June

Patient Throughput: The Forgotten Element in Revenue Management

Hospitals are at a breaking point, and even with stable or increased volumes many cannot continue on operating income alone. To remain relevant, contributor Marybeth Regan says hospitals need a relentless focus on operations and quality management. According to an Institute of Medicine report, "the current (hospital) delivery system does not work. Trying harder will not work. Changing systems of care will."

Marybeth Regan, Health Leaders

Groups Unite to Promote Healthcare IT

Three major U.S. advocacy organizations united to endorse and deliver five principles for healthcare information technology legislation to Congress. In a joint statement, AARP, Business Roundtable, and SEIU urged Congress to take immediate action to address healthcare IT, "given the improvements to the quality, efficiency and affordability of health care that can be achieved by implementing health IT." The groups indicated that a broad implementation of healthcare IT would serve as a building block to healthcare reform generally.

Richard Pizzi, HealthcareITNews

New Alliance Focused on Physicians and IT

Two healthcare IT groups are teaming up to form a new membership community for physicians. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society and the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems say their intent in partnering is to help physicians use healthcare IT to improve patient care.

Bernie Monegain, HealthcareITNews

The Sorry States of Healthcare

A state-by-state study shows who has the best and worst grades on 32 health indicators, and even the best are none too good. If you live in Hawaii, you're not just tanned and relaxed, chances are you are also better placed, health-wise, than the rest of the country. That's the determination of a new survey by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund that ranks the health-system performance of all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. Hawaii comes out No. 1 in the rankings, while Mississippi and Oklahoma tie for last place.

Business Week

Spotlight: Meeting Growing PHR Demands

Consumers are increasingly demanding that healthcare providers offer PHRs. Consumers already use the Internet every day to manage day-to-day activities like shopping and banking, and they're beginning to expect the same level of control over their health data, says consultant Glenn Galloway. To meet these expectations, hospitals will need to develop a PHR strategy soon, Galloway suggests.

Hospitalconnect.com

Report: IT as Centerpiece to Healthcare Reform

The Center for American Progress proposes to improve the healthcare system through information technology, according a report it released this week. Author Karen Davenport calls for policy changes to spur healthcare IT adoption. The report outlines the steps needed to reform the healthcare system into what Davenport calls a "result-based industry."

Molly Merrill, HealthcareITNews

DOD Reaches First Milestone with System's Deployment

It's taken two years, but the Defense Department has completed the first phase of a global deployment of its electronic health records system, an ambitious project for giving DOD's doctors and nurses immediate access to medical information about patients regardless of their location. The Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA) system is now installed at 138 Military Treatment Facilities worldwide. More than 55,000 people use the system, which stores data on more than 37 million outpatient clinic visits and documents more than 100,000 medical encounters per day.

Greg Slabodkin, FCW.com

Paper Kills

Adapted from the text of Speaker Newt Gingrich's introduction to Paper Kills: Transforming Health and Healthcare with Information Technology. Edited by Center for Health Transformation Project Director David Merritt, the new release from CHT Press features a collection of insights from many of the leading minds in the healthcare and health information technology fields, including providers, vendors, payers, government officials, and renowned scholars.

Newt Gingrich, for HealthLeaders News

Dallas Hospital's Kiosks Speed Check-in

In the emergency room at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, patients type their woes into a computer at one of three automated check-in kiosks. The idea is to keep sick folks from having to stand while waiting, and to more quickly reach patients who might not look sick but whose illness demands immediate attention. While similar machines are popping up nationally to check in patients at medical clinics, Parkland officials said they believe they are among the first to have a system in a hospital emergency room. A donation through UT Southwestern Medical School paid for the $50,000 project.

Dallas Morning News

VHA: Prepare for Rising Safety Expectations

Dr. Haywood, formerly deputy chief medical officer for CMS's Office of Clinical Standards and Quality, said that management engineers skilled in both process improvement and clinical performance should play a key role in bringing up safety performance within hospitals. As a result of these pressures, Haywood also expects to see hospitals and health systems put an even greater emphasis on integrating physicians and ancillary providers into their process.

FierceHealthcare

Michael Moore Wants to Reform Health Care

The health-care establishment is bracing itself for the release of Moore's next film, the decidedly anti-medical industry Sicko. Moore has begun stumping for his film with an appearance on Oprah Winfrey's show and then late night chats with David Letterman and Jay Leno. The movie, which is scheduled to hit theaters June 29, wowed audiences in Cannes last month, even reducing some to tears during a heartfelt scene in which an infant dies because she can't get medical care.

BusinessWeek

Trinity Health Re-energizes Massive Health-IT Rollout

A year after temporarily putting the brakes on a massive health-IT rollout, Trinity Health, a seven-state network of Catholic health systems, is seeking outside help on a strategy for health information exchange, and has engaged hospital information systems vendor Medseek to develop an organizational e-health strategy for connecting clinicians, patients, and business partners through the Web.

Neil Versel, Digital Healthcare & Productivity.com

Visit StatCom at AHA Leadership Summit

July 22-24, 2007
San Diego, CA
Manchester Grand Hyatt

Visit StatCom at booth #609

Coming in August-- A StatCom Sponsored Webcast Event

Watch for more details in our July issue on our upcoming webcast event:

When Visibility Just Isn't Good Enough -- A Comprehensive Logistics Center is Essential to Overcoming Bottlenecks, scheduled for Thursday, August 16, 2007, 1pm - 2pm EST.

Vision Center Allows Visitors to Experience Patient Flow Logistics and Tracking up Close

Equipped with everything from family waiting area displays, nursing unit area, bed management hub, ED facility, and an OR suite, this innovative facility was created to showcase the StatCom solution, the first enterprise solution of its kind which can manage patient flow logistics and tracking from admissions to discharge. In this state of the art facility potential customers can get a realistic feel for how the solution works. The facility is also used for customer users and StatCom staff training and testing, as well as a research laboratory.

StatCom