I am a long-time reader of HIStalk. Even though I do not work in the acute care space, I find that monitoring what is going on in hospital and physician practice IT helps in planning for what might be coming down the road for post acute care.

A while back, there was a request for information about providers in the post acute care market, and I thought, “Hey, I know about that.” So, like the “long-time listener, first-time caller” that you hear on radio talk shows, I contacted Mr. H about a journalistic opportunity. He agreed, so here we go.

This article is the first of a two-part series about providers and technologies in the post acute care market. This is not meant to be an exhaustive analysis, but more of an overview to give you a bit more insight in to this part of the health care continuum.

Home Health

The term home health includes several types of providers, which can be quite confusing for consumers and healthcare practitioners alike. For purposes of this discussion, home health means a Medicare-certified agency that provides skilled care services. In 2009, 3.3 million Medicare beneficiaries received care from 11,400 home health agencies, for which Medicare paid $19 billion.

Population served

People who are under the care of a physician who require intermittent (less than eight hours per day), skilled (nursing, physical therapy, occupational, or speech therapy) home health aide, or medical social services. Almost exclusively, the payer is Medicare. Other payers include Medicare HMO, Medicaid, and commercial insurers. Home health eligibility is not dependent on a hospital stay; however, hospitals are by far the majority referral source for home health.

Special rules and regulations

The “patients” must be confined to their home in order to receive services. “Confined to home” is a misunderstood regulation in home health, even amongst the providers themselves. Essentially, what Medicare says is: the patient should leave the home only infrequently, and, when they do, it is a significant and taxing effort, usually because of medical reasons.

Medicare-reimbursed home health services are not for long-term custodial care. The services are focused on helping the patient become independent as soon as possible. The average number of visits (all disciplines) per patient for a 60-day episode of care in 2008 was 37.

Reimbursement structure

In 2000, Medicare changed from “we will pay you what it costs you” per-visit reimbursement to the Prospective Payment System. Patient acuity (clinical and functional) is measured at specific points in a patient’s episode of care. These skilled assessments are performed using the OASIS assessment tool. The result of the assessments is a Case Mix Weight (acuity) that determines how much money the home health agency will receive for a 60-day episode of care. Patients do not pay a co-payment or deductible to receive home health services.

Regulatory environment

Post acute care is highly regulated, with regular on-site surveys by state and federal regulators. Many home health agencies have achieved accreditation through the Joint Commission or other accrediting bodies.

Ownership

Home health agencies can be affiliated with a hospital, free-standing, for-profit, or not-for-profit.

Private Duty

Private duty home care agencies provide home care aides, companion care, homemaker services, and possibly nursing services in the client’s home or place of residence.

Population served

This varies tremendously from agency to agency—from newborns to seniors. Some agencies provide only unskilled (aide and companion care) and some provide highly skilled nursing (infusion, ventilator) services.

When compared to the costs associated with a retirement community, private duty home care can be an affordable option for many seniors. The average annual cost for a nursing home is $69,715. The average annual cost for an assisted living facility resident is $36,372. (Source: MetLife Market Survey of Nursing Home & Assisted Living Costs). Seniors who want to remain in their homes can often do so cost effectively with a few hours of care a week. For example, 20 hours of companionship home care a week costs approximately $1,500 a month, or an average annual cost of $18,000.

Reimbursement structure

Many services are paid directly by the “client”. Some insurance models will pay for some private duty services — Medicaid, long term care insurance, worker’s compensation, and commercial payers.

Regulatory environment

This is all service dependent. If only companion services are provided, depending on the state, only a business license may be required. If personal care (home care aide) or skilled nursing services are provided, then state department of health services (or equivalent) regulations will apply.

Ownership

There are some national chains, but many are privately owned by individuals who tend to be active in their local communities.

Home Health Registries

The reason I specifically chose to discuss registries is because they many times are confused with home health agencies since their name or advertising may include “home health.” These businesses are essentially a referral agency. They are the middleman between certified nursing assistants, home health aides, companions, etc. and an individual looking for services.

Population served

No particular population—newborns to seniors.

Special rules and regulations

None, since they are only a placement resource.

Reimbursement structure

Cash. They take a percentage from the person that is able to gain employment from their referral.

Regulatory environment

Business license. May having a bonding requirement.

Ownership

Private.

Hospice

Population served

Individuals who are terminally ill, their families and friends, and the communities in which they are located. Most hospices accept payment from Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial payers. Some with excellent funding may not require the individual to pay and will not bill insurance.

Hospice services may be provided in the client’s place of residence (home, assisted living facility, and skilled nursing facility) or a dedicated hospice facility, many times referred to as a “Hospice House.”

Special rules and regulations

Specifically, I will discuss the regulations for a hospice that is reimbursed by Medicare. All of the “clients” must have a “Certification of Terminal Illness” signed by a physician that states that it is reasonable to believe that the individual has less than six months to live due to their terminal illness. When the individual elects the Medicare Hospice benefit, they are stating that they no longer will seek curative treatment for that specific ailment. This election may be revoked by the person at any time during their care in hospice if they decide to receive potentially curative treatments for the terminal illness.

A significant percentage of the services hospices provide must be performed by volunteers. The agencies are responsible for supporting their local communities with education about terminal illness and will provide counseling services to the community — for example, in a high school where a tragedy has taken place. Hospices must provide bereavement services for 13 months after the person has died to any person designated to be a member of the client’s “family.”

Reimbursement structure

Paid on a per diem basis for as long as the client is under Medicare-reimbursed hospice care. Medicaid and commercial insurers will pay differently depending on the state and the client’s policy.

Regulatory environment

Medicare regulations state that the care provided to the client is done by an “interdisciplinary team” made up of nurses, social workers, spiritual support, aides, counselors, and the hospice medical director.

Ownership

National chains, hospitals, foundations, and communities,

Skilled Nursing Facilities, Nursing Homes, Long-Term Care

A nursing home or skilled nursing facility (SNF) is normally the highest level of care for older adults outside of a hospital. Nursing homes provide what is called custodial care, including getting in and out of bed, and providing assistance with feeding, bathing, and dressing.

However, nursing homes differ from other senior housing facilities in that they also provide a high level of medical care. Each resident’s care is supervised by a physician, with skilled nursing care and rehabilitation services available on site. Some facilities specialize in stroke care, dementia and cognitive services, neurological disorders, etc. Many folks who have had orthopedic surgery (total joint replacements) will go to the skilled nursing facility to get rehabilitation services after their acute care hospitalization.

2011 statistics: 15,682 facilities serving 1.4 million residents. The average facility size is 109 beds at 80% of capacity.

Population served

Mostly frail seniors, the severely disabled, and individuals with cognitive disorders.

Special rules and regulations

It is said that outside of the nuclear industry, long-term care providers are the most regulated. There are local, state, and federal regulations. Under the federal Older Americans Act, every state is required to have an Ombudsman Program that addresses resident and family complaints and advocates for improvements in the long-term care system.

Like home health, a standardized clinical and functional assessment called the MDS must be performed at regular intervals to determine the resident’s acuity and the services they require, which drives reimbursement.

Medicare residents must have a qualifying hospital stay prior to admission in to the SNF. Medicare will cover 100 days of service for that “spell of illness.” If the resident is discharged from the facility prior to the 100th day, either to the community or the hospital, they can return to the facility within 30 days and continue that same 100 days of coverage. If they do not, they must wait for 60 days and have another three-day hospital stay in order for Medicare to cover another episode of care. So if they return to the facility between Day 30 and 60, Medicare is not paying.

Reimbursement structure

Medicare 14.2 %, Medicaid 63.6%, other/government 22.2%. There are some commercial payers, workers compensation, and long term care insurers.

Ownership

National chains, regional companies, private, for-profit, not-for-profit. About 6% are hospital owned.

Assisted Living Facility

Assisted living is a retirement housing facility that provides independent living while offering extra help where needed. Some common services are help with getting dressed, laundry assistance, transportation, housekeeping, cooking and preparing meals, and medication assistance.

Assisted living facilities can stand alone,or be a component of a senior living facility which includes independent living, assisted living, and skilled nursing facilities all on one campus. Many assisted living facilities have special secured (locked) dementia or “memory” units.

Population served

Individuals of retirement age.

Special rules and regulations

Have to meet many of the same regulations as a skilled nursing facility with regard to building, safety, personnel requirements, etc. Nursing oversight is required for personal care services and medication assistance. Ombudsman oversight occurs in this environment as well.

Reimbursement structure

Mostly reimbursed by the individual. Some long-term care insurers will cover.

Regulatory environment

Highly regulated, oversight by the state where the facility is located.

Ownership

National chains dominate the market, some affiliated with religious organizations.

Durable Medical Equipment

Durable medical equipment is special equipment for home use that provides therapeutic benefits or helps patients perform tasks they would otherwise not be able to accomplish. Durable medical equipment is defined as equipment that can withstand repeated use, serves a recognized medical purpose, generally is not useful to an individual without an illness or injury, is appropriate for home use, and is prescribed by a physician as medically necessary.

Typical equipment supplied: wheelchairs, hospital beds, lift chairs, scooters, diabetic supplies, canes, crutches, walkers, commodes, home oxygen, and traction. Many vendors will have a retail store front and equipment warehouse with home delivery service.

Population served

Newborns to seniors.

Special rules and regulations

Depends on the payer source and whether or not they are accredited. Medicare reimbursement brings special requirements.

Reimbursement structure

Cash, commercial payers, Medicaid, Medicare.

Regulatory environment

Recent changes to the DME landscape has turned the industry upside down. Section 302 of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) established requirements for a new Competitive Bidding Program for certain durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS). Under the program, DMEPOS suppliers compete to become Medicare contract suppliers by submitting bids to furnish certain items in competitive bidding areas, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services awards contracts to enough suppliers to meet beneficiary demand for the bid items. The new, lower payment amounts resulting from the competition replace the Medicare DMEPOS fee schedule amounts for the bid items in these areas. All contract suppliers must comply with Medicare enrollment rules, be licensed and accredited, and meet financial standards.

Ownership

Some national chains, many private.

I hope this information helps you understand these post-acute health care services and providers. Part Two of this series will cover the information systems typically found in these environments, who the major players are, and what things to consider if looking to partner with these entities in shared payment arrangements, or ACOs.

Cindy Gagnon, RN, FNP has worked as a provider of post acute care services as well as a functional / clinical designer, implementation specialist, and manager of support services within the post-acute care information technology community. You may contact Cindy at: cindy.gagnon@comcast.net.

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Under a news release headline of “We can’t wait: Obama Administration takes new steps to encourage doctors and hospitals to use health information technology to lower costs, improve quality, create jobs” HHS announced today that providers starting participation in the Medicare EHR incentive programs in 2011 will not be required to meet Stage 2 standards until 2014, a year later than was originally announced.

The previous timetable allowed providers to sit out a year and begin participation in 2012, thereby automatically extended their own Stage 2 deadline until 2014.

The announcement includes an HHS reminder that “doctors who act quickly” (by February 29, 2012, according to previously published dates) can still qualify for 2011 incentive payments.

The announcement also cites a new CDC study that found that 52% of office-based physicians plan to seek HITECH money, with 34% of practices now using electronic records software with at least “basic” capability.

From the announcement:

HHS also announced its intent to make it easier to adopt health IT. Under the current requirements, eligible doctors and hospitals that begin participating in the Medicare EHR (electronic health record) Incentive Programs this year would have to meet new standards for the program in 2013.  If they did not participate in the program until 2012, they could wait to meet these new standards until 2014 and still be eligible for the same incentive payment. To encourage faster adoption, the Secretary announced that HHS intends to allow doctors and hospitals to adopt health IT this year, without meeting the new standards until 2014. Doctors who act quickly can also qualify for incentive payments in 2011 as well as 2012.

These policy changes are accompanied by greater outreach efforts that will provide more information to doctors and hospitals about best practices and to vendors whose products allow health care providers to meaningfully use EHRs. For example, in communities across the country HHS will target outreach, education and training to Medicare eligible professionals that have registered in the EHR incentive program but have not yet met the requirements for meaningful use. Meaningful use is the necessary foundation for all impending payment changes involving patient-centered medical homes, accountable care organizations, bundled payments, and value-based purchasing.

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Top News

HIMSS EHR Association responds to NIST’s EHR usability draft. Its concerns:

• There’s no proof that usability issues are a barrier to EHR adoption
• The document does not take into account how EHRs are used in practice
• The document’s references are old and the checklist-based review method has limitations
• The stated expert review requirements are “unwieldy and unproven”
• The summative testing requirements are impractical and don’t reflect practice customization and limitations imposed by vendors of the underlying operating system
• Users prefer a system that’s efficient to one that’s easy to learn and the main beneficiary of usability improvements would be novice users
• Usability reviews are subjective and even expert evaluators often don’t reach the same conclusions
• Prescriptive standards for functionality and aesthetics will hinder innovation

Reader Comments

From Blue Horseshoe: “Re: ViaTrack acquisition by NextGen. Verified.” According to the e-mail, QSI’s acquisition of its NextGen EDI partner closed on November 14, with the goal of expanding the company’s inpatient EDI market (with no impact to its ambulatory clearinghouse partners, the e-mail emphasizes).  

From Red Flag Raised: “Re: Epic. Why are they talking to the New York Stock Exchange?” Epic’s CFO speaks at the Wisconsin School of Business in a presentation stated to be “a practice run through the material that the Epic group is planning on giving to the NYSE.” The topic was on the Dodd-Frank Act that addressed Wall Street reform. A bit of sleuthing turns up Anita Pramoda’s November 29-30 NYSE audience – a CFO forum for institutional investors at NYSE Euronext. She’s moderating the session, which doesn’t appear to have anything to do with an Epic plan to go public. Unrelated: she’s apparently also the CFO of OnTech, which makes self-heating drink containers for coffee. Above is what rather surprisingly displayed when I pulled up her LinkedIn profile.

From ShakingMyHead: “Re: UMCSN in Las Vegas. Finally signed an agreement to buy Horizon Clinicals. Now that is weird news.” The hospital chose McKesson as vendor of choice in August 2010, but ran into money problems until McKesson apparently came way down on price.

From The PACS Designer: “Re: Nimbula. TPD has blogged about cloud applications in the past, and now that the concept is becoming widespread, thought HIStalkers would like to try out this concept themselves. Now they can with a free trial called Nimbula Director 1.5.” The company says the product provides “a one-stop virtual data center management solution.”

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Optometry HIT company RevolutionEHR is raising $600,000, according to an SEC filing.

Xerox subsidiary ACS acquires The Breakaway Group, developers of the PromisePoint cloud-based service that allows providers to practice using their EMR technology in a simulated environment.

Sales

Beth Israel Medical Center (NY) signs a five-year contract with CriticalKey for its KeyEngine software, which enables the electronic transmission of patients results from Beth Israel’s RIS system to the individual EMRs of participating physicians.

The Johns Hopkins Hospital selects Versus Advantages RTLS for staff locating, asset tracking, and automated nurse call cancellation.

Abbeville Area Medical Center (SC) selects Virtual Radiologic’s Enterprise Connect, a PACS alternative solution.

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center (NC) chooses Huron Consulting’s Click Portal software to automate clinical trials business processes.

Vitera Healthcare Solutions announces that Medical Group of North County (CA), Bloomingdale Medical Associates PA (FL), Doctor’s Medical Center (FL), Rheumatology Associates PC (MA), Women’s Care Group, PC (TN) and Robert C Byrd Clinics (WV) have selected Vitera Intergy Meaningful Use Edition EHR solution.

Northern California Surgery Center selects the ProVation EHR solution for ambulatory surgery centers from Wolters Kluwer Health.

St. Jude Heritage Medical Group (CA) chooses MediRevv for insurance resolution A/R management services.

Acuo Technologies announces contracts for its vendor neutral archiving solution with University of Rochester Medical Center (NY), Kettering Health Network (OH),  and CHRISTUS Health (TX).

People

Good Shepherd Medical Center (TX) appoints Ralph Holcomb as CIO. He was previously with Baylor Jack and Jane Hamilton Heart and Vascular Hospital (TX).

MedQuist Holdings hires Matt Jenkins as SVP of corporate business development. He was previously with Allscripts.

Elsevier/MEDai names Thomas H. Zajac as president. He was previously with CareScience and TSI.

Cardiology center software vendor Perminova announces Craig Collins as its president and CEO. He was previously with PetriTech.

Medicalis names Jim Boyle (Stentor, Perot) as COO and Guy Anthony (Solaicx) as CFO.

Announcements and Implementations

Children’s Mercy Hospital & Clinics (MO) completes its 30th installation of SeeMyRadiology.com for the communication of radiology images between hospitals, imaging centers, and physician practices.

Willis-Knighton Health System (LA) deploys EMC Symmetrix VMAX storage systems to accommodate its Meditech, Siemens Soarian, and Sectra PACS applications.

University Behavioral Healthcare, a division of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, goes live on vxVistA and vxMental Health Suite from DSS, Inc.

Martin Memorial Health Systems (FL) gets a mention in the local paper for going live on the first phase of its $80 million Epic EMR this week. VP/CIO Ed Collins checked in with an update last week.

Kony Solutions announces Member Mobile, which allows health plan members to browse and purchase plans, locate care services, request appointments, check benefit status, and refill prescriptions.

RTLS vendor Intelligent InSites will introduce its “big data” business intelligence solution at IHI’s quality improvement forum in Orlando next week. The company also announces a consulting service to help hospitals place a value on their RFID and RTLS technologies.

Walgreens subsidiary Take Care Health Systems, which operates employer health and wellness centers, will run Cisco’s San Jose health center and provide telemedicine services from there to the company’s Durham, NC campus using Cisco’s HealthPresence technology.  

Healthcare imaging vendor Barco announces MediCal QAWeb Mobile, calibration software for tablets used for viewing medical images. A free version is available on iTunes.

Select Data introduces an iPad application for use in the home health market.

Candelis announces that its cloud-hosted medical image services will be integrated with Microsoft HealthVault, allowing patients to import and share images.

Montage Health Solutions says that its enterprise search and analytics technology for EHRs and radiology information systems is live at Keck Medical Center of USC (CA), Children’s National Medical Center (DC), and University Health Network (Ontario).

Government and Politics

Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA) is taking heat from critics of his bill that would allow providers to report suspected EMR-related errors without legally admitting wrongdoing. Attorney Cliff Reiders, who sues providers for a living, says giving providers immunity would “encourage the wrong thing” and wouldn’t provide encouragement to improve EMRs.

The National Library of Medicine updates its RXNorm clinical drug vocabulary, adding standardized drug names linked to NDC numbers and also including the full NDC set from the Red Book by Thomson Reuters.

The VA says 89% of its project milestones were met on time in FY2011, exceed the goal of 80% that was set in 2009 when fewer than 30% of its projects were finished on schedule.

Innovation and Research

ONC announces four finalists for its developer challenge for apps related to using public data for cancer prevention and control. They are Ask Dory! (locates nearby clinical trials), My Cancer Genome (provides treatment options based on clinical trials involving specific genetic mutations), Health Owl (provides cancer recommendations from family history and demographics), and Cancer App by mHealth Solutions (offers suggestions for reducing cancer risk).

Technology developed by a hospital in Israel allows the family members of patients undergoing cardiac catheterization procedures to watch in real time on their iPads. The original version of the story said the app was co-developed by McKesson, but that reference has been removed.

Other

Sanford Health (ND) is hiring 100 part-time and full-time employees to help with its $8 million transition to the Sanford One Chart EHR (aka Epic).

Oxford University Hospitals Trust pushes back this week’s Cerner go-live at three of its hospitals, saying it needs more time to prepare.

I couldn’t help but reminisce about  Mrs. Fletcher reading this story. An 81-year-old woman activates her medical alert system when her 55-year old daughter attacks her in bed after an argument over money. Paramedics saved the day.

One day I will check out RSNA, mostly because I am intrigued by the size and scope of the event. OK, I also like the idea of holiday shopping on Michigan Avenue. RSNA was expecting about 700 exhibitors and over 58,000 attendees from over 100 nations. If you are there, send us an update and your best photos.

UCSF, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical College, and Inland Imaging partner with Medicalis to form a radiology workflow consortium to enable direct scheduling of radiology orders from the point of care.

Karen Pletz, the former president of the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, is found dead in her Florida home. Under her leadership, the school expanded its campus and fund-raising efforts, but she was abruptly fired in 2009 amidst charges of embezzling $1.5 million.

MedicalRecords.com, which offers a free online database of EMR applications to generate leads that it sells to vendors for $150-300 each, says the 400 EMR vendors clamoring for business is “like a gold rush” with 7% of them buying its leads.

The New York Post runs just-released compensation information for executives of New York’s hospitals, naming four hospital CEOs whose one-year bonuses exceeded $1 million. Herbert Pardes, retiring CEO of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, made $4.3 million, while the CEO of a struggling 326-bed hospital came in #2 with $4.2 million in total compensation in a single year.

Weird News Andy, observing that “people are smarter than governments” since healthcare insurance doesn’t carry a two-year contract like cell phones, likes this story: a study finds that “jumpers and dumpers” are taking advantage of a Massachusetts law that forces insurers to accept patients with pre-existing conditions. They are buying insurance, having expensive elective surgery, and then dropping coverage. That practice costs the state $37 million per year. WNA also likes this story about electronic surveillance of hospital handwashing practices, which he entitles, “Big Brother is Washing You.”

Sponsor Updates

• Quality IT Partners sponsored the 12^th Annual Scott Hamilton & Friends Ice Show and Gala, held in Cleveland on November 5. The company’s guest was a patient undergoing cancer treatment at Cleveland Clinic. 
• Medical Transcription eXpress joins MD-IT as a Medical Transcription Service Organization associate, allowing it to resell the MD-IT platform and EMR.
• Nuance Healthcare and Bayer HealthCare’s MEDRAD launch an interoperable solution that connects the MEDRAD Certegra informatics platform and Nuance PowerScribe 360 reporting technology .
• Sarah Corley MD, CMO of NextGen Healthcare, and Gregory Sheffo MD, CMO of Clearfield Hospital (PA) will discuss the impact of healthcare reform to the ambulatory care sector during a December 15 Webcast.
• Dell says its acquisition of InSite One a year ago has increased its managed object count by 25%, with the company managing over 65 million clinical studies and 4.5 billion diagnostic imaging objects.
• Robert Hitchcock, MD FACEP, T-System VP and CMIO, discusses five key reasons a CDS should be used in the ED.
• Worcestershire Acute NHS Trust goes live with Orion Health Clinical Portal.
• At RSNA, Merge Healthcare unveils its cloud-based platform Honeycomb along with its first application, free image sharing.
• T-System expands its partnership with Iatric Systems to include interfacing technology for hospitals connecting T-SystemEV EDI with enterprise EHRs.

Contacts

Mr. H, Inga, Dr. Jayne, Dr. Gregg.

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Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, we’re officially in that nebulous zone called “The Holidays.” For many, this includes hectic family gatherings, school programs, and travel to see relatives. College students return home to agitate parents and siblings.

For physician offices, it marks the beginning of cold and flu season. For IT teams, it often it signals a lull in the implementation of projects because no one wants to deploy new technology when physicians and staff are alternating time out of the office with packed schedules (usually required to accommodate said time out of the office.)

I officially boycotted Black Friday by purchasing nearly nothing, despite needing to pick up a new external hard drive. I was happy to see my municipality issuing tickets to big box retailers that opened at midnight, citing laws preventing 24-hour operation of retail enterprises. I’m not the neighborhood Grinch by any means, but I am glad to see someone countering the steady pressure of rampant consumerism. I did buy some coffee (a delightful peppermint mocha) while visiting with a friend, but I’m sure that didn’t make a blip on the Black Friday cash register.

One good thing about The Holidays is that travel often brings people to town that I don’t get to see too often. I had the rare chance to sit down with my longest-standing friend. We started our healthcare careers together at the tender age of 13 as hospital volunteers, aka Candy Stripers. Cecilia always wanted to be a nurse and I always wanted to be a doctor, so it was a friendship forged of common interests with a sprinkling of adventure.

We started volunteering on the mother/baby ward (yes, they were called wards back in the Cretaceous period,) refilling plastic pitchers with ice chips and answering the nurse call light system. My favorite part was using the Addressograph machine to stamp paperwork when new patients arrived, assembling charts in large plastic three-ring binders. I guess that means my interest in health information goes back to the very beginning (or maybe I just liked the smell of mimeograph ink).

After a while, I tired of being the ice chip police and transferred to being the “checkout girl” at the gift shop. The computerized cash register made the job fun. I enjoyed the tally reports that it created for the end-of-day close. Maybe that’s where my interest in technology comes from.

Being Candy Stripers gave us unlimited access to the hospital (in the pre-HIPAA era, things were very different.) I still can’t believe they let teenage girls do the “pharmacy run,” driving a cartful of drugs to every ward including the locked psychiatric ward (at my hospital, robots now do that work). We saw the hospital from the ground up – from central stores to sterilization to food prep to pharmacy to nursing and beyond. It gave you a solid understanding of all the different people needed to make patient care possible. It allowed you to be close to the action, but not too close (thankfully, we weren’t on duty the night that a baby was delivered in the lobby bathroom.)

Cecilia and I thought it would be cool to work together when we grew up. I could have a private practice and she could be the office nurse. Although I did ultimately end up with that practice (at least for a while,) she specialized in cardiac nursing and prowled the telemetry and post-surgical step-down units. The hospital where we started faced a declining census and was torn down to make room for outpatient offices. I still have a brick from the demolition. Ironically, a decade later they’re thinking about building a bed tower there due to rising hospitalizations among the increasingly aged population of our home town.

Being a nurse on the front lines, Cecilia really has seen the transformation of healthcare delivery first hand. She has nearly a decade more experience than I do, working in the trenches while I was still slogging through medical school and residency. She has worked through every buzzword you can think of. We always commiserate about having to deal with patient-focused care that’s actually profit-focused, centers of excellence that really aren’t that excellent (but the administrators think that if you call it that, it makes it automatically great,) and goofy regulations and policies.

Spending time in major hospitals throughout the country, we’ve both found that the more hospitals think they’re unique, they more they really are the same. Clinical care has been commoditized. 

It’s a bit humorous, but we both wound up in the same situation for clinical work. Although she works for a major health system just a few miles from her home, they don’t employ her – she’s staffed by an agency hundreds of miles away because the hospital doesn’t want to spend the money to employ full-time nurses. I’m in the same boat because my hospital doesn’t actually employ any of the hospital-based physicians either, relying on a staffing company to insure us and administer our schedules. It’s a long way from what we thought we were getting into way back when.

I can’t complain, though. Being a mercenary doc from the clinical perspective allows me to indulge my IT passions and still see patients. It does make one wonder, though,what’s next in healthcare. When the majority of workers at a hospital aren’t actually employed by the hospital, what’s that going to mean? How do you ensure training and consistency? How do you handle an ever-changing and increasingly complex environment? How does it impact patients? We’ll just have to wait and see.

So here’s to The Holidays. I hope you have the chance to connect with friends and colleagues old and new. Stay safe, stay sane, and take some time to recharge. If what we’ve seen this year is true, it’s only going to get busier in 2012.

Have a question about eggnog recipes, call light systems, or making the perfect ice pack out of a rubber glove and paper towels? E-mail me.

E-mail Dr. Jayne.

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An HIT Moment with ... is a quick interview with someone we find interesting. Nick van Terheyden MD is CMIO of Nuance Communications.

IBM is hyping Watson after what amounted to one big commercial for it on Jeopardy!. Does it really have immediate usefulness in healthcare?

Anyone who watched Watson outperform its game show counterparts in the original Jeopardy! challenge would agree that its potential in healthcare is both evident and enormous. As with many new technologies, however, there is still much to be done. In fact, it is quite likely that some of the applications for this technology have not even been imagined yet. But either way, it is clear that Watson represents a springboard to revive the initiatives behind artificial intelligence and its application to medicine.

While our vision for this is clear, getting there will involve many additional components and steps that were not part of the Jeopardy! challenge. If Watson is to enter the medical setting, it must first be integrated into the clinical workflow, offering caregivers more complete clinical knowledge that is contextually relevant and immediately available at the point-of-care.

What makes Watson better than the many other analytic tools out there?

Traditional expert systems use forward and backward reasoning, which follows rules from data to conclusions and from conclusions to data. Creating a system around these principles requires detailed logic statement construction and understanding, and needs to include every aspect of the domain knowledge. The process is time consuming and difficult to achieve and maintain in domains with large knowledge.

Watson, however, uses natural language processing, a wide range of search methods, data association, and statistical linking to create hypotheses from data. In the Jeopardy! challenge, Watson was able to consume data and create a knowledge base that exceeded the reigning champions in general knowledge.

In healthcare, we can load Watson with large quantities of clinical source data and rank patient-specific information against a vast matrix of values and identifiers. These observations can then be used to create a ranked list of clinical knowledge relevant to that one unique patient.

Nuance and IBM are working with Columbia and University of Maryland to determine where Watson can contribute to healthcare. How will that process work?

Actually, Nuance entered into a three- to five-year research partnership with IBM and will employ a combined staff of some 30 to 50 dedicated experts, researchers, and engineers from both companies. IBM and Nuance continue to explore ongoing clinical research with a range of partners, including Columbia and University of Maryland. These clinical sites are highly important in capturing the active clinical perspective and to ensure that what ultimately is introduced to the clinical setting aligns with what is needed for successful adoption.

How will Nuance’s speech recognition and Clinical Language Understanding (CLU) be integrated with Watson’s analytic capabilities?

Nuance’s speech recognition and Clinical Language Understanding (CLU) technologies can enable natural interaction and exchange with Watson, and will ultimately eliminate the need for keyboard interaction. Additionally, Nuance’s CLU technology will help to assign additional detail to knowledge that Watson consumes and preprocess patient data making the Watson responses more relevant and accurate.

You’re presenting at RSNA. Can you provide a preview of what you’ll be talking about?

I am excited to be presenting at RSNA this year. I will provide an update on Watson in healthcare — particularly as it relates to the world of radiology — covering key aspects of the underlying technology and what differentiates Watson from other reasoning engines and expert systems. I’ll outline some of the Watson use cases currently under consideration.

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