Health Management Technology articles from July 2003

Health Management Technology archives from July 2003

Inches, pages, ambitions and dreams. (From The Editor).
July 1, 2003... Last summer and fall, a curious pattern of behavior began to emerge among PR people, that group of internal and agency-based news nuts that pitch stories to magazines like this one on behalf of vendors. The first couple of times I heard the...

IT spending doubles at MCOs. (Payer Automation).
July 1, 2003... Managed care organizations (MCOs) are automating operations at unprecedented levels, with information systems accounting for the largest growth in administrative spending. So says the Cap Gemini Ernst & Young 2002 Benchmarking Study. MCOs...

Implant chip could carry medical records. (Data Storage Technology).
July 1, 2003... Healthcare providers, get ready. Whether or not your organization is among the up to 30 percent that already use an electronic medical record (EMR) system, it may not be long before your patients walk in with EMRs embedded in their arms. ...

E-health insurance for HIPAA. (Briefly).
July 1, 2003... A professional liability insurance policy is now available to protect healthcare organizations against the cost of potential HIPAA violations with electronic-based and Web-enabled transactions, especially in managed care settings. Offered by...

Office users get creative. (Briefly).
July 1, 2003... In an effort to recognize ordinary people using ordinary software to accomplish extraordinary results, Microsoft recently honored several healthcare professionals for their creative and innovative use of Microsoft Office. Results were announced...

Big savings from staffing solution. (Briefly).
July 1, 2003... Sharp HealthCare, the largest healthcare provider in San Diego with four acute care hospitals, three specialty hospitals and three medical groups, reports saving almost $18 million since 1996, or more than $3 million annually, by using Per-Se...

Groups build toward universal health record. (Interoperability Standards).
July 1, 2003... ASTM International, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), and Massachusetts Medical Society have joined forces to establish a new standard type of medical record, the Continuity of Care Record (CCR). The CCR would be an...

Sutter Health earmarks $25 million to combat medication errors. (Patient Safety).
July 1, 2003... Sutter Health, a not-for-profit network of healthcare providers serving more than 20 northern California counties, has committed to spending $25 million on a bar code system to help reduce medication errors. The IDN selected the Bridge MedPoint...

Web-based tool offers hospitals quick checkup on patient safety. (Patient Safety).
July 1, 2003... The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has developed a Web-based tool to help hospitals enhance patient safety performance by detecting potential medical errors in patients who have undergone medical or surgical treatment....

Insurers struggle with web-based customer service. (Internet Self-Service).
July 1, 2003... While automation among payers is increasing, a new study finds that health insurers fall short when it comes to providing customer service over the Internet. The report, by Forrester Research, Cambridge, Mass., indicates the shortcomings are...

Editorial clarification. (Industry Watch).
July 1, 2003... The May 2003 issue of HMT contained an inaccurate description of results achieved by Hampshire OB/GYN using PrimeSuite from Greenway Medical Technologies. In discussing customized reports that allow the practice to accurately track payments...

Untethered: users cite convenience and efficiency as main reasons for adopting wireless technology, and demonstrate gains in productivity. (Wireless).
July 1, 2003... For some, wireless is the beginning of a journey on uncharted seas that promises both challenges and rewards. For others, it is simply another step toward achieving greater efficiency and productivity on a path already well-charted. Those...

On the job with wireless. (Wireless).
July 1, 2003... IPC-The Hospitalist Company, a privately group specializing in the care of hospitalized patients, uses wireless technology to surmount three of healthcare's greatest challenges: enhancing quality of care, reducing administrative costs and...

Smooth sailing on the purchasing stream: purchasing tool helps health system integrate legacy systems and streamline order processes. (E-Procurement: case history).
July 1, 2003... When a large healthcare organization must stream-line disparate legacy purchasing systems into a cohesive unit, the challenges can seem immeasurable. That's exactly the scenario one Midwest-based system faced--and met with noteworthy results....

Critical intervention: surgical ICU of a Utah academic hospital benefits from software's antibiotic recommendations and alerts. (Decision support: case history).
July 1, 2003... Prior to November 2001, physicians in the 12-bed Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) of Salt Lake City-based University of Utah Health Sciences Center (UUHSC) relied on themselves, surgical residents in training and nurses to gather data about...

HIPAA training comes of age: Oregon IDN trades its classroom approach to HIPAA training for online education and experiences overwhelming acceptance by employees. (HIPAA Compliance).
July 1, 2003... How do you train an enterprise of 7,800 employees for HIPAA compliance in two months--and still save 14,000 employee hours and close to $400,000 in the process? You don't do it in a classroom, that's for sure. That was one lesson Legacy...

Lessons learned from the inside: a physician who started an entrepreneurial IT business shares his experiences in staving off disaster. (Disaster Planning/Power Supply).
July 1, 2003... Along with clinicians' increased reliance on IT comes the expectation that the information stored on computer systems be reliable and accessible on a 24/7 basis and from anywhere there is Internet access. While technology advancements greatly...

Toward growth in transcription solutions: healthcare providers can gain minutes and even hours of efficiency with transcription technology. (Voice Recognition/Transcription).
July 1, 2003... Healthcare facilities, challenged by the demands on physicians' time and increased documentation requirements, spend an estimated $10 billion to $20 billion each year for medical documentation and transcription. In response, healthcare...

The culture of safety: clinical knowledge and even the right IT aren't enough to guarantee patient safety. A fundamental cultural shift is required. (Error Tracking/Patient Safety).
July 1, 2003... A patient arrives at the hospital with acute myocardial infarction. He is treated, stabilized over several days and sent home. Although it is known that beta-blockers can reduce further risk of death from another cardiac episode, no...

Stepping out: a Texas orthopedic practice uses a practice management platform to establish independence. (Internet applications/ASPs: case history).
July 1, 2003... In early 2001, The San Antonio Orthopaedic Group LLP (TSAOG), an orthopedic practice composed of 14 providers and four locations in the greater San Antonio area, wanted to become independent from a larger orthopedic group in Houston of which it...

Wireless hotlist.
July 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...

Flexible appointment scheduling. (New Products & Services).
July 1, 2003... Pro Sched version 3 offers new features to the Windows-based software package for scheduling appointments. They include a more flexible scheduling grid, custom reporting that allows users to modify existing reports or build their own, a...

Online UPS system. (New Products & Services).
July 1, 2003... Combining double-conversion technology, expandable battery run times, remote manageability and installation flexibility, the SU1500RTXL2U online UPS system is designed to provide clean, reliable power to sensitive IT and telecom equipment. It...

Health plan access via internet. (New Products & Services).
July 1, 2003... Facets Extended Enterprise, or Facets [e.sup.2], is HIPAA-ready enterprise software designed to give members, physicians, employers and brokers direct, real-time access to their health plan's back-office information via the Internet. It...

Web-based clinical data system. (New Products & Services).
July 1, 2003... The Elysium Distribution Manager allows for all clinical results and documents--whether mailed, faxed or sent electronically--stored in the same format to be tracked and managed with one Web-based system, eliminating time spent filing and...

Fraudulent claims detection. (New Products & Services).
July 1, 2003... Predictive Fraud Detection for Healthcare is designed to be an integrated tool for healthcare organizations to minimize risk by detecting claimant and provider fraud using predictive analytics. Comprised of Sun Fire V480 and V880 servers, Sun...

Automated staff scheduling. (New Products & Services).
July 1, 2003... Staffing Center combines staff scheduling, patient classification, real-time staff management and workload fore casting in one software system. Using its own patient data supply, the system bases staffing projections on historical workload...

Web-based practice management. (New Products & Services).
July 1, 2003... Practice Solutions is a suite of Web-based practice management and clinical tools intended to help enhance practice efficiency and patient care. It provides applications for billing and appointment scheduling systems, computerized patient...

Improved cardiac DICOM service. (New Products & Services).
July 1, 2003... Version 1.5 software for the Image V & Information Management Service, an Internet-based DICOM image archiving and sharing service, offers 75 new features to enhance a Web-based user's experience when accessing and sharing cardiac studies. The...

Antibiotic delivery reminder. (New Products & Services).
July 1, 2003... Version 3.0 software for the DocuSys System, an anesthesia medication error prevention system, adds Antibiotic Check, which searches for documentation in a patient's preoperative electronic record that an antibiotic has been delivered to the...

Remote telemedicine device. (New Products & Services).
July 1, 2003... Designed for remote medical emergencies experienced by people without medical training, VitalLink 1200 brings medical expertise to people in remote areas 24 hours a day. Its voice prompts and on-screen instructions guide the user on how to...

Managed care integration. (New Products & Services).
July 1, 2003... Integrated Medical Management is a care management solution integrating industry-standard clinical criteria and rules to employ a consistent rule set across all care management decisions. For managed care organizations, it is designed to reduce...

Disease management tool. (New Products & Services).
July 1, 2003... Incorporating millions of healthcare encounters, co-morbidity factors and disease states, the Patient Disease Index is designed to predict whether individuals who have or have had certain diseases are likely to develop other health problems...

Putting your practice online: it's a good thing. (Viewpoint).(Editorial)
July 1, 2003... The promise of online physician services is so compelling that practices are now considering multiple options to make this level of patient support a reality. A recent study by Manhattan Research suggests that consumers are ready to move...