January

StatCom Announces Hospital-Wide Patient Flow Logistics and Tracking Solution

StatCom launch its patient flow logistics and tracking software developed to improve patient throughput and capacity management hospital wide. StatCom enables hospitals to anticipate demand and manage bottlenecks more effectively. Operational visibility increases, communication is enhanced, and patient care hand-offs are turned into handshakes. "StatCom has given us the ability to know where a patient is at all times in our procedure center and to track patient progress from admission to discharge. We are excited to see StatCom extend their technology to the entire enterprise," said Mary Kay Thalken, clinical support services executive at Bergan Mercy Medical Center.

Visit StatCom at booth #1911 at HIMSS March 26 - March 1 in New Orleans.

Bush FY08 Budget Proposes $118 Million to Advance Healthcare IT

According to HHS, the overall funding proposed for ONC includes $22 million for the American Health Information Community - the federal advisory panel - to use toward encouraging healthcare IT adoption in its four breakthrough areas, including the advancement of electronic health records, consumer empowerment, chronic care management and biosurveillance. AHIC will use the funding to test healthcare IT implementation in its four breakthrough areas within 12 communities.

Diana Manos, Healthcare IT News, Feb 07

Only One-third of Healthcare Execs Ready for P4P Reporting

According to the 2007 HIMSS Analytics Report: Care-Based Revenue Cycle Management Report , healthcare organizations are still focused mainly on improving financial outcomes as the single most important factor in driving revenue cycle management (RCM) strategy. A majority of respondents indicated they understood the importance of gathering performance indicators, and of those who don't already gather P4P information, only twenty percent had a vision for doing so.

Diana Manos, Healthcare IT News, Feb 07

Can Big Business Save Health Care?

Big Business is not happy with America's health care system, and it intends to do something about it. Private-sector purchasers for decades have clamored to improve, streamline and modernize the health care field. Five years ago, H&HN dubbed it "the Leapfrog Effect"-after the Leapfrog Group, a consortium of large, mostly private-sector purchasers, sought to force changes, in large part by directing business to providers that met certain conditions. Yet for all the noise, little has changed.

Hospitals & Health Networks, Philip Dunn, Jan 07

Why Sharp HealthCare Bit the I.T. Bullet

When executives at Sharp HealthCare decided to build a new flagship hospital, doing a massive information technology overhaul at the same time wasn't on the table. But the design of the new facility compelled new information systems and the limitations of the delivery systems' existing I.T. drove the decision to make the implementation enterprise wide.

Joseph Goedert, Health Data Management, Feb 07

Hospitals Giving the Gift of Technology

There's usually a huge disparity between the use of I.T. in hospitals and physician practices. But the Bush administration is betting that recent revisions to federal law will help change that. Hospitals and other organizations have long been loath to make I.T. donations, fearing such activity would violate federal anti-kickback statutes and the Stark Act governing physician referrals. The final rules published in August made specific and conditional exceptions to those laws to permit I.T. donations, while continuing to restrict the referring of patients to facilities in which the referring physician has a financial interest.

Beckie Kelly Schuerenberg, Health Data Management, Feb 07

IT Seen as Critical to Patient-Centered Care

The federal government and other healthcare stakeholders are increasingly interested in "patient-centered care" as a measure of quality of care. The two go hand-in-hand, industry and government leaders say. Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis said healthcare information technology is at the top of the list for driving patient-centered care. "A way of promoting patient-centered care is to make sure tools and systems are in place including - first and foremost - information technology."

Healthcare IT News, Diana Manos, Jan 07

Readers Expect Boost in IT Adoption over Next Five Years

More than 75 percent of readers who responded to last month's Healthcare IT News poll said they expected U.S. hospitals would increase their use of healthcare IT technology and surpass some of the countries that are ahead of the United States in healthcare IT technology adoption. What will drive change? "Peer pressure, "patient pressure and government regulatory pressure," said one reader.

Healthcare IT News, Jan 07

Healthcare IT Spending for 2007

Industry analysts set the annual growth rate of the $549 million high acuity care information systems market at 12.5 percent through 2012. Do you agree with the forecast?

Healthcare IT News, Jan 07

Survey: Hospital Overcrowding Issues Increase over Last Year According to Health Care Organization Executives

A new survey of top hospital executives, administrators and managers across North America reports that seven out of every eight believe that overcrowding has failed to improve at their facilities in the last year. The overcrowding, according to a majority (60%) of more than 200 survey respondents, continues to force hospitals to divert patients needing urgent medical care to other facilities. The survey reports more than 80 percent of respondents say overcrowding is one of their top five management concerns. It also reveals that more than 70 percent of the administrators who responded say that while their facilities have a stated goal of admitting patients from their emergency department within two hours of arrival, almost half (48%) fail to meet that goal more than half the time.

dBusiness News, Jan 07

Hospital CIOs Tackle Demanding Projects in 2007

As 2007 dawns, CIOs at healthcare organizations across the country are gearing up for major IT revamps. They run the gamut from rolling out new clinical systems, installing new servers, and boosting wireless capacity. Some organizations are planning new facilities, and the new construction, in turn, is spurring new IT systemwide.

Healthcare IT News, Bernie Monegain, Jan 07

Newt Gingrich on (Nearly) Everything

Trying to fix the current system is "a long-term waste of energy," Gingrich said, a futile effort he likened to trying to save the horse buggy industry from the rise of autos by coming up with a better axle.Managed care's big mistake, said Gingrich, was its emphasis on money over health. People concluded "it was a conspiracy to save money over saving lives. We [Gingrich's approach] put saving lives first, but also believe if you redesign systems, you will save money."

John Russell, Digital Healthcare & Productivity, Jan 07

Industry Leaders Identify Movers and Shakers to Watch in 2007

Since President Bush mentioned the electronic medical record in his 2004 State of the Union Address, the concept of automating healthcare has become part of everyday talk. A concept that may have seemed abstract to many just three years ago seems complex, but doable today. Who would likely influence healthcare IT initiatives in 2007, and who is worth watching?

Healthcare IT News, Jan 07

Realizing the Vision for IT in Healthcare

"There's a very fundamental and serious flaw in the infrastructure of medicine," Lawrence L. Weed, M.D., said to close the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's 18th annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care. "You couldn't design a better system to create errors in medicine."

Neil Versel, Digital Healthcare and Productivity, Dec 06

Using New Communication Methods to Manage Patients' Moments of Truth

In a consumer-driven health market, the key to success for payors, providers, and physicians will be managing moments of truth for patients. Patients will be the center of care. Health organizations that succeed will look at the system from the patient's point of view for each health encounter--anticipating needs, providing information and meeting expectations every step of the way.

Richard L. Reece, M.D., Health Leaders News, Dec 06

Hospital Using Technology to Track, Place Patients

The new bed-tracking computer system is another step in Memorial Medical Center's program to reduce emergency department waiting times. Before the new system was put into service last week, the process required a series of phone calls and messages. "The goal is to decrease the number of phone calls and to move that patient out," nurse manager Joan Barker said in Memorial's patient placement office.

The Tribune-Democrat, Jan 07

Healthcare IT a key aspect of physicians' reform principles

Ten U.S. physician associations have joined together to release a list of principles intended to guide reform of the U.S. healthcare system. The physician groups say they hope to provide guidance to national and state officials as healthcare reforms gather steam across the country.

One of the reform principles calls, in part, for sufficient funds to support a "comprehensive health information technology infrastructure and implementation.

Healthcare IT News, Jan 07

Information technology takes us back to the future

The oft-hyped "always connected" ubiquitous network concept is now closer to reality. "It's definitely an evolution rather than a revolution - but convergence is happening," said Ellen Daley, an analyst with Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. In a trend Forrester has coined the "Extended Internet," both enterprise and consumers will soon be tracking and managing physical items using a combination of RFID technology, sensors, Wi-Fi and the Internet.

Canadian Technology News, Dec 06