St. Vincent Mercy Selects StatCom to Help with Patient
Flow Efficiency Initiative
St. Vincent, a seven hospital faith-based system serving
Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan, has undertaken a facility
wide initiative to improve patient flow efficiencies. They are
engaging StatCom to implement its enterprise patient flow logistics
and tracking solution to automate patient flow processes and
improve operations.
StatCom.com
Thomson Healthcare Study Names Top 100 Hospitals on
Patient Safety
It's not just about information technology or the cost of
delivering care, but those two factors play a role in a complex
formula that technology company Thompson Healthcare uses to measure
the top 100 performing hospitals on patient safety. The highest
performance levels in patient safety were achieved by the 100
hospitals in the study that delivered the highest balanced
performance across quality, efficiency and financial stability.
Bernie Monegain, HealthcareITNews
To Build a Better Hospital, Washington Hospital Takes
Lessons from Toyota
Beginning in 2000, the leadership at Virginia Mason hospital
looked at their infrastructure and saw it was designed around them,
not the patient. They then began looking for a better way to
improve quality, safety and patient satisfaction. After two years
of searching, they discovered the Toyota Production system, also
known as lean manufacturing, and Virginia Mason has tailored the
Japanese model to fit healthcare.
Cheri
Black, Seattlepi.com
The Future of HIMSS
To the untrained eye, HIMSS08 may have seemed like a typical
HIMSS show, if not a bit bigger. But below the surface, it was
clear an evolution is taking place. This year, long-time attendees
and industry observers noted they were encountering perhaps at
least a few fewer CIOs and more executives and managers below the
CIO level. Some attributed it to the fact that more hospital-based
organizations have now at least completed the initial phase of
their core EMR implementations, and thus are in what one industry
expert called the "what's next?" phase of clinical IS
development.
Mark Hagland, Healthcare Informatics
The Show Will Go On - Without Cerner
When the 2009 HIMSS Conference and Exhibition opens next April
at McCormick Place in Chicago, it will include a projected 3 1/2
percent increase in reserved exhibition space, according to
H.Stephen Lieber, president and CEO of the Healthcare Information
and Management Systems Society. But it will not include the Cerner
anchor booth.
Bernie Monegain, HealthcareITNews
Movement on Federal Health IT Bills Looks Bleak,
Insiders Say
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said a new amendment to create a reserve
fund would address the lack of investment in health IT, which he
believes is responsible for hindering progress on a nationwide
interoperable health IT system. However, one insider said the
election and the country's economy pose major hurdles to the
passage of health IT legislation.
Diana
Manos, HealthcareITNews
Battle Between Best-of-Breed and Sole Source
Continues
Given all the consolidation among health-IT suppliers in the
last few years, more than a few big guns have assembled true,
end-to-end integrated clinical and management systems. Yet the
ongoing national push for data and interoperability standards means
it easier than ever to knit together best-of-breed solutions in
Lego-like fashion.
Neil Versel, Digital Healthcare &
Productivity.com
Midland Hospital Proves Open Source Savings
Midland Memorial Hospital got an $18 million EMR system for $7
million, thanks to open source. Midland signed its contract with
Medsphere in late 2004, removed its paper records in February,
2007, and now has a year of experience using a completely automated
patient records system. Midland has also removed pressure from both
government and insurance companies to automate. Its EMR system is
one of only 9 nationwide to have a Stage 6 designation from HIMSS
Analytics, the highest yet achieved.
Dana Blankenhorn,
ZDNet
Healthcare Clamors for iPhone Apps
The analyst group Datamonitor predicts the iPHone could lead to
more doctors adopting healthcare applications such as electronic
health records and clinical. Medics have been slow to adopt such
technologies--which provide patient and medical data--because
turning to a PC in the middle of an examination can disrupt the
doctor-patient relationship. But the analyst said mobile devices
such as the iPhone can help reduce these problems.
Steve Ranger,
posted on ZDNet
Mergers Make a Comeback
It may not be the 1990s all over again, but hospital
consolidation is picking up. "The day is coming when it is going to
be exceedingly difficult for smaller and medium-size, and even some
larger, independent hospitals to continue to operate efficiently in
their communities as standalone hospitals," Spoelman says. Thus,
the two hospitals' merger is perhaps emblematic of an industry
consolidation wave that has been a long time coming and may
accelerate in the near future.
Lola Butcher, HealthLeaders Magazine
Overcoming the Barrier to Participating in the IHE
Initiative
Since it's inception in 1998, IHE (Integrating the Healthcare
Enterprise) has embarked on a commendable mission to "improve the
way computer systems in healthcare share information." Over the
past 10 years the initiative has made great strides in
standardizing the implementation of not-so-confining "standards"
such as HL7.
Jason Williams, Neotool blog
Improving Denial Management
WVU has an annual inpatient discharge rate of more than 22,000
patients per month. WVU Hospitals had quite a list of operational
goals --streamlining and coordinating the utilization of services,
improving case and discharge management processes, as well as
incorporating a new, coordinated denial management practice with
financial services.
Christy Whetsell, RN, for HealthLeaders Media
Innovation in Health Care: An Interview with the CEO of
the Cleveland Clinic
Check out this interesting interview on Toby Cosgrove, CEO of
Cleveland Clinic. He touches on a variety of topics such as: how CC
gets the most out of its money (metrics and more metrics), CC's
take on patient charts (they belong to the patient, not the
hospital) patient "experience" (and why you won't find those
behind-revealing hospital gowns at CC), Partnership strategy (very
clear about what they want and don't want), CC's core value
proposition - technology leadership, and more. (Free reg)
The Mckinsey Quarterly
Boards Gone Wild
Whenever I hear about a board-CEO battle that ends in a CEO's
dismissal, I can't help but wonder how it went so wrong. After all,
in theory, CEOs and their boards have the same goal: the
organization's success.
Molly Rowe, HealthLeaders Media
CIO Survey Finds IT Implementation is a Lower
Priority
Hospitals and health systems are looking at electronic medical
records (EMRs) and other clinical systems more than most other
components of health-IT as their organizations sharpen their focus
on quality of care, according to an analysis of a survey of
hospital IT professionals. Of the 307 people - mostly chief
information officers - who participated in the 19th annual survey
of health-IT leaders by the Healthcare Information and Management
Systems Society (HIMSS), 40 percent named inpatient clinical
information systems as a current IT priority. Nearly as many listed
reducing medical errors and implementing EMRs as priorities, though
the numbers for all three categories fell by 8 to 15 percentage
points.
Neil Versel, Digital Healthcare &
Productivity.com