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October 1, 2009 News 11 Comments

HERtalk by Inga

From: Coding Guy “Re: ER Documentation System. I can tell you from compliance training I have received from HBMA and networking with other compliance officers, that providing prompting for higher services is a no-no. It’s similar to having superbills where there are no checkboxes for non-billable services – if you’re not providing a mechanism for recording non-billable services it could get attention. I’m not a lawyer but I do have access to very good counsel and providing provider feedback that hints of guiding upwards for bills is definitely to be avoided.  Most OIG investigations are triggered by disgruntled employee tips, so any bad messaging and training around a system like this could lead to unwelcome attention.”

More than three-quarters of healthcare executives surveyed by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP agree that the secondary use of EMR data will be their organization’s greatest asset over the next five years. Essentially, it is all about data mining, and how it can be used to improve patient care, predict public health, and reduce healthcare costs. However, PWC finds that the lack of standards, privacy concerns and technology limitations are holding back progress.  PWC just published  “Transforming Healthcare through Secondary Use of Health Data,” which calls for public-private collaboration and government incentives to collect, share and use health data; to establish standards; and to redefine technical architecture to allow interoperability.

Here’s a keynote address I would have loved to hear. Ron Galloway spoke at the Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo this week and said that the Wal-Mart’s distribution of eClinicalWorks “is the biggest thing going on in healthcare right now.” Galloway also predicts that between the company’s plan to get its 1.4 million employees’ health record formatted electronically and the projected 22 million patients visiting its EHR-equipped clinics by 2014, Wal-Mart is positioned to be a major force in HIT.

st. anthony

Surgical Information Systems (SIS) names St. Anthony’s Medical Center (MO) an SIS Center of Excellence, based on its “best practices” use of the SIS Solution. Within a year of installing SIS, St. Anthony increased efficiencies in several areas, was able to increase OR caseloads 5%, and decreased late case starts by 4%.

Jewett Orthopaedic Clinic, a 32-provider, seven-office clinic in Florida, selects the SRS hybrid EMR. Speaking of SRS, I noticed that Evan Steele was recently interviewed on the EMR and HIPAA blog. His take on ARRA and stimulus money: “The cost associated with reduced productivity that a high-volume, high-performance physician would incur by entering the data to meet the meaningful use requirements dwarfs the incentives being offered and the relatively small penalties which start six years from now (in 2015).”

Allscripts announces its first quarter numbers, which include non-GAAP revenue of $167.5 million compared to $164.7 million last year. The non-GAAP revenue numbers take into account the 2008 and 2009 revenue numbers of both Allscripts and Misys Healthcare. GAAP revenue was $164.9 million versus $92.8 last year and earnings were $.15/share. The company exceeded Wall Street estimates of $.14 cents/share earnings. During Allscripts’ investor call, the company indicated its recent deal with North Shore-Long Island Jewish was worth just over $10 million, but had a potential value of more than $75 million, depending on how many physicians signed on. Investors seemed pleased, with shares on Wednesday hitting their highest point in nearly two years ($20.61.)

Southeastern Regional Medical Center (NC) plans to implement Allscripts suite of care management solutions, by the way. The hospital will use the web-based SaaS  product to enhance continuity of care across the organization and prepare for Medicare’s RAC program.

CVS pharmacy customers now have the ability to download their prescription histories into HealthVault.

caretracker

Ingenix expands the e-prescribing capabilities of its CareTracker EMR solution and is now SureScripts-certified.

Emergisoft releases its iPhone Simulator, which will allow physicians to customize the iPhone for use with Emergisoft’s physician documentation in the ER.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius releases a report detailing how The Columbia Basin Health Association (WA) was able to improve health care using HIT. After implementing an EHR, the community health center initiated automated tools to increase the monitoring of diabetic patients. Within six months, the facility documented dramatic increases in overall care for its diabetics, including a 55% jump in the number who received foot exams and a 34% increase in eye exams.

Virginia Blood Services purchases Mediware’s LifeTrak software to manage its blood donor records throughout central Virginia.

iMedicor successfully completes a pilot project involving 225 pharmacy outlets using iMedicor’s information exchange portal. All the outlets successful implemented iMedicor’s direct-to-pharmacy electronic prescription refill technology, which is available at no charge to physicians and pharmacies.

eMED-ID introduces a wearable device that uses GPS technology to track a person. Their target market includes people prone to wander, such as Alzheimer’s patients and those with autism. No mention if it is appropriate for straying boyfriends.

greg ericon

Broadlane, a cost-management company for healthcare providers, names Greg Ericson CIO. Most recently Ericson worked for a medical device company, but I’d love to hear more about his stint at the Home Shopping Network.

API Healthcare announces the general availability of its Acuality Patient Classification System. The software helps hospital to assess patient care requirements to make appropriate staffing assignments.

A mere week or so after its official launch, Humedica says it’s entered a long-term partnership with Anceta, the healthcare informatics subsidiary of AMGA. The association selected Humedica as its exclusive partner to develop a nationwide data warehouse and clinical analytics platform.

doylestown

Doylestown Hospital (PA) selects MedQuist to provide RAC consulting services and software.

Mr. H finally found an Internet connection and checked in long enough to say he doesn’t miss any of us. (Well, that isn’t really what he said. That was just my interpretation. His exact words: “Life sucks 90% of the time. This is that other 10%.”)

Maybe he will smile just a bit upon learning that Fierce Healthcare named HIStalk to a list of  Nine Healthcare Bloggers Worth a Click. Editor Anne Zieger says that “if you’re in health IT, there’s no excuse to miss HIStalk.” And, Dodge Communication put HIStalk on their list of Top 10 Twitterers for healthcare marketing and PR Professionals, saying HIStalk is “a great way to hear the perspective of those professionals working in the trenches.”  Many thanks!

inga

E-mail Inga.



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Currently there are "11 comments" on this Article:

  1. Sweet. Did Inga just say that she noticed EMR and HIPAA. Wait, no she noticed the interview I did with the SRSsoft CEO. I’ll go back to hoping that she’ll notice me.

  2. Does anyone have a legit count of how many eCW systems have even sold through WalMart? I’m in this business and run into eCW every day…but I don’t know of a SINGLE practice that came via WalMart. How is it the biggest thing going on in healthcare right now?

  3. Is it just a coincidence that the story about the PWC secondary data use study is right next to the story about Wal-Mart? With Wal-Mart’s legndary capabilities in data mining it’s only a matter of time before they put two and two together.

  4. “secondary use of EMR data will be their organization’s greatest asset over the next five years. Essentially, it is all about data mining, and how it can be used to improve patient care, predict public health, and reduce healthcare costs.”

    Garbage in and garbage out will hardly improve outcomes. The EMR reports are chock full of useless information and dummy diagnoses to enable upcoding. Pathetic and delusional ideas, above.

  5. Brad Dodge at Dodge Communications is excellent if anyone needs marketing help! I worked with him in a previous life and would provide a reference!

  6. How can Allscripts go wrong? Glen advises the President on HIT. Did Glen also make a pitch for the Olympics to be in Chicago?

  7. Garbage in and garbage out will hardly improve outcomes. The EMR reports are chock full of useless information and dummy diagnoses to enable upcoding. Pathetic and delusional ideas, above.

    Suzie RN, are you aware that the “useless” reports where you work might not be indicative of the entire EMR market? As for “upcoding”, I assume that any hospitals which regularly upcode are already aware that their stats are not valid. They are probably in the “less than one quarter” of healthcare executives surveyed who don’t expect the secondary use of EMR data will be their organization’s greatest asset over the next five years.

  8. Noah you’re right, more propaganda for the HIT vendors..certainly automation of the health care process/EMR’s has no value for patient care and clinical practice, patient safety, efficiency or cost effectiveness. The paper system everyone operated under worked so well before..if it wasn’t broke why try to fix it with this new fangled technoblah blah…

    I’m tired of physicians complaints about automation and its evils. Propaganda?? How about real life examples of the benefits of well designed and well implemented technology solutions. There are bad cars on the road and the people that drive them just like there are bad technology solutions and the uneducated who waste money and time on purchasing and implementing them.

    Noah you are so very right…why would anyone ever want to turn their horse and buggy in for one of them new fangled horseless carriages!

  9. Of course, availability of lousy “data” will make another secondary use attractive: sham peer review against doctors that hospital management doesn’t like:

    You can’t even show that hospital IT systems are collecting bad data, nevermind that it will be used to get rid of anyone.







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