House Economic Stimulus Bill Allocates $20B for Health Care
IT
HealthDataManagement
The House Appropriations Committee unveiled an $825 billion
economic stimulus plan that includes $20 billion for health IT.
Under the bill, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health
IT would receive $2 billion, while Indian Health Services, the
Social Security Administration and community health centers would
receive funding to upgrade their health IT systems. House Democrats
unveiled the details of a $20 billion health information technology
plan as part of their larger stimulus package on Friday, an
approach that could allow them to avoid the objections that have
stalled similar legislation in recent years. The draft legislation
will create incentives for doctors who adopt electronic health
record technology. There is broad consensus in industry and
Congress that legislation is needed to address IT issues in health
care.
http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/legislation27562-1.html
How Would Appointing a Cabinet-Level Chief Technology Officer
Affect Health IT Adoption?
iHealthBeat & HIMSS survey
Fifty-seven percent of health IT professionals surveyed said
appointing a Cabinet-level chief technology officer would
accelerate health IT adoption, according to a survey from the
Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. Nearly a
quarter of respondents predicted that a CTO would have no impact on
health IT adoption, while 4% said it would hurt health IT adoption.
Meanwhile, 40% of respondents predicted that President-elect Barack
Obama's administration would move forward in a new direction that
would have a positive effect on health IT adoption.
http://www.ihealthbeat.org/data-points/2009/how-would-appointing-a-cabinetlevel-chief-technology-officer-affect-health-it-adoption.aspx
The Hospitalist of the Future
Elyas Bakhtiari, HealthLeaders Media
Hospital executives like the model because having a physician
onsite 24/7 has been proven to improve quality and can help with ED
coverage. Physicians like it as an option for avoiding the burdens
of private practice, and those already in private practice can more
efficiently focus on outpatient care, which often leads to more
revenue. It has provided an option-though often expensive for the
hospital-to avoid paying stipends for ED call coverage, and it
appeals to a generation of doctors with new work-life balance
goals.
http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/226524/topic/WS_HLM2_PHY/The-Hospitalist-of-the-Future.html
More Physicians Use Smartphones, PDAs in Clinical Care
Pamela Lewis Dolan, AMNews
Physicians are adopting mobile devices at a faster rate than the
general public, according to Manhattan Research. Some industry
experts predict that the use of smartphones and PDAs will drive an
increase in electronic health record adoption. According to New
York firm Manhattan Research, doctors are adopting mobile
technology more quickly than is the general public. The group
published a report in September 2008 saying 54% of U.S. physicians
own a PDA or smartphone. Separate research by Dallas-based
Diffusion Group predicts that by 2011, 70% of physicians will own a
smartphone or PDA.
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/01/05/bisa0105.htm
Industry Predictions: What Are the Drivers Shaping Health Care
IT in 2009?
Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, ihealthbeat
Predictions, sure things for 2009: From macroeconomic stimulus
to electronic prescriptions, changes coming next year should put
health IT firmly in the mainstream. 2009 will be a crossroads kind
of year for health IT. Welcome to my annual iHealthBeat
end-of-the-year column providing a look forward at health IT. The
drivers shaping health IT in 2009 are bound up in one major
"uber-uncertainty" facing the nation.
http://www.ihealthbeat.org/Perspectives/2008/Industry-Predictions-What-Are-the-Drivers-Shaping-Health-Care-IT-in-2009.aspx
Equipped for Efficiency: Improving Nursing Care through
Technology
Fran Turisco and Jared Rhoads, CSC
This report, a successor to the 2002 CHCF publication The
Nursing Shortage: Can Technology Help?, examines hospitals'
experiences with eight types of devices and applications: wireless
communications, real-time location systems, delivery robots,
workflow management systems, wireless patient monitoring,
electronic medication administration with bar coding, electronic
clinical documentation with clinical decision support, and
interactive patient systems. Two other technologies - alarm/event
messaging and biomedical device integration - are also discussed.
The results indicate that these systems have helped to create a
better workplace for inpatient nurses, raising their job
satisfaction while also contributing to improvements in care. All
of the hospitals that shared their experience are planning to
expand their use of these technologies, suggesting that the impact
of such systems will continue to grow.
http://www.chcf.org/topics/view.cfm?itemid=133816
UHC to Offer RFID Technology to Members
Healthcare IT News
The University HealthSystem Consortium will give all of its U.S.
members access to RFID technology that can track the location of
equipment, supplies and people in real time. The consortium, which
consists of 103 academic medical centers and 191 affiliated
hospitals, says the AeroScout technology will help increase
hospital efficiency and improve patient care.
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/uhc-inks-rfid-contract-its-members
Research Council Says Health IT Fails In Clinical Support
Mission
Brian Robinson, Government Health IT
A report from the National Research Council suggests that health
care IT initiatives are not aiding health care workers and might
even be harmful. The NRC report says that several programs don't
offer good decision-making help to physicians and providers.
"Blanket promotion of IT adoption where benefits are not clear or
are oversold -- especially in a non-infrastructure context -- will
only waste resources and sour clinicians on the true potential of
health care IT," according to the report.
http://govhealthit.com/articles/2009/01/13/research-council-says-health-it-fails-in-clinical-support-mission.aspx
Technology Innovation and Patient-Focused Clinical Flow
Bryan Daylor, Vice President of Ancillary and Support
Services at Eden Medical Center -- blog
The new "best practice" is to create a centralized service where
the work flow is organized and instruments are closely aligned. In
this type of design the work flow is much more efficient, and staff
has fewer steps between tasks and can be much more expedient in
processing specimens. Ultimately this increases turnaround times of
critical test results for physicians and patients, and results in a
better work environment for the staff. With the advances in
technology, one person can do multiple tasks in one area using
state-of-the-art instrumentation. Another mechanism to provide
efficiency and convenience for the patient is the new Control
Center, located on the first floor close to high activity areas.
The Control Center functions similar to an "air traffic control"
room.
http://suttermedicalcentercastrovalley.org/blog/2009/technology-innovation-and-patient-focused-clinical-flow/
The Hospitalist as Bed Czar: Indispensability, But At What
Cost?
Wachter's World -- blog
In last week's Annals of Internal Medicine, Eric Howell and
colleagues describe an innovative experiment in which the
hospitalists at Johns Hopkins Bayview became the institution's bed
czars. It worked. Most hospital ultimately throw up their hands and
solve the problem of throughput by - you guessed it - building more
beds, at a cost these days of 1-2 million dollars per bed,
depending on whether you have to meet earthquake standards (the
cost is even higher for ICU beds). But hospitals can't afford to
leave their bed shortage problem unsolved - not just because they
need to dis-impact the ED, but more importantly (for the bottom
line) because they need to free up beds upstairs for elective
surgeries.
http://www.the-hospitalist.org/blogs/wachters_world/archive/2008/12/12/the-hospitalist-as-bed-czar-indispensability-but-at-what-cost.aspx
Combining University of Alabama Hospitals Would Help Efficiency
and Economy
Birmingham News
University of Alabama Hospital wants UAB Highlands to operate
with it as one institution, although they will keep their separate
campuses, UAB Health System CEO Will Ferniany announced. Ferniany
said the health system has to continue to improve in order to stave
off economic challenges. He said he aims for the hospital to have a
3% operating margin by the end of 2010, which will allow it to have
the resources it needs.
http://www.al.com/birminghamnews/stories/index.ssf?/base/news/1231924533135720.xml&coll=2
Need to Vent - A Personal View on The Front Line
Today is Just Today -- blog
Well... along about July last year, our hospital began to
respond to the downturn in patient flow and did the right business
thing and froze hiring and closed one unit and had several more
layoffs. of course, during the first round of layoffs, I became the
Unit Coordinator... mostly because my old job ceased to exist. I
had filled in during the summer and they offered it to me. All well
and good. I'm glad to have a job that is M-F days.... By October,
the census had NOT picked up.. and especially for us, we were
seeing a SIGNIFICANT downturn in census... More layoffs and
continued hiring freeze, except for critical positions..... such as
RN's
http://scrappyshel.blogspot.com/2009/01/need-to-vent.html
Flat-World Healthcare
Rick Johnson, HealthLeaders Magazine
Globalization is no longer an uncertain trend in the distant
future. With employers beginning to sponsor medical travel benefits
and more international competitors focusing on high-dollar elective
procedures, U.S. providers must refine their organizational
strategy to compete in a marketplace that is broader than ever
before.
http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/226374/topic/WS_HLM2_MAG/FlatWorld-Healthcare.html
Survey: Layoff 'Survivors' are Anxious, Angry
John Commins, HealthLeaders Media
If your hospital has recently undergone layoffs, don't expect
"surviving" employees to work harder or pick up the slack out of
sheer gratitude for not getting canned. Washington, DC-based
consultants Leadership IQ found in a new survey that 74% of 4,172
surviving workers at 318 companies that had undergone layoffs in
the last six months reported a drop in productivity. In addition,
69% of those surveyed survivors say the quality of their company's
product or service has slipped since the layoffs; 87% say they are
less likely to recommend their organization as a good place to
work; 64% say the productivity of their colleagues has declined;
81% say customer service has declined; 77% say they see more
errors; and 61% say they believe their company's prospects will
worsen.
http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/226248/topic/WS_HLM2_HR/Survey-Layoff-Survivors-are-Anxious-Angry.html
One-on-One With Norwalk Hospital CIO Jamie Mooney, Part
III
Anthony Guerra, Healthcare Informatics
In this final part of our interview, Mooney says that having a
guiding principle makes budget-cutting decisions easier. Recently,
HCI Editor-in-Chief Anthony Guerra had a chance to talk with CIO
Jamie Mooney about her efforts to empower clinicians with
information management tools.
http://www.healthcare-informatics.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=9787B3F03E964177B97B115248E77102
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