Health Management Technology articles from March 2005

Health Management Technology archives from March 2005

Time for a change.(From the Editor)(Physician practices)(Editorial)(Cover Story)
March 1, 2005... In its Jan. 31 issue, U.S. News & World Report's cover story stopped me in my tracks. On the cover, "Who Needs Doctors? Your future physician might not be an M.D.--and you might be better off," said a mouthful, as did "Doctors Vanish From View"...

Savings outweigh high cost of IT exchange.(National Health Information Network)(Information Technology)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The price tag to build a national system of healthcare information exchange over the next 10 years is a hefty $276 billion, according to a study by the Center for Information Technology Leadership (CITL) at Partners HealthCare System in...

HCOs advise how to build the "medical internet".(National Health Information Network)(Health Care Organizations)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Brailer speaks and healthcare organizations listen--and respond. Brailer received more than 500 communications in response to his November 2004 request for ideas on how to design a national health information network. Here is what healthcare...

IT key to reducing medical errors.(Patient Safety)(Information Technology)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... In the wake of Minnesota hospitals revealing almost 100 medical errors during a 15-month period, Kenneth Kizer, M.D., M.P.H., president and CEO of the National Quality Forum, says healthcare IT can be a big part of the solution. "Whether...

NCQA program recognizes electronic communications.(Health Plans)(National Committee for Quality Assurance)
March 1, 2005... Thirty-nine health plans covering more than 11.5 million members will participate in a new "Quality Plus" program sponsored by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). The health plans will undergo electronic surveys, beginning in...

Three out of four offices do not have EHRs.(Physician Practices)(electronic health records)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Physician practices have a long way to go in adopting electronic health records (EHRs), according to two recent surveys by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA). Preliminary data from 1,061 respondents in mid-January to an e-mail...

Brailer's office may be back in the money.(Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Brailer's office may be back in the money. After a $46 million shortfall in funding Brailer's organization, President Bush is now asking Congress to restore the requested $50 million to the 2005 budget to fund healthcare IT. Bush is also asking...

Medicare tests P4P for physicians.(Pay for Performance)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Medicare tests P4P for physicians. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is pilot-testing a 3-year pay-for-performance project among 10 large medical groups starting April 1. CMS will pay bonuses and fee-for-service rates if the...

New regulations for e-prescribing.(electronic prescribing.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... New regulations for e-prescribing. The Department of Health and Human Services has announced new regulations for governing how doctors send prescriptions electronically to pharmacies and access patient information online. The proposed rule will...

e-prescribing findings.(electronic prescriptions)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... e-prescribing findings. More then 400 of 125,000 e-prescriptions written during a yearlong study generated serious drug interaction or allergy warnings that prescribers acted on. Other study results indicated that fewer hospitalizations and...

Crunch time: new generation of financial information systems makes crunching numbers--accessing data to make smart decisions--faster and easier.(Financial Information Systems)
March 1, 2005... In what seems like only a few short years, financial information systems (FIS) have evolved from simple, back-office support systems into fully integrated solutions that can handle everything from payroll to accounts receivable and revenue...

PACS is a crowd-pleaser in healthcare: California healthcare system meticulously plans going filmless via a PACS installation, and finds abundant acceptance by physicians.(Picture Archiving and Communication System / Diagnostic Imaging)(Cottage Health System)
March 1, 2005... The motivation for Cottage Health System (CHS) to consider a picture archiving and communication system (PACS) was a problem shared by many hospitals: All imaging studies and reports were only in hard copy. Efficiency suffered because images...

Lab links to patient safety: pushing lab results to clinicians and enabling Web access gets timely information into the hands of decision-makers for this West Coast health system.(Laboratory Information Systems)(Santa Barbara Medical Foundation Clinic)
March 1, 2005... Because a large majority of clinical decisions are based on the results generated by clinical laboratory departments, many labs are evaluating new ways to efficiently get information into the hands of clinicians while minimizing the potential...

Stitching up surgical costs: OR management system gives Texas pediatric hospital improved financials, automated reporting, decentralized scheduling and streamlined billing.(Perioperative Information Systems)
March 1, 2005... As many patients know firsthand, surgery is a critical and often lifesaving part of the healthcare delivery system. It is also the financial lifeblood of a hospital--a revenue producer that can't afford to be undermanaged or inefficient. But...

Making beautiful music together: a behavioral health hospital in Maine and an acute care IS vendor break new ground in IT.(Behavioral Health)(Spring Harbor Hospital)
March 1, 2005... Spring Harbor Hospital, a 105-bed psychiatric facility in Portland, Maine, needed to develop a complete, integrated information system that met the unique needs of a mental health facility. Medical Information Technology Inc. (MEDITECH), an...

Safeguarding data integrity from power failure: the changing healthcare environment challenges large provider organizations to ensure a reliable power supply and protect patient data for all their facilities.(Disaster Planning/Power Supply)(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
March 1, 2005... Today's healthcare delivery system involves a complex array of medical computerized information databases and instrumentation. These microprocessor-based computers are extremely sensitive to power anomalies such as brownouts, blackouts, spikes...

Four F's equal A+: vice president and CFO Brian Dieter of Mary Greeley Medical Center discusses what it takes for a healthcare enterprise to replace its core system--and succeed with a big-bang implementation.(The Corner Office)(Chief Financial Officer)
March 1, 2005... Three years ago, Brian Dieter, vice president and CFO at Mary Greeley Medical Center (MGMC) in Ames, Iowa, told Health Management Technology that his organization makes IT purchase decisions based on a system he calls the Four...

Quality with teeth: Washington medical groups join with Premera Blue Cross to quantitatively measure quality and quality improvement.(Health Plans & IT)
March 1, 2005... Talk is cheap. It's easy to banter through a healthcare IT discussion inserting the occasional "patient safety" or "quality improvement" phrase when it enhances the discussion. It's harder to take constructive, targeted action--and to put...

Financial information systems hotlist.
March 1, 2005... Financial Information Systems HotList Company athenahealth Inc. Cerner Corp. RSLeads Number www.rsleads.com/ www.rsleads.com/ 503ht-227 503ht-228...

Allscripts Healthcare Solutions.(NewsMakers)(Cornerstone Health Care Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Cornerstone Health Care, a multispecialty group in North Carolina, selected Allscripts Healthcare Solutions' TouchWorks electronic medical record for use by more than 100 of its providers across 26 locations.

Amisys Synertech Inc.(NewsMakers)(Assurant Health)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Assurant Health, which provides individual and small group health insurance coverage, has selected Amisys Synertech Inc. to help launch administrative and service enhancements to its health savings account (HSA) product feature. Amisys...

Broadlane.(NewsMakers)(National Oncology Alliance Inc.)(Broadlane Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Broadlane, a supplier of business process services to the healthcare industry, has acquired National Oncology Alliance Inc. (NOA), a provider of services for oncology physician practices. NOA, a privately held company based in San Rafael,...

Lawson Software.(NewsMakers)(Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center signs contract)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, a 436-bed acute care, nonprofit teaching hospital serving eastern Los Angeles and western San Bernardino counties, licensed Lawson Software's Enterprise Performance Management and Healthcare Supply Chain...

Zix Corp.(NewsMakers)(Group & Pension Administrators Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Employee benefits administration firms Group & Pension Administrators Inc. of Richardson, Texas, and Pittmann & Associates Inc. of Memphis, Tenn., selected Zix Corp. services to protect the confidential information of clients and comply with...

IntelliCare Inc.(NewsMakers)(North Shore-LongIslnd Jewish Health System)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System has chosen IntelliCare Inc. to manage its physician referral services. Based in Great Neck, N.Y., North Shore-LIJ is a nonprofit secular health system with 16 hospitals and more than 7,000...

MEDai.(NewsMakers)(St. John's Health Plans)(MEDai's Risk Navigator )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... St. John's Health Plans, headquartered in Springfield, Mo., will utilize MEDai's Risk Navigator Clinical predictive modeling solution to proactively identify high-cost/high-risk members. St. John's Health Plans is part of the St. John's Health...

Health Access Solutions.(NewsMakers)(Greater Newport Physicians )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Greater Newport Physicians (GNP) has signed a software license agreement with Health Access Solutions for its Access Express, a Web- and protocol-based tool aimed at expediting automated referrals. Health Access Solutions is the software...

Provox Technologies Corp.(NewsMakers)(Warren Hospital)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Warren Hospital has selected Provox Technologies Corp.'s VoxReports as its speech recognition-based radiology-reporting workflow solution. Warren Hospital wants to improve the turnaround time of its radiology reports and reduce the time it...

McKesson Corp.(NewsMakers)(Baptist Health Systems Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Baptist Health System in San Antonio and South Texas has selected McKesson Corp. to deploy two of McKesson's integrated supply management solutions: SupplyScan, a point-of-use automation solution, and Pathways Materials Management, an IT system...

Interwoven Inc.(NewsMakers)(Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) has purchased the Interwoven Enterprise Web Change Management solution, powered by Interwoven OpenDeploy, to enable faster, accurate and cost-effective synchronization of a disaster recovery site...

UnitedHealth Group.(NewsMakers)(Definity Health Corp.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... UnitedHealth Group has agreed to acquire Definity Health Corp., a private Minneapolis-based company that provides health benefits to nearly 100 employers under self-funded benefit plan arrangements. Following the merger, Definity Health...

Voice Command dictation device.(New Products & Services)(Royal Philips Electronics)(Pocket Memo 9450 VC)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The Digital Pocket Memo 9450 VC with Voice Command is a handheld digital dictation recorder enhanced with the ability to assign work type codes or patient or case ID numbers by speaking them, permitting fast and convenient marking of dictation...

Radiology reference text for PDAs.(New Products & Services)(personal digital assistants)(HealthHelp)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The electronic version of the Medical Imaging Consultant radiology reference text is designed for use on physicians' PDAs to help reduce incidents of incorrect radiology ordering. Arranged primarily by body system for both adult and pediatric...

Medical-grade projection systems.(New Products & Services)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... DICOM Theater Lite and DICOM Theater Pro are next-generation, medical-grade projection systems intended for review and conferencing environments. They have been optimized for PACS viewing, but they also display images from endoscopy,...

Enhanced EMRs software.(New Products & Services)(Spring Medical Systems Inc.)(Electronic Medical Records)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... SpringCharts EMR version 7.0 adds new features and functionality designed to improve usability, workflow and the quality of charting. They include: File Cabinet Document Manager, which allows the caregiver to access, view and modify common...

Patient ID scanner.(New Products & Services)(Ambir Technology, Inc.)(Visigo A6 Identity cards Scanner)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The Visigo A6 ID Scanner scans ID cards, driver's licenses and other forms of documentation of varying thickness or that use embossed characters or images to digitally capture patient information. It can be used not only to improve care and...

RIS/PACS suite enhancements.(New Products & Services)(Health Imaging Group)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Kodak's newest RIS/PACS suite supports native applications such as 3-D volume rendering so radiologists can easily interact with studies and their reconstructions on the same diagnostic workstation. It provides faster, more convenient reading...

Versatile handheld PC.(New Products & Services)(Data Evolution Corp.)(personal computer)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Usable in notebook, tablet or presentation modes with keyboard, touchscreen or handwriting input, the CLIO C-1050 features a patented SwingTop pivoting arm and a 9.4-inch diagonal color display with a 180-degree rotation that gives the user the...

Time-of-service collections module.(New Products & Services)(Medical Present Value Inc.)(Patient Portion Pricer )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The Patient Portion Pricer is a collections module that calculates expected patient financial responsibility before or at the time of service, based on tools and data that it provides to generate an estimate of what the health plan will allow...

Voice-based scheduling system.(New Products & Services)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Addressing patients with a natural-sounding voice, Onsei Speech Empowered Scheduling (SES) allows practices to optimize setting appointments, while providing maximum self-service scheduling flexibility and convenience at any time. Designed to...

Virtual machine platform.(New Products & Services)(Microsoft Corp.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Complemented by the Windows Server 2003 operating system, Virtual Server 2005 provides a powerful virtual machine platform that enables administrators and developers to achieve increased operational efficiency in three areas: software testing...

BPM suite for physician practices.(New Products & Services)(MEDIBIS)(Business Process Management)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... MEDIBIS is a suite of Web-based reporting tools and data processes designed to provide easy access to high-quality integrated enterprise data so that physician practice administrators can improve decision-making and business performance by...

Handheld, POC charge capture.(New Products & Services)(MEDTRON Software Intelligence Corp.)(point of care )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The MEDTRON Handheld Charge Capture Solution incorporates Ingenious Med's IMBILLS-Office mobile charge capture software with the MEDTRON Medical Practice Management Solution to produce a next-generation charge capture and clinical rounding...

Healthcare IT Tipping Point?(Thought Leaders)
March 1, 2005... Several years ago, a friend and former McKinsey consultant recommended that I read what was then a new book, "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference," by Malcolm Gladwell. I eventually purchased the book, thinking that...