing )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... SmartStream Billing is an invoice system for client/server platforms that streamlines the billing process and delivers new functionality. It allows users to more fully leverage their enterprise policies and manage a range of customer billing...

Health information library. (New Products & Services).(HealthLine upgrades CareAdvisor)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... The updated version of CareAdvisor, a health information library that contains more than 500 prerecorded health topics written and re viewed by medical experts, includes 20 new topics and the ability to access all topics online as MP3 files,...

Electronic formulary solution. (New Products & Services).(Formulary Advisor)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Formulary Advisor simplifies the development of an online formulary and lets prescribing physicians in a hospital view a complete and up-to-date formulary in real time on a desktop, laptop or PDA. The Administrator Component is accessible only...

Medication errors reporting. (New Products & Services).( Medmarx 5.0 )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Medmarx version 5.0 is the latest edition of the national, anonymous medication error reporting program for hospitals and healthcare systems. The upgraded Internet-accessible program and quality improvement tool features: a redesigned...

Upgraded PACS system. (New Products & Services).(iSite enterprise FirstPACS)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Version 3.2 of iSite Enterprise FirstPACS adds CD authoring, JPEG 2000 compatibility, enhanced radiologist-reading functionality, integration with cardiology, advanced teleradiology, and critical care stations for the operating room and...

Server-based thin-client computing. (New Products & Services).(Neoware Systems Voyager)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Voyager provides all the benefits of a thin-client device--centralized and secure server-based computing--in an easy-to-use wireless tablet with handwriting recognition. It features a 12-inch touch screen display that provides up to 1,024 by...

Web-based PACS platform. (New Products & Services).(Amicas Vision Series)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... The Vision Series is a Web-based PACS platform designed to maximize workflow efficiency and to provide better service to radiology clients by accelerating the delivery of images and reports and extending access to vital patient information for...

Can PKI live up to its promise of meeting HIPAA requirement? (Viewpoint).(Public Key Encryption)
April 1, 2003... Imagine this scenario: A clinic wants to check the eligibility of a patient or submit a claim to the patient's insurance company. To accomplish these tasks, the clinic uses standard HIPAA formats, its existing Internet connection and public key...