Health Management Technology articles from May 2003

Health Management Technology archives from May 2003

Kicking and screaming. (From The Editor).(Editorial)
May 1, 2003... That's how I have entered into most discussions of an electronic newsletter. In publishing, e-newsletters are a hot topic to those on the sender and sponsor ends of the equation. The recipient end of the equation has remained mysteriously...

FDA introduces bar coding rule, forecasts more tech push. (Patient Safety).
May 1, 2003... Following through on a pledge from last year to assist in reducing medication errors, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in mid-March proposed regulations mandating the use of bar code labeling on all drugs and blood products administered in...

University launches Internet-based error tracking. (Error Tracking).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... The University of California has launched an Internet-based system to help track medical errors at its five campus medical centers. Developed by the university and scheduled for launch in March 2003, the system will allow the centers to track...

Feds pursue e-standards.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Three federal agencies--Health and Human Services, Defense and Veterans Affairs--have agreed to use a set of uniform standards for the electronic exchange of clinical health information within federal agencies. The effort will include adopting...

QuadraMed enters CPOE race.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... QuadraMed Corp., Reston, Va., has released its computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system, joining an increasingly crowded space where vendors hope to capitalize on plans by nearly two-thirds of healthcare providers to implement CPOE in...

Proving HIPAA privacy commitment.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... URAC's board of directors has approved the nation's first independent HIPAA privacy accreditation program. Accreditation enables healthcare organizations to display a commitment to fair information practices and to demonstrate that they have...

New HEDIS tool.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Medstat, Ann Arbor, Mich., and Catalyst Technologies, Atlanta, have formed an alliance to provide health plans with a new Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) tool. Catalyst will integrate a Medstat point-and-click front-end...

Studies to measure impact of e-prescribing. (Physician Practice).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Healthcare industry stats indicate that somewhere between 6 percent and 11 percent of the nation's 690,000 practicing physicians currently use e-prescribing technology. Aetna, Advanced Concepts USP and the University of Pennsylvania Health...

CIGNA: online data missing the mark. (Internet Healthcare).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... In sharp contrast to many studies that say healthcare searches rank high in Web surfing activity, insurance giant CIGNA HealthCare indicates that Americans are nearly twice as likely to use the Internet to research vacations than their own...

HHS launches physician PDA alert program. (Handhelds).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began testing in mid-April a system using handheld PDAs for transmitting urgent information about biological agents to clinicians. The three-month test of the PDA network is designed to gauge...

Insurers test compensating physicians for Web consultations. (Health Plans).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... A small but growing number of health plans and insurers are beginning to test the value of compensating physicians for online consultations. Most recently, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA)joined the movement when it announced a...

EMRs/CPRs HotList. (Industry Watch).(Editorial)
May 1, 2003... To include a broad range of articles in this issue plus full coverage of the 2002 What Works Awards, we have located the EMRs/CPRs HotList for May on our Web site only. Logon to www.healthmgttech.com. On our home page, at the upper left, is a...

Having it your way: three physicians who were early adopters and who remain vocal EMR advocates share their insights about the utilization, challenges and benefits of EMRs. (EMRs/CPRs)(Cover Story).
May 1, 2003... For the growing number of physicians moving from paper charts to electronic medical records (EMRs), their choice of a software product is driven largely by a desire to retain control over the way they practice medicine. David Bauer, M.D.,...

Smart storage: Texas cancer center ensures continuous treatment by using emerging storage networking technology. (Data storage: case history).
May 1, 2003... Founded in 1974, San Antonio, Texas-based Cancer Therapy and Research Center (CTRC) is a world leader in cancer treatment and research. Since its founding, the not-for-profit center has handled nearly 1 million patient visits, and in 2002, more...

Best of the best: HMT announces winners from its annual What Works competition, recognizing the best technology solutions for 2002. (What Works Awards 2002).
May 1, 2003... Every year, Health Management Technology's What Works case histories develop more personality and a greater identity of their own. HMT readers rely on What Works case histories to profile healthcare IT in working environments like hospitals,...

Boston Medical Center: for implementation of a clinical information system with CPOE that has reduced the potential for medical errors and virtually eliminated the processes of verbal and handwritten orders. (What Works Awards 2002: 1st Place).
May 1, 2003... A primary teaching affiliate for Boston University School of Medicine, the 547-licensed bed Boston Medical Center provides a full spectrum of pediatric and adult care services. But in 2000, a competitive healthcare market, regulatory issues and...

Capitol ENT: for implementation of a document management system that, combined with its EMR, made this specialty practice truly paperless. (What Works Awards 2002: 2nd Place).
May 1, 2003... Capitol ENT is an ear, nose and throat specialty practice with three locations, six physicians and 50 additional employees serving 120 to 140 patients a day in the Raleigh, N.C., area. For almost a decade, an advanced electronic medical records...

Horizon Radiology: for outsourcing IT management and monitoring to improve access, speed and capacity. (What Works Awards 2002: 3rd Place).
May 1, 2003... Horizon Radiology is a Houston-based radiology group that provides an on-call service to more than 50 hospitals and radiology practices throughout the country. Using telemedicine, its radiologists are on-call nights and weekends so that its...

Panel of judges. (The Judges).
May 1, 2003... Health Management Technology gratefully recognizes the work of the 2002 What Works Awards panel of judges. These individuals have generously dedicated their time and expertise to reading, comparing and evaluating more than 20 What Works case...

Biometric identification: ultrasonic systems can succeed where optical systems may not. (Security).
May 1, 2003... As the healthcare industry searches for ways to reduce costs while improving the security and privacy of patient information, the subject of biometrics (e.g., finger imaging, hand geometry, and voice, iris and facial scans) inevitably arises....

Medical imaging display. (Monitors & Displays).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Designed for medical applications requiring diagnostic image quality, the SMD 21500 D is a 21.3-inch, grayscale flat-panel display with a resolution of 2,048 by 2,560. It has a contrast ratio of 600:1, viewing angles of 170 degrees horizontally...

Widescreen CRT. (Monitors & Displays).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Utilizing Xtra Space Design, the 201B45 is a 21-inch Energy Star-compliant CRT monitor with a maximum depth of 18.4 inches. Its non-glare tube delivers a recommended resolution of 1,600 by 1,200, a maximum resolution of 1,920 by 1,440, and sRGB...

High-brightness grayscale display. (Monitors & Displays).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... The FP1900HBMAX is a 19-inch, 10-bit, grayscale active matrix LCD display operating at 800 nits of brightness with a 700:1 contrast ratio. Its 1,600 by 1,200 resolution provides 2 million pixels for the display of medical images for clinical...

LCD desktop touchmonitor. (Monitors & Displays).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... The 1825L is an 18-inch medical-grade LCD desktop touchmonitor, the latest addition to the Entuitive 5000 Series. Features include 170-degree horizontal and vertical viewing angles, a 400:1 contrast ratio, 1,280 by 1,024 resolution,...

Flat-panel patient-monitoring CRT. (Monitors & Displays).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Designed for patient monitoring applications, the VitalScreen S is a 15-inch flat-panel display that uses shielded components, UL 2601-certified electronics and a medical-grade power supply designed to meet patient safety regulations at the...

Payer-direct claims: for a Pennsylvania health system, the key to claims efficiency was a combination of technology and a do-it-yourself attitude. (What works: claims processing).(uses SSI Group's ClickON clams processing tools)
May 1, 2003... Even the best technology is still only a tool to help healthcare organizations move forward to achieve objectives. Our organization wanted to transmit claims directly to as many payers as possible and to acquire claims-editing software that...

Color LCD touchscreen. (Monitors & Displays).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... The X15 is a 15-inch, XGA, full-color active matrix LCD monitor that is available in three models: a non-touch LCD monitor with a brightness of 250 nits, a resistive touchscreen with a brightness of 200 nits, and a capacitive touchscreen with a...

Portrait, landscape color display. (Monitors & Displays).(Sharp LL-T1820 18" LCD monitor from Sharp Systems of America)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... The LL-T1820 is an 18-inch LCD monitor with 1,280 by 1,024 resolution, a brightness of 220 nits and a 400:1 contrast ratio with sRGB color space compliance. It has dual video inputs each with an analog/digital (DVI-I) connector, as well as an...

Flat-face CRT monitor. (Monitors & Displays).(AOC Monitors 7F)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... The 7F monitor offers a 17-inch, minimal-distortion flat face, 1,280 by 1,024 resolution, 0.21-mm dot pitch and multiple onscreen display functions. The Energy Star-compliant CRT monitor offers VESA, XGA, SVGA and VGA compatibility, measures...

All-around efficiency: Massachusetts OB/GYN practice improves its financial and administrative health with practice management software. (What works: practice management).(Hampshire OB/GYN uses Greenway Medical Technologies' PrimeSuite)
May 1, 2003... Almost every day, an OB/GYN practice is in the local news, closing its doors due to skyrocketing malpractice premiums, the impact of financial risk and slow or incorrect payer reimbursements. More than ever, having the right technology behind...

Healthcare IT solutions source. (New Products & Services).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Solutions Toolkit provides competitive and strategic information for the healthcare IT industry by combining vendor product information, provider purchasing patterns, product satisfaction, IT staff and operations statistics, market intelligence...

Document management system. (New Products & Services).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... OptiMaxx EIS permits healthcare facilities to store, retrieve and analyze information within a single department or across an enterprise. It can serve as an independent system at a single site or as a networked system with a hub connecting one...

Web-based claims management. (New Products & Services).(ZirMed System)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... The ZirMed System is a Web-based healthcare claims management system for physician practices; it can interface with practice management software, or claims data can be entered directly into it. The system offers: direct data entry or batch...

SSL-based remote access. (New Products & Services).(AEP Systems SureWare A-Gate )(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Designed for small and medium-size enterprises, SureWare A-Gate is an SSL VPN hardware appliance that provides secure and authenticated access from any standard Web browser to internal applications. It requires no changes to internal Web...

Lab data management software. (New Products & Services).(Data Innovations' Instrument Manager 8.01)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Version 8.01 of Instrument Manager, a Windows-based software product that interfaces up to 128 medical instruments such as laboratory analyzers, automation equipment and point-of-care devices simultaneously via serial cables or network, allows...

Modular high-end storage. (New Products & Services).(EMC Symmetrix DMX800)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... The Symmetrix DMX800 is a rack-mount, high-end, networked storage system that scales from eight to 16 front-end ports, from 1.2 TB to 17.5 TB of raw capacity (1 TB to 15.3 TB usable) and from 4 GB to 32 GB of global cache for open systems...

Improved EMR software. (New Products & Services).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... SpringCharts version 4.0 offers new features to increase the functionality and ease of use of the EMR software suite for independent medical practices. They include a more intuitive user interface, patient database search capability,...

Enhanced HIS accessibility. (New Products & Services).(MITEM's Vlue Iris)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Blue Iris uses an enhanced graphical interface to transform hospital information systems into clinician-friendly applications, delivering data directly to the desktop or any mobile computing device. Using a Web browser and a secure connection...

Change--for better or worse? (Viewpoint).(Industry Overview)
May 1, 2003... For many of us, change is not always a welcome visitor. Change for change's sake is the worst. Most of us are creatures of habit, and change forces us out of our personal comfort zone. Ironically, small changes are often the most disruptive...