News 9/28/22

Top News

A JAMA study of 104 million clinical notes made over six years within the Penn Medicine Health System finds that the total text of 50.1% had been copied from prior text written about the same patient. Duplication increased yearly, from 33% for notes written in 2015 to 54.2% for notes written in 2020.

The study’s authors say duplication “casts doubt on the veracity of all information in the medical record,” makes certain information hard to find, and causes information scatter.

The implications of copy-and-paste-induced “note bloat” were also mentioned in a recent JAMIA article, “Do electronic health record systems ‘dumb down’ clinicians?” The authors pointed out that the use of copy-and-paste is potentially misleading and dangerous. (Dr. Jayne offers a summary of and her thoughts on the members-only content here.)

Webinars

October 18 (Tuesday) 2 ET. “Patient Payment Trends 2022: Learn All The Secrets.” Sponsor: Mend. Presenter: Matt McBride, MBA, co-founder and CEO, Mend. Many industries offer frictionless payments, but healthcare still sends paper bills to patients who are demanding modern conveniences. This webinar will review consumer sentiment on healthcare payments, recent changes to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act that create opportunities for new patient financial engagement, and new tactics to collect more payments faster from patients.

Previous webinars are on our YouTube channel. Contact Lorre to present your own.

Acquisitions, Funding, Business, and Stock

Surgical care coordination software vendor DocSpera raises $10 million in a Series B funding round.

The local paper looks at NeuroFlow’s new 16,000-square-foot office space in Philadelphia, its fifth location since launching at the University of Pennsylvania in 2016. The software company, which focuses on helping physical healthcare providers integrate behavioral healthcare services, has raised $32 million. I interviewed CEO Christopher Molaro in March.

Sales

• Baptist Health South Florida selects remote patient monitoring technology from Raziel Health.
• Mater Private Network will implement Meditech Expanse across its nine facilities in Ireland by 2024.

People

Excela Health (PA) names Vasanth Balu (Optum) SVP and CIO.

Everbridge names David Alexander (F5) chief marketing officer.

David Peterson (AccuReg) joins Edifecs as SVP of marketing.

CereHealth promotes Shane Quint to president and CTO.

Bamboo Health hires Russell Olsen (WebPT) as chief product officer.

Announcements and Implementations

Watertown Regional Medical Center (MA) launches a remote monitoring program for patients with chronic conditions using technology from Cadence.

Clearsense adds Alexandria Charts, unstructured clinical data analysis technology developed by UPMC Enterprises, to its data management software.

AGS Health announces GA of AI-powered, automated revenue cycle management services.

Allegheny Health Network (PA) adds appointment scheduling capabilities from DocASAP, part of Optum, to its Epic patient portal.

Government and Politics

The 20th Medical Group at Shaw Air Force Base (SC), Naval Hospital Jacksonville and Naval Branch Health Clinics Jacksonville, Key West, and Mayport (FL), and the 14th Medical Group at Columbus Air Force Base (MS) go live on MHS Genesis. CAFB has warned patients that hackers have created fake MHS Genesis website links to take advantage of the system transition, and to only use the official MHS Genesis website address to access information.

VA officials consider proposing new patient care eligibility standards in the coming months, including pushing veterans to telemedicine appointments before giving them the option of care outside of the VA system.

CyncHealth warns the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services that it will no longer be able to operate the state’s HIE and PDMP if the department doesn’t make good on the $11 million owed on its contract. State officials have blamed the payment shortage on changes in federal funding. CyncHealth, meanwhile, has had to borrow money to pay its 75 employees, and has been unable to pay some of its technology vendors.

Other

An analysis of NHS England prescription and patient safety data reveals that 98 hospital trusts saw an increase in prescription errors in 2021, while 105 saw a decrease. Records indicate that 6,000 patients suffered some level of harm from those errors, with 49 experiencing severe harm and 29 leading to death. Nearly one in six NHS England facilities have yet to implement electronic prescribing.

A digital artist discovers that her medical photos are now part of a data set used to train AI image generators, despite signing a consent form indicating they were not to be shared.

Sponsor Updates

• Arcadia will host its annual Aggregate Conference October 12-14 in Chicago.
• Bamboo Health will sponsor Tufts University’s Women in Tech even October 1 in Boston.
• Biofourmis will present at DTxEast September 28 in Boston.
• ChartSpan partners with the South Carolina Medical Association.
• CHIME releases a new 30^th Anniversary Podcast, “Unity with Rick Skinner, 1999 Board Chair.”
• Clearwater will present at the Virginia HIMSS Fall Conference September 26-28 in Williamsburg, VA.
• Cloudwave will exhibit at the New England HIMSS Regional NH/VT Fall Conference September 28.
• CoverMyMeds employees have spent 1,508 hours volunteering with 100-plus organizations as part of the company’s CoverMyCommunity initiative.
• Diameter Health will present at the virtual NLP Summit October 4.

Blog Posts

• Virtual waiting rooms: How to create a five-star telehealth experience (AdvancedMD)
• Value-based care and fully delegated risk: Which model is right for your healthcare organization? (Arcadia)
• Leverage internal audit to minimize risk in medical leadership contracting and compensation processes (Baker Tilly)
• Simplifying administrative tasks for improved health outcomes and enhanced provider experience (Bravado Health)
• Digital Certificates Help Protect Healthcare Data from Cyberattack (Philips Capsule)
• Takeaways from the Chicago Care Coordination Summit (CarePort Health)
• Healthcare IT Service Desk: How to Improve Work Life Balance and Satisfaction (CereCore)
• True marriage of health and tech is needed to improve lives globally (Oracle Cerner)
• Physician EHR as a Detriment to Patient Experience? (ChartLogic)
• That Hospital EHR System Costs Too Much (EClinicalWorks)

Contacts

Mr. H, Lorre, Jenn, Dr. Jayne.
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