Health Management Technology articles from October 2007

Health Management Technology archives from October 2007

Relationship building.(From the Editor)(Editorial)
October 1, 2007... One of the joys of being an editor is getting to work with some of the great or near great wordsmiths of our day. We accept submissions penned by M.D.s, RNs, practice managers, hospital administrators and industry executives. Each month, these...

Uninsured numbers increase.(Health Plans, Managed Care)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... The nation's total number of uninsured Americans rose to 47 million in 2008, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This reflects an increase of 2.2 million since 2005. While nearly half of the total 47 million uninsured are working adults, 8.66...

EMR adoption measured by HIMSS.(Health IT Adoption)(Electronic Medical Record)(Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society )
October 1, 2007... Six hospitals of varying sizes have achieved Stage 6 in the HIMSS Analytics Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM). The EMRAM is a methodology designed to evaluate progress and impact of EMR systems in acute care delivery...

HHS offers emergency care grant program.(Emergency Preparedness)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... In an effort to bolster the nation's ability to respond to public health emergencies, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced the availability of $25 million in grants to hospitals and healthcare facilities via an...

HHS reports on Medicaid HIT, HIE initiatives.(IT Implementation Projects)(Health Information Technology)(Health Information Exchange)(Department of Health and Human Services)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... An August 2007 report from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General finds 12 state Medicaid agencies have implemented a total of 16 HIT initiatives for Medicaid beneficiaries and participating providers. The...

Anatomy of a disaster drill: hurricanes, tornados and floods, oh my! Florida is no stranger to natural disasters. It's the man-made variety that has three counties preparing for the worst.(Disaster Preparedness)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] At 7:30 a.m., Sarasota Memorial Health Care System (SMHCS) in Sarasota, Fla., receives an alert from the county Department of Health that a bomb exploded locally that contained a white powder and that SMHCS will be...

Serious gaming: advanced computer simulation games help to transform healthcare and disaster preparedness.(Disaster Preparedness)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Early one morning, a 911 caller reported an incident at a local shopping mall. The county HAZMAT team responded to what was discovered to be a chlorine gas attack on the mall. This first responder team managed to...

Shifting priorities: a Georgia healthcare enterprise uses bid shifting technology to reduce agency labor costs and maximize nurse staffing efficiency.(Scheduling: Case History)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Long-term solutions to the increasing nurse shortage certainly ends with bringing more qualified people into the field, but will likely begin with more effective utilization of the existing workforce. For Phoebe...

Can you hear me now? An Idaho-based medical center deploys an adaptive repeater solution to enhance in-facility cellular coverage.(Wireless: Case History)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Although St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center has long employed advanced technology and services, more recently, our medical and administrative staff faced an escalating communications roadblock: cellular...

Achieving PM clarity: a Long Island ophthalmic group grows its practice and increases revenues with an open architecture PM system.(Practice Management: Case History)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In 2000, Ophthalmic Consultants of Long Island (OCLI) was plagued by the challenges facing many medical practices: how to ensure the health of its business and its patients during a period of spiraling costs and...

Winning the battle for standardization: the U.S. Army Medical Department examines the EMR to develop a standardized process for medication reconciliation documentation.(Drug Info Systems/Medication Management)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Throughout its rich and prestigious 232-year history of service to soldiers, veterans, retirees and their families, the U.S. Army Medical Department (AMEDD) has employed cutting-edge technology complemented by solid...

Better remote access, secure endpoints: an upgrade for an outdated remote access solution extends the network while bolstering endpoint control.(Network Management: Case History)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Recently, Sunnybrook Hospital, of the Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, located in Toronto, found itself facing issues not uncommon to many hospitals--physicians and administrators were demanding easier remote access...

The big payback: a Florida medical center saves time and generates revenue through automation.(Workflow Management: Case History)
October 1, 2007... The tertiary and community hospitals of Halifax Health Medical Center (Halifax Health) is the Daytona, Fla. area's largest healthcare provider, with 764 licensed beds and more than 500 physicians on its medical staff, representing 46 medical...

The PQRI catch-22: the CMS 1.5 percent reimbursement may incentivize IT adoption, but will it do so equally, and is it enough?(Health Plans and Technology)
October 1, 2007... Earlier this year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) launched its Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI). Under PQRI, physicians participate in a voluntary quality-reporting program and become eligible to receive a 1.5...

Channeling the data stream; how analytics can radically improve clinical performance.(Data Management)
October 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Back in the old days, the treatment of cancer was based on a simple premise: If patients could survive the treatment, perhaps they would survive the disease. As a result, many care regimens were based on flooding the...

Merge Healthcare.(NewsMakers)(misstating its earnings)(Financial report)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Merge Healthcare has admitted to misstating its earnings from contracts that contain both a license of software and support services dating back to 2004 and received written notice of a NASDAQ Staff Determination stating that the company failed...

MEDSEEK.(NewsMakers)(Doylestown Hospital)(MedSeek Inc. )(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Doylestown Hospital has selected the SiteMakerE solution from MEDSEEK for the redesign of the hospital's Web site. Doylestown plans to use the rapid-development content management system to build a cleaner and more efficient user-friendly site,...

Medical Present Value Inc.(NewsMakers)(Cardiovascular Consultants Medical Group)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... A new contract was recently announced between Cardiovascular Consultants Medical Group (CCMG) and Medical Present Value Inc. (MPV). Under the terms of the agreement, CCMG will utilize MPV's financial tools, payor contract management services...

PGP Corp.(NewsMakers)(Maimonides Medical Center )(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Maimonides Medical Center is taking steps to protect patient and employee privacy by deploying an encryption solution from PGP Corp. The 100-year-old, non-profit hospital located in Brooklyn, N.Y., will implement the PGP Encryption Platform,...

Philips Consumer Healthcare Solutions.(NewsMakers)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... A study designed to generate industry-wide insights into the use of technology and telehealth systems by a range of home healthcare agencies is being sponsored by Philips Consumer Healthcare Solutions, the National Association for Home Care,...

ForHealth Technologies.(NewsMakers)(Sinai Hospital of Baltimore (Baltimore, Maryland))(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Sinai Hospital of Baltimore will deploy the IntelliFill i.v. system pharmacy robotic technology from ForHealth Technologies Inc. The system will automate i.v. medication preparation in Sinai's inpatient pharmacy, as well as the Northwest...

Sansio.(NewsMakers)(ScanHealth Inc.)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... ScanHealth Inc., a technology company offering decision support solutions via the Web for the healthcare industry, will do business under their new name--Sansio, which is an acronym for Secure Application Network Solutions that are Intuitive...

Eclipsys Corp.(NewsMakers)(Kaleida Health)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Kaleida Health, located in Buffalo, N.Y., went live with revenue cycle management solutions Sunrise Patient Financials and Sunrise Access Management from Eclipsys Corp. at one ambulatory surgery center and all five of its acute care facilities....

Craneware Inc.(NewsMakers)(Caritas Christi Health Care of New England)(software industry)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Caritas Christi Health Care of New England, Mass., will be implementing Craneware's Chargemaster Corporate Toolkit product suite to replace their current manual methods of managing charge description masters (CDM) on an individual level at each...

Henry Schein Medical Systems.(NewsMakers)(Henry Schein Inc.)(Physician practice management firms)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Several additional physician practices joined a growing list that have selected MicroMD EMR and MicroMD PM software systems from Henry Schein Medical Systems. The practices that selected the EMR solution are Bailey Family Practice, Bonifay,...

SynerMed Inc.(NewsMakers)(Independent Physicians Associations renews management services contract with SynerMed Inc.)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Two San Diego-based Independent Physicians Associations (IPA) have renewed their respective management services contracts with SynerMed Inc. for five more years. Mid County Physicians Medical Group and Multicultural Primary Care Medical Group...

Agfa Healthcare.(NewsMakers)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... The radiology departments at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Bethesda's National Naval Medical Center and the James A. Haley Veterans medical Center have been linked via a private, secure Internet connection established by Agfa Healthcare....

What does "interoperability" really mean?(Thought Leaders)
October 1, 2007... As was pointed out in the pages of this publication not too long ago (From the Editor, April 2007), many healthcare technology vendors claim their systems help facilitate interoperability. As a matter of fact, while at the HIMSS Annual...