Tuesday, January 30, 2007

CCHIT adds 18 more products to its certification list for a total of 55

CCHIT estimates that approximately 25% of EHRs are now certified!

Going EHR continues to get easier, more variety and more price points. SV


List of products

* Advanced Data Systems Corporation (MedicsDocAssistant 3.0)
* Catalis (Accelerator Graphical Health Record 4.111)
* Encite (TouchChart 3.3)
* Henry Schein Medical Systems (MicroMD EMR 4.5)
* InteGreat Concepts, Inc. (IC-Chart Release 6.0)
* LSS Data Systems (Medical and Practice Management (MPM) Suite MAGIC Version 5.5, Service Release 2.1)
* LifeWatch (TIME 7.100)
* Marshfield Clinic (CattailsMD Version 5)
* MedAZ.net (MEDAZ 60720.001)
* Medicat (Medicat 8.8)
* MedicWare (MedicWare EMR 7)
* MedInformatix (MedInformatix V 6.0)
* Meditab Software (Intelligent Medical Software (IMS) 2007)
* Pulse Systems (Pulse Patient Relationship Management 3.1.1)
* Spring Medical Systems (SpringCharts EHR 9.0)
* SSIMED (Emrge 6.0 Release 1.0)
* Universal Software Solutions (VersaSuite 7.5)
* Visionary Medical Systems (Visionary Dream EMR 7.1)

CCHIT
American Medical Association (AMA) has launched a Health Information Technology Site

The site provides an overview of HIT, recommendations on choosing a vendor, recommendations on implementation, as well as various policy papers.
Here's another good reason to pay your dues. SV


AMA

Monday, January 29, 2007

ACP Releases Comprehensive Reforms to Move towards Patient-Centered Care


Health Information Technology will assist in achieving these reforms. Recent government and private grant programs will help get the process initiated. SV

ACP
Steve Case (formally of AOL) has launched a health site,

Many services are being offered including a Personal Health Record and Hospital/Physician ratings.

Let us know what you think about the site and how it compares to such sites as
AARP, INTELIHEALTH, MEDEM and WEBMD. SV




revolutionhealth

www.aarp.org

www.intelihealth.com

www.medem.com

www.webmd.com
Connecticut Governor Rell announces $5 million grant from CMS to expand use of electronic health care records

This an excellent application of the Medicaid Transformation Grant which has been awarded to 27 states. SV


Norwich Bulletin

CMS

Friday, January 26, 2007

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle proposes $30M plan to convert to electronic medical records

The seed money is being creatively allocated. SV


Gov. Jim Doyle said Thursday that he would ask lawmakers to approve a $30 million program to encourage health care providers to install electronic medical records systems.

Doyle proposed a $20 million grant program to help nonprofit organizations transition from less reliable paper documents to technology that he said would reduce medical errors and improve quality. For-profit hospitals and doctors would be eligible for an additional $10 million in tax credits to help cover their costs.

Twincities.com
Wellpoint will pay physicians to e-Prescribe

While not a large sum is being offered, it may start a new trend of sharing the financial benefits with physician practices. SV

Anthem's test program will provide money to 100 physicians in Ohio's Dayton and Youngstown areas to help pay for the technology. Participating physicians will be reimbursed up to $750 for computer hardware, as well as the $40 a month cost for the e-prescribing service.

Indystar.com
Wisconsin eHealth Board Implementation Summit scheduled for March 15,2007

eHealth Board

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Brooklyn's Lutheran Medical Center Selects Medsphere OpenVista® for Electronic Health Record Deployment

OpenVista is being recognized as an affordable option by non-federal organizations. SV

Medsphere Systems Corporation, the leading commercial provider of open source-based electronic health record (EHR) systems and services, today announced a five-year agreement to supply and deploy its OpenVista® EHR platform at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. The installation is designed to improve patient care and operations in the 476-bed facility by providing better data capture, computerized provider order entry, an integrated view of all patient information for clinical decision support, and related benefits.


Medsphere
Newt Gingrich and Janet Dillione article on Health Information Technology

Philadelphia has a proud history of leadership in health care. Philadelphia is home to the nation's first hospital, first medical school, and first medical society.

Over the last 250 years, those seeds have grown into a $2-trillion-a-year system, with more than 800,000 doctors and 6,000 hospitals. But far too often, today's doctors and hospitals are using tools and technology that, relatively speaking, are from a distant age.

Philadelphia Inquirer
Texans favor e-tracking in health care

More than three quarters of Texans think a greater use of electronic record keeping would improve the quality and efficiency of health care, according to a new poll.

Forty-three percent of respondents predicted that digital records would bring major improvement, and 33 percent predicted minor improvement. The statewide survey was commissioned by Dell Inc. and conducted by Zogby International.

Houston Chronicle

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Congress Passes Measure to Prevent Medication Errors at Hospitals

This measure will require a major technology investment for hospitals which may require assistance to jump start the process. SV

The bill passed by both the Senate and the House requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop quality standards, including medication safety measures, that the Secretary determines will improve hospital quality. Hospitals that do not disclose whether they have adopted the new standards will be penalized by receiving reduced Medicare reimbursements. This requirement will build on quality control measures recently implemented as part of the Deficit Reduction Act. Possible safety measures could include:



Electronic prescribing to prevent errors because pharmacy staff cannot read handwriting or dosage information;
Bar coding of individual dosages with scanners that can compare the patient record with the drug to be administered both at the time order is filled in the pharmacy and at the patient bedside;
Using smart IV infusion pumps that alert nurses if the dose exceeds hospital-established limits before infusion begins.

lugar.senate.gov

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

NEPSI: FREE electronic prescribing…for every physician in America

This is possibly the Free Market at its best. Mulitple vendors with a common goal coming together to provide a solution that benefits all. This a great role model for other similar ventures. Hopefully, the system will be interoperable with many of the deployed EHRs and PHRs. SV


The National ePrescribing Patient Safety Initiative (NEPSI) is a joint project of dedicated organizations that each play a unique role in resolving the current crisis in preventable medication errors.

Electronic prescribing (eRx) is a viable solution to counter shortcomings of the current paper-based prescribing processes that are in large part responsible for these errors. However, accessibility and cost barriers have slowed adoption of eRx by providers.

Until now.

The goal of NEPSI is to increase patient safety by making eRx accessible—and desirable—to all physicians by providing it free of charge.

The eRx software provided by NEPSI is

Simple – Online prescribing is easier than a script pad

Smart – Instant checks on drug interactions, dosage levels and patient-specific factors including prior adverse reactions

Safe – Patient information protected by privacy and security measures including physician authentication


NEPSI

eRX NOW

Monday, January 15, 2007

Gov. Joe Manchin of West Virginia supports e Prescribing

Once this goes through, there will only be two states not supporting e Prescribing and its advantages. SV

West Virginia is one of only three states in the country with laws preventing the fully automated electronic prescription of medication, but that could soon change.

In his State of the State speech Wednesday, Gov. Joe Manchin highlighted so called “e-prescriptions” as one of his key health care initiatives, and by Friday morning, a bill allowing the practice had been introduced in the Senate.

Sending prescriptions electronically from physicians’ offices to pharmacies could cut down on error, reduce abuse of prescription drugs and potentially save West Virginia millions of dollars annually, according to advocates.

WeirtonDailyTimes.com

Sunday, January 14, 2007

UNMC (University of Nebraska Medical School) introduces Web-based health record (PHR4me) for students

UNMC will be a using product by HDC 4point dynamics. HDC says their product is interoperable with other products.
It's great that a medical school will the raise awarence for the need of such products by future physicians. SV


UNMC has announced plans for what is believed to be the first time an academic organization has established a Web-based Personal Health Record program for all its students. In contrast with medical records that are owned by doctors or hospitals, a PHR is owned by the patient and is part of a national effort to involve patients in their own health care.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Our Blog site now features Epocrates MedSearch!


Scoll to the bottom of the page.

The Epocrates MedSearch tool allows you to instantly access clinical information on more than 3,300 drugs.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Apple Mac Tablet will soon be available from Axiotron


This looks like a great addition for those of use who use "slates" or "convertable tablets" with our EHRs. SV



Let us know about your experiences with the device.

eShop


Axiotron

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

St. Lukes's Health System in Idaho choses eClinicalWorks


eClinicalWorks continues to attract large group practices. SV

St. Luke’s Health System, the largest healthcare provider in Idaho, which also serves eastern Oregon and northern Nevada, has chosen eClinicalWorks unified electronic medical records (EMR) and practice management (PM) solution to streamline practice operations between locations and from patient check-in to check-out. Initially, there are nearly 300 providers implementing the client/server version of eClinicalWorks EMR/PM that will also make use of an interface that eClinicalWorks is developing with Siemens, St. Luke’s hospital information system.

eClinicalWorks

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Conference:How Health Information Technology affects the Patient Experience, January 19, 2007 Farmington, CT

How has information technology been deployed to ease the patients' encounter, either by making it more informative, more efficient, or just more fun. This event will feature a number of speakers and healthcare settings to demonstrate how they have used information technology to better the "patient experience".

Questions about this event should be directed to Steve McDonald or call at (781) 982-8400 x308.

To register online click here

Friday, January 05, 2007

Living wills and Health care directives will be hosted on an Idaho government registry web site

This will be an invaluable resource in case of emergencies. SV

www.sos.idaho.gov