Survey Says Hospitals Could Improve Patient
Tracking
Hospitals could do a better job of tracking patients, according
to a new study released Monday by StatCom. Fifty-eight percent of
the healthcare executives surveyed for StatCom's 2007 National
Survey of Patient Throughput and Capacity Challenges reported that
their facilities do not have the ability to track patient flow
continuously. Additionally, 53 percent of the executives surveyed
rated their hospital's efficiency at the bed-turn process as poor
or fair, the study found. The study also discovered that 67 percent
of executives polled report phone calls and voice messages are
still the most common way of tracking patients.
Diana Manos, HealthcareITNews
20 People Who Make Healthcare Better
Who is finding innovative solutions to healthcare's myriad
problems? Who is showing courage in the face of daunting
challenges? In short, who is genuinely making a difference in
healthcare? The HealthLeaders 20 offers a snapshot of people from
multiple corners of the industry who have made healthcare better in
ways both large and small. In some cases, their opinions and
actions have raised eyebrows-or even drawn sharp criticism.
HealthLeaders Magazine
U.S. Healthcare Payers to Limit IT Investments in
2008
Although top U.S. healthcare payers reported pricing
transparency initiatives in 2007, they face challenges in 2008 that
will limit information technology investments. The study, conducted
by Health Industry Insights, surveyed 79 of the largest and most
active of U.S. healthcare payers in both business and technology
innovation and investment. It examined investment and execution
priorities, strategies, barriers and likely future trends through
2009.
Molly Merrill, HealthcareITNews
Duke Offers $596 Million Hospital Plan
Duke University Health System has proposed the biggest expansion
at its flagship hospital in a quarter century to keep pace with a
growing and aging population. The health system is asking the state
for permission to spend $596 million on a 548,420-square-foot,
seven-story building that will increase its capacity to serve
patients.
The News & Observer
Progress in Physician IT Adoption Looks Bleak,
Preliminary Data Show
Preliminary data show that despite broad encouragement,
physician adoption of health IT did not increase much from 2006,
David Blumenthal of the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute
for Health Policy. Obstacles to EHR adoption are significantly
financial, with 69% of the early respondents citing a lack of
funding as the reason they have not adopted EHRs.
Fred Bazzoli, Healthcare IT News
New Orleans' Ochsner Leads with Master Patient
Index
Ochsner Health System's new patient index system is going live
this month with 2.7 million records. It means the patient records
will be available anywhere throughout the extensive health systems
hospitals and clinics. Hospital administrators and staff knew the
ability to identify and track patients throughout the expanded
Ochsner would enable the health system to provide the highest level
of care. In order to share and manage patient data, Ochsner tapped
IBM and Initiate Systems to create an Enterprise MasterPatient
Index, or EMPI.
Patty Enrado, HealthcareITNews
Federal EHR Initiative Draws Skepticism from IT
Insiders
A plan announced this week by Department of Health and Human
Services Secretary Mike Leavitt to provide financial incentives for
electronic health record use has been touted as a major step
forward in the federal health IT agenda. But some health IT
insiders say the initiative targets too few physicians and won't
have a major impact.
Joseph Conn, Modern Healthcare
Nurses Call for Say in Healthcare IT
Development
Leaders from the American Academy of Nursing are calling for
greater awareness of how healthcare IT can be designed with the
nurse in mind. Linda Burnes Bolton, president of AAN said
improvement to a nurse's practice environment would increase
patient safety and help to retain nurses. Bolton said healthcare IT
can help nurses dispense medication and check on patients, but only
when the IT is designed intuitively for nurses. Otherwise, nurses
will "go around" the technology and not use it.
Diana Manos, HealthcareITNews
Health IT Bill Stalls in the Senate, Negotiations
Continue
Health care technology legislation that was expected to pass the
Senate last week has instead stalled as lawmakers continue
negotiations. The Wired for Health Care Quality Act (S 1693),
sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), failed in two attempts
last week to be "hotlined." Hotlining a bill indicates that it has
the support of the entire Senate and allows for quick approval. The
bill would cost $317 million over five years, the Congressional
Budget Office projects.
iHealthBeat
Physicians Need IT to Succeed in Consumer-driven
Healthcare Environment
Healthcare in the 21st century will be driven increasingly by
consumerism, and healthcare professionals will need to adopt IT
tools if they are to practice effectively in this new environment,
said the Cleveland Clinic's chief information officer. Martin
Harris, MD, Cleveland Clinic CIO and executive director of
eCleveland Clinic, told online attendees at the HIMSS Virtual
Conference & Expo that healthcare has "lagged behind" other
industries in implementing technology that allows consumers to get
more involved in their care. He warned that if the problem was not
remedied, physicians could lose business.
Richard Pizzi, HealthcareITNews
Healthways Taps IBM for WebSphere Portal
IBM and business partner Mainsoft Corp. announced today that
Healthways has crossed the .NET-Java EE software standards divide
to deploy a multimillion patient health and wellness portal for its
members. IBM and Mainsoft are working together to ensure
interoperability between proprietary and open standards-based
software systems, which can help healthcare providers to better
integrate patient records and deliver healthcare information.
Bernie Monegain, HealthcareITNews
National Alliance for Health Information Technology
(NAHIT) Spearheading Initiative to Develop Standardized
Terms
So, what exactly is an EHR? A PHR? An EMR? What does "Health
Information Exchange" or "RHIO" mean to you or your organization?
Well, thanks to the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) and
the National Alliance for Health Information Technology (NAHIT),
all of these terms should soon mean the same things to all of us.
The two organizations are spearheading an initiative to develop
standardized definitions for these increasingly popular health
information technology terms in the hope that doing so will help
advance the proliferation of health care IT.
NAHIT
CCHIT Announces Inpatient EHR
Certifications
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information
Technology has released the names of six in-patient electronic
health-record products that fully meet CCHIT's 2007 certification
criteria. Representing the first in-patient products that have
passed CCHIT inspection, the six EHRs are specifically used for
computerized physician order entry, or CPOE, and an electronic
medication administration record, or eMAR. The commission said in a
news release that it chose to focus certification first on these
two areas because CPOE and eMAR have been shown to offer the
highest value for care improvement, but have the lowest rate of
adoption in hospitals.
Modern Healthcare
More Efficient Patient Care at New McCune-Brooks
Hospital
Efficient, effective and highly responsive patient care is the
primary architectural design goal for the all-new, soon-to-open
McCune-Brooks Hospital in Carthage, Mo. To fully achieve this
objective, the hospital prescribed for itself a secure, highly
reliable IP-based wireless voice and data communications solution
from Siemens Communications, Inc. in collaboration with Siemens
Building Technologies.
Siemens announcement, CNNmoney.com