Health Management Technology articles from November 2008

Health Management Technology archives from November 2008

What truly matters.(From the Editor)
November 1, 2008... Well, it's November. As we wind down the year it's important to remember that healthcare is bigger than politics. Yes, we elect officials to represent our interests and we empower them to chart our course; however, healthcare survived past...

EMR adoption success limited.(Briefly)(electronic medical records )(Survey)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... A new study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation says that U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) efforts encouraging adoption of electronic medical records (EMR) have met with some success so far. The recent Stark Law IT...

Never events use may discourage reporting.(Briefly)(Brief article)(Conference notes)
November 1, 2008... The National Quality Forum (NQF) says utilization of any of its 28 "never events" for the automatic denial of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) payments to caregivers will discourage reporting and possibly affect patient safety....

NHIN trial Webcast.(RHIOs and the NHIN)(Nationwide Health Information Network)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... The Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) project's recent demonstration of the second phase of testing was lauded as a success by The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. The trial implementations are...

CMS IPPS final rule changes.(Medicare/Medicaid)(inpatient prospective payment system)(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... CMS released its fiscal year 2009 inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) final rule. The rule scales back the proposed new quality measures from 43 to 13 measures that hospitals must report to receive a full market basket update in 2010....

State law to boost physician numbers.(Healthcare and Government)(Survey)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... The state of Massachusetts created legislation providing a number of financial incentives and programs for new physicians to fill vacancies created by those retiring from or leaving primary care due to long and unpredictable hours and...

Independent reviews for California insurers.(Health Plans and Payers)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Aetna Inc. will give physician panels the final say on canceling individual and family policies for sick customers suspected of obtaining them through false or incomplete information. According to California Insurance Department spokesman...

Toward a unified view: can the convergence of PACS with clinical systems accomplish true clinical data consolidation?(PACS/RIS/Imaging)(picture archive and communication system)
November 1, 2008... Today's enterprise-based applications are dramatically changing the business of healthcare, from streamlining information flow to redefining how patients and healthcare organizations interact. The new technology spans basic business processes...

Reach out and save someone: Georgia neurologists develop a Web-based ASP that eliminates the geographic penalty typically associated with rural stroke patients.(Telemedicine/Telehealth: Case History)
November 1, 2008... Every 45 seconds, someone in the U.S. suffers a stroke. An estimated 700,000 cases of stroke in this country each year have elevated this condition to the third leading cause of death and the leading cause of long-term disability. In 1996,...

Keeping an eye on the prize: an automated posting and receivables management solution assists an optometric practice reduce A/R and maximize its human resources.(RCM: Financial Information Systems: Case History)(Horizon Eye Care)(Case study)
November 1, 2008... With a new chief executive officer at the helm and opportunities for growth on the horizon, one of North Carolina's premier optometric practices saw an unprecedented opportunity to improve how it managed receivables and revenues. To that end,...

One-stop shopping: a South Texas regional health system adopts a clinical information system that integrates patient data from five facilities.(Clinical Information Systems: Case History)
November 1, 2008... In a busy regional healthcare system with multiple facilities, physicians and nurses often move between hospitals and departments. The ability to place clinical information from all the facilities into one central electronic data...

Breaking the mold: adapting a one-size-fits-all approach to LIS for a growing NYC medical lab requires a few adjustments.(Laboratory Information Systems: Case History)(Shiel Medical Laboratory )(Case study)
November 1, 2008... Off-the-shelf software suites may fulfill the expectations of many but every application of the technology is different, with no two organizations utilizing it in exactly the same manner. For those that require more than what's included in the...

Color-critical LCD.(Special Section Hardware: Monitors and Displays)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Based on HP's DreamColor Engine technology, the LP2480zx Professional Display features support for more than 1 billion active colors--64 times the colors traditional LCDs support. Innovative 30-bit LCD panel...

Exceptional clarity, vibrant color.(Special Section Hardware: Monitors and Displays)
November 1, 2008... The Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP 24-inch widescreen flat panel TFT active matrix LCD monitor provides excellent color accuracy and uniformity from a 3000:1 contrast ratio and 400 cd/[m.sup.2] brightness. Additionally, its 1920 x 1200 resolution and...

Large-screen plasma displays.(Special Section Hardware: Monitors and Displays)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The PlasmaSync Professional Series 42- (42XP 10), 50- (50XP 10) and 60-inch (60XP 10) high-definition displays from NEC reproduce brilliant colors, perfect whites and deep, rich blacks; they sharpen text for easy...

LAN/WAN compatible LCD displays.(Special Section Hardware: Monitors and Displays)
November 1, 2008... The Samsung 400DXn and 460DXn SynMaster Professional Network Digital Information Display LCD monitors support both downloading and streaming of files from multiple content servers and offer WAN and LAN networkability via MagicNet Pro...

Medical grade LCD surgical monitors.(Special Section Hardware: Monitors and Displays)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The 19-inch Sony LMD-1950MD/HD includes a preinstalled BKM0243HS high-definition serial interface card in the option slot of the monitor that includes a 2-channel input and one channel output. The card can accept an...

Dicom-calibrated display.(Special Section Hardware: Monitors and Displays)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... The Planar Dome E4c is a 4-megapixel, 30-inch, bezel-less diagnostic display that is FDA 510(k) medically certified and can be used throughout a healthcare enterprise. Its widescreen 16:9 format eliminates image split caused by the bezel of a...

Portrait mode LCD monitor.(Special Section Hardware: Monitors and Displays)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The 65-inch Sharp PN-G655RUP 16:9 aspect ratio monitor offers high performance, excellent image quality and resolution, in addition to an integrated protective acrylic overlay. The overlay shield, with...

Patient-centric visual diagnoses.(Products and Services)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... The VisualDX visual diagnostic decision support solution tailors patient-relevant diagnoses with an extensive database of more than 16,000 digital medical images and information represented in more than 900 diagnoses. For day-to-day clinical...

RFID inventory management.(Products and Services)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Wavemark Inc. offers two new inventory management solutions for suppliers (WaveMark Real-Time and WaveMark Mobile), both RFID-enabled, to enhance the company's successful clinical inventory management system, WaveMark CIMS. Both field...

Healthcare IT consulting services.(Products and Services)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... For small physician practices, the AC Group offers IT advisory and consulting services that assists these healthcare providers to answer questions such as: are you prepared to take the leap into the electronic medical record, can you always...

Wolters Kluwer Health.(NewsMakers)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Hawthorn Medical Associates selected ProVation Medical, from Wolters Kluwer Health, for multispecialty nursing and physician procedure documentation and coding. The New Bedford, Mass.-based multispecialty medical group installed the software at...

Netezza.(NewsMakers)(Marshfield Clinic selected a data warehousing from Netezza )(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Marshfield Clinic, one of the largest private, multispecialty group practices in the U.S., selected a data warehousing and analytic appliance from Netezza for analyzing financial and operational performance as well as for assessing clinical...

Care Management International.(NewsMakers)(WNS)(medical management and care management services)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Offshore business process outsourcing services provider WNS and Care Management International are offering a comprehensive suite of smart sourcing medical management and care management services through a new alliance. Leveraging each company's...

Carefx Corp.(NewsMakers)(North East Florida Regional Health Organization)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... The North East Florida Regional Health Organization (NEFRHO) selected the Fusion application from Carefx to support the development of a federated healthcare information exchange and to enable timely and accurate online exchange of clinical...

D2 Sales.(NewsMakers)(University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey installed kiosk)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey installed the My Patient Passport Express kiosk for use with its patient check-in program. The kiosk allows patients to check in, make future appointments and update their medical history using a...

TeleTracking Technologies.(NewsMakers)(VHA)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... VHA is offering its 1,400 member hospitals the option to license patient flow automation technology under a new agreement with TeleTracking Technologies. The software and patient flow redesign services are expected to assist the national...

Collaborative accountability.(Thought Leaders)
November 1, 2008... As the cost of healthcare continues on its upward trajectory, the calls for accountability grow louder. Consumers demand that care be affordable, accessible and of high quality. Providers believe that the system must provide them with fair...