Health Management Technology articles from October 2008

Health Management Technology archives from October 2008

All I want for Christmas.(From the Editor)
October 1, 2008... Dear Santa, I know you're busy preparing for the holidays, but just so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle, here's my 2008 list of healthcare wishes: 1. I want to set doctors appointments the same way I choose my airline seats online from a...

KLAS study on CIS vendors.(Briefly)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... A perception study was released by KLAS that identifies clinical information system (CIS) vendors that are on the radar of prospective buyers. The study is the product of questions posed primarily to healthcare CIOs who were asked about...

HHS proposes HIPAA update.(Briefly)(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996)(United States. Department of Health and Human Services)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released two proposed rules for adoption to update HIPAA standards. One is a proposal to adopt a new standard for Medicaid subrogation for pharmacy claims, while the other is a proposal to...

BCBSA: healthcare headed for meltdown.(Briefly)
October 1, 2008... According to the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), the timeframes set forth by HHS for switching to the 5010 and ICD-10 coding systems are unworkable. To avoid a "major meltdown," the insurer recommends a phased, five-year...

Drug company gifts made public.(Healthcare and Government)(Deval Patrick)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... In an effort to bring more transparency to the relationships between drug companies and healthcare professionals, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed a new healthcare reform bill into law last August. Known as "An Act to Promote Cost...

BCBS of Illinois implements never event policy.(Health Plans and Payers)(Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... Claims for "never events"--medical errors that should never happen--will no longer be paid for by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, signaling progress towards consumer empowerment. Other organizations such as Medicare also will no longer pay...

ED patient instructions study.(JAMA Survey)(emergency departments)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... Seventy-eight percent of patients don't fully understand care and discharge instructions in the emergency department (ED) according to a recent study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, titled, "Patient Comprehension of Emergency...

Houston hospital loses 1,200 records.(Privacy)(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... Another HIPAA violation has taken place--this time at Harris County Hospital in Houston--where an administrator has lost medical and financial records of 1,200 patients with HIV/AIDS and other conditions contained on a portable flash drive. The...

Providers' right of conscience.(Healthcare and Government)(United States. Department of Health and Human Services)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... HHS is proposing a new regulation that would increase awareness and compliance of the Healthcare Providers' Right of Conscience and its three statutes. The statutes include: 1) the Church Amendments--a response to debates on whether federal...

Andy Crowder: Chief Information Officer, Florida Hospital.(The Healthcare CIO)(Interview)
October 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Andy Crowder is senior vice president and chief information officer for Orlando-based Florida Hospital, an 1,800 bed, seven-hospital system. Prior to joining Florida Hospital, he also served in various engineering...

Tools of the trade: three approaches to PM systems and their interoperability within the care continuum reveal bottom line possibilities for all practices.(Physicians Practice Management)
October 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When it comes to building a successful practice in a healthcare world of increasing costs and shrinking margins, technology is just a set of tools waiting for a plan. The workflows of a practice can be greatly...

The needs of the many: a Phoenix-based medical center implements an automated patient acuity staffing and scheduling solution.(Scheduling: Case History)
October 1, 2008... Getting the right nurses in the right place at the right time goes a long way toward optimizing the efficiency and effectiveness of hospital care. That is why chronic over- and under-staffing is a vexing problem. Is it reasonable for one unit...

Symphony of collaboration: multiple-stakeholder collaborations provide a clear path to integrated data exchange and system interoperability.(Health Plans and Technology)(Industry overview)
October 1, 2008... Through national and state initiatives launched or accelerated as the result of a 2004 Executive Order, eHealth is beginning to gain real traction in the United States. That's good news for all industry stakeholders. Initiatives that thrive and...

Simplify, enhance and economize: an award-winning healthcare system upgrades its SAN with no down time, ensuring continuously available data.(Network Management: Case History)(Scott & White Memorial Hospital)(Company overview)
October 1, 2008... As many leading healthcare providers have learned, improving productivity sometimes can have unintended consequences. Consider the case of Scott & White Memorial Hospital, one of the nation's largest multi-specialty healthcare systems. Founded...

Uncorking bottlenecks: a multi-hospital system transforms its culture and processes to optimize patient flow.(Workflow Management: Case History)(Moses Cone Health System )
October 1, 2008... Moses Cone Health System is the primary healthcare provider in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, with four hospitals, physician practices, behavioral health centers and other treatment centers to provide the complete continuum of care. The...

Tying IT all together: a chief quality officer makes a compelling case for capitalizing on IT potential with the interoperability platform.(Interoperability)(Industry overview)
October 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Few would argue that delivering the best possible care is the overarching goal of virtually every healthcare facility in this country; and yet, providers have attained this objective with varying degrees of success....

Secure storage system.(Products and Services)
October 1, 2008... The Medication Expansion Pack for the Rubbermaid Medical Solutions M38 mobile computer cart line (powered and non-powered carts) effectively transforms these point-of-care systems into a hybrid form of traditional computer and medication carts....

Seamless speech recognition/dictation.(Products and Services)
October 1, 2008... The SpeechMagic 6.1 voice recognition system from Philips is a client/server-based professional speech recognition package capable of fully integrating with other healthcare IT solutions such as RIS, HIS/EMR and PACS. The system enables...

Electronic whiteboard.(Products and Services)(Panasonic Communications Company of North America)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... Taking the evolution of the chalkboard light-years ahead of simple dry-erase whiteboards, the Interactive Panaboard UB-8325 electronic whiteboard from Panasonic adds a new dimensionality to meetings, presentations, seminars and training....

Disk-based backup.(Products and Services)(Hewlett-Packard Co.)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... HP is transforming data protection with its new data de-duplication solutions. These new disk-based backup systems offer approximately 50 times as much disk utilization potential, deliver a scalable solution for reducing storage costs, while...

Twice as fast, half as much.(Products and Services)
October 1, 2008... Resisting instant gratification almost always pays off. In the case of Apple's iPhone 3G, early adopters not only paid more, they also missed out on faster, new 3G wireless technology that allows users to multitask in more places, without the...

11 by 17-inch color inkjet all-in-one.(Brother International Corp.)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... The MFC-6490CW from Brother International is the first in its "Professional Series" line of color inkjet all-in-one units with wireless networking capabilities. In addition to traditional business functions, the MFC-6490CW also includes the...

InterSystems.(NewsMakers)(Saturn Corp. develops customer relationship management solution )(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... Saturn Corp. is leveraging new technologies and modernizing its aging mainframe-based Eprisa application with the CACHE high-performance object database from InterSystems. Saturn is building its customer relationship management solution (CRM)...

CareMedic.(NewsMakers)(University of Maryland Medical System installs electronic financial record systems)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) completed several go-lives of the Electronic Financial Record from CareMedic Systems. The solution is now installed in three of UMMS' four central business offices giving the institution an...

Sage Software Healthcare.(NewsMakers)(NCR teams up to develop healthcare software)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... NCR and Sage Software have partnered to provide physician practices with an integrated solution that combines the functionality of NCR's MediKiosk with the Intergy EHR by Sage. The product combo enables healthcare providers to manage their...

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield.(NewsMakers)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... As part of a statewide e-prescribing program begun last year to improve patient safety, control costs and reduce medication errors, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in New Hampshire added new member medical history technology to its...

Atlas Business Solutions.(NewsMakers)(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... In support of the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety (IAHSS), Atlas Business Solutions is offering a 20 percent discount on its Visual Staff Scheduler Pro (VSS Pro) scheduling software. In addition, Atlas donated a...

Picis.(NewsMakers)(Exempla Lutheran Medical Center and Exempla Healthcare installs emergency department information system by PulseCheck )(Brief article)
October 1, 2008... Two Denver healthcare facilities deployed the ED PulseCheck emergency department information system (EDIS) from Picis to increase operational efficiency and improve patient care. Exempla Lutheran Medical Center and Exempla Healthcare are...

Patient portals.(Thought leaders)(Survey)
October 1, 2008... According to the Deloitte 2008 Survey of Health Care Consumers, over 70 percent of consumers want their hospital to provide online access to an integrated view of their medical information, including test results, doctor visits and hospital...