Thursday, May 24, 2007

Maimonides Medical Center Telemedicine Initiative With Verizon Business foundation for the Brooklyn Health Information Exchange (BHIE)

The people of Brooklyn are very fortunate to have Maimonides spearhead this initiative. It can serve as a hub for other collaboratives. SV

The BHIE, composed of a consortium of 10 Brooklyn-based health care organizations representing the full continuum of medical delivery, will enable the sharing of complete patient clinical information via an electronic medical record transferred between health care organizations over the network infrastructure already in place at Maimonides. To support the creation of the BHIE, Maimonides received a $4 million grant from the state of New York to create the required secure electronic infrastructure for sharing clinical information among multiple health care organizations, whether the patient is being treated in an affiliated emergency room, inpatient unit, doctor's office or skilled nursing facility.

Verizon

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

eClinical Works will use IMH (Instant Medical History) in the updated version of their Patient Portal

I am long time user of IMH as a free standing product and as part of Phreesia.
Integration with the Patient Portal will be a boon for eCW clients. SV



IMH

eClinicalWorks

Thursday, May 17, 2007

EMR implementations: turning challenges into opportunities

Here's a link to a review of the presentation we made today at the HIMSS conference. SV

Healthcare IT News


HIMSS
Walgreen Co. To Acquire Convenient Care Clinic Operator Take Care Health Systems


First CVS, now Walgreens.
The demand for services is driving market decisions for providing care in these venues. This is a phenomenon worth study. SV


DEERFIELD, Ill., May 16, 2007 – Walgreen Co. (NYSE, NASDAQ: WAG) today said it intends to acquire Take Care Health Systems, a leading operator of convenient care clinics. The clinics, combined with the drugstore chain’s nearly 5,700 pharmacies across the country, will form the core for the future rollout of a variety of patient-focused health care services.

Take Care Health Systems operates 50 health care clinics in Chicago, Kansas City, Milwaukee, St. Louis and Pittsburgh. The transaction is expected to close next week, subject to the completion of a definitive agreement. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

About Take Care Health Systems

Take Care Health Systems (www.takecarehealth.com) is a leading independent operator of convenient care clinics. Take Care Health combines best practices in medicine and the expertise and personal care of Take Care nurse practitioners to provide high-quality, accessible and affordable health care to all individuals. Take Care Health operates 50 health care clinics in Chicago, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and St. Louis. Take Care Health uses nationally recognized clinical guidelines, industry standards set forth by the Convenient Care Association (www.convenientcareassociation.org) and an electronic medical record system to ensure the highest quality care. The company maintains a robust quality assurance program, including collaborating physician record review, peer review and compliance auditing.

Walgreens

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

The HIMSS Virtual Conference and Expo is now open for visitors

Come visit and stay a while. SV

HIMSS

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Clinical Decision Support (CDS) at the Point of Care (POC) provided by Skyscape and Elsevier


I've used Skyscape ebooks integrated with my EHR and was glad to see that Elsevier also offers CDS.

Feel free to share your experiences with Elsevier and Skyscape. SV



Skyscape


Elsevier
Epocrates e-Prescribing and EMR/EHR partners


Here is a current list. SV

Epocrates’ EMR/EHR and ePrescibing Partners

Amazing Charts
BlueFish
DrFirst
GlaceEMR
InstantDx
iScribe
Medent
Medsite
Misys
OnCallData
Patient Keeper
PocketMD
SOAPware
SpringCharts
ACP and other organizations provide a framework for Patient-Centered Care to the House Ways and Means Committee


I applaud the physician organizations, employers and government officals that recognize the need for finally changing our episodic based health care system to an organic system that requires a management on a continuous basis. SV


May 10, 2007 (WASHINGTON) “Congress has an historic opportunity to join with the American College of Physicians (ACP), other physician organizations and employers to redesign Medicare payment policies to provide incentives for patient-centered care,” ACP told the House Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health in a written statement for the record submitted today. Thursday’s hearing was on Options to Improve Quality and Efficiency Among Medicare Physicians.

“ACP today offered a comprehensive plan for Medicare to realign payment policies to support comprehensive, coordinated, and longitudinal care for beneficiaries through a physician-directed, Patient-Centered Medical Home,” noted ACP President David C. Dale, MD, FACP.

“It is a rare opportunity to realign payment incentives to:

help physicians deliver the care that patients need and want;
recognize the value of care managed by a patient’s personal physician;
support the value of primary care medicine in improving outcomes; and
create the systems needed at the physician practice level to deliver the best possible care to patients.”

A Patient-Centered Health Medical home is a physician practice that has gone through a voluntary qualification process to demonstrate that it:

Provides continuous access to a personal primary or principal care physician who accepts responsibility for treating and managing care for the whole patient through an a patient-centered medical home, rather than limiting practice to a single disease condition, organ system, or procedure,

Supports the specific characteristics of care that the evidence shows result in the best possible outcomes for patients.

Recognizes the importance of implementing systems-based approaches that will enable physicians and other clinicians to manage care, in partnership with their patients, and to engage in continuous quality improvement,

Introduces transparency in consumer decision-making and accountability for getting better results by reporting on evidence-based quality, cost and patient experience measures of care.

In March, 2007, ACP, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Osteopathic Association released a joint statement of principles that defines the characteristics of a Patient-Centered Medical Home. The four organizations represent 333,000 physicians and medical students.
The Patient-Centered

A Patient-Centered Health Medical home is a physician practice that has gone through a voluntary qualification process to demonstrate that it:

Provides continuous access to a personal primary or principal care physician who accepts responsibility for treating and managing care for the whole patient through an a patient-centered medical home, rather than limiting practice to a single disease condition, organ system, or procedure,

Supports the specific characteristics of care that the evidence shows result in the best possible outcomes for patients.

Recognizes the importance of implementing systems-based approaches that will enable physicians and other clinicians to manage care, in partnership with their patients, and to engage in continuous quality improvement,

Introduces transparency in consumer decision-making and accountability for getting better results by reporting on evidence-based quality, cost and patient experience measures of care.

ACP

Saturday, May 12, 2007

TEPR: Towards the Electronic Medical Record Conference
May 19-23, 2007, Dallas Texas


Whether you are a solo practitioner, or the CEO of a major healthcare organization, TEPR 2007 will provide you with timely, up-to-the-minute information to answer your particular HIT needs.

TEPR’s educational sessions are led by actual users of EMRs and EHRs, as well as industry thought leaders, who will provide insights from their real life experiences. We address the situations you meet in real life, and provide you with the opportunity to learn - not just from presenters - but from each other.
With over 30,000 square feet of products, technologies and services from more than 175 leading health IT vendors, TEPR 2007 offers a comprehensive overview of innovative products and solutions to answer all your health IT needs.

TEPR
MSSNY NSLIJ May 11, 2007 HIT Fair

We had over 200 attendees at the fair.

In addition to the traditional vendor area, there were a total of four one hour vendor demonstrations which filled to capacity.

We were fortunate to have local and national leaders in Health Information Technology present their views and experiences.

The audience, which had a significant number of primary care physicians in small practictes, raised many important questions.

I encourage anyone who missed the presenation to return here and the MSSNY website for notices on future conferences. SV


MSSNY
AHRQ and Epocrates Collaborate to Deliver Best Practices to the Point of Care


One of the problems with providing Evidence Based Medicine, is getting easy access to best practice information. Epocrates provides an excellent conduit for disseminating this information. The next step would be to create links with EHRs that would incorporate these recommendations and prompt health care providers at the point of care. And if necessary, permit the option to remove them if new research no longer supports an old recommendation. SV


Epocrates
Verizon CEO Announces Implementation of New Online Personal Health Records Program (WEBMD) for Company Employees


This decision will benefit over 900,000 employees.
We applaud Verizon's decision to give its employees better access to their heatlh information as well as promoting greater individual involvement in their healthcare.
Please let us know if you EHR has an interface with WEBMD's PHR. SV



"Information technology has revolutionized the way we live and could add great value to the delivery of health care in this country," Seidenberg said. "The health care industry has been on the cutting edge of technology on the research and development side, but not on the administrative side. Electronic medical records will radically change the dynamics of our health care system by providing the information needed to empower the patient. This is the first step toward an interoperable system that will seamlessly connect all pieces of the health care puzzle - patients, clinicians, pharmacies, labs, hospitals and others."

VERIZON
IRS to allow Not for Profit Hospitals (NFPs) to give financial aid for EHRs


The uncertaininty of the legality to give financial aid had made many institutions hestant to risk sanctions. Now Not for Profit Hospitals have the same options as other institutions to assist in the promotion of EHRs.
The opinion is so clearly written, even I understood it without a dictionary. SV


IRS

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida and Humana plan statewide deployment of Avility Care Profile

The recent pilot project suggests that claims based data can supplement provider based data for a more enhanced Electronic Medical Record. Point of Care Partners (POCP) are quoted as having evaluated the project. SV


Avality

POCP
Skyscape offer ACP Journal Club for the Palm and Windows platforms.

Here's another way to keep with your journal reading.
Let us know what you think. SV


Journal Club, from the American College of Physicians, presents valued-added abstracts and commentaries on articles selected from over 100 of the most respected medical journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, the Lancet, and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The articles chosen are those requiring immediate attention from physicians looking to stay current on the most important advances in internal medicine.

Skyscape

Friday, May 04, 2007

HIMSS Virtual Conference & Expo May 16-17 2007

Visit the Expo from the comfort of your home! SV

HIMSS
MSSNY NS/LIJ HIT FAIR MAY 17 2007

Health Information Technology

Physicians and Technology Working Together

Fair details

Crest Hollow Country Club, Woodbury, NY Long Island

Register online
Click here for a link to practice that has implemented an EHR PHR PATIENT PORTAL

Please join our blog community and register.

You may use the link at the lower right hand portion of the screen to set up a RSS link to get automatic updates.

Please let us know of any related items that you would like posted.

You may use the Blog search bar for this blog and the Google search bar for this blog and others.

At the bottom of the screen we have a provided a Drug look up bar linked to Epocrates.




Salvatore Volpe

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

SureScripts® to Acquire MedAvant Electronic Prescribing Network

Consolidation should help ease and accelerate adoption of e-Prescribing utilizing a common communication standard. SV


Alexandria, Va. – May 1, 2007 – SureScripts, operator of the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange, today announced that it has acquired MedAvant Healthcare Solutions’ (NASDAQ: PILL) electronic prescribing network, the longest operating physician-to-pharmacy electronic prescription network in the nation. SureScripts is not purchasing MedAvant’s physician desktop application PreScribe.


Over the next 90 days, SureScripts and MedAvant will transition all electronic prescription transactions and connectivity from the MedAvant electronic prescribing network to the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange, operated by SureScripts. With more than 95 percent of the nation’s pharmacies certified for an electronic connection to the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange, the acquisition will allow physicians who were formerly on the MedAvant network to reach far more pharmacies electronically. It also allows physicians and their technology vendors to communicate with pharmacies through a single network, using a single set of certifications based on nationally accepted standards and best practices for e-prescribing. All of this will allow thousands of physicians to streamline and expand their electronic prescribing connectivity – improving the safety and efficiency of the prescribing process.

SureScripts
CCHIT adds over 30 additional EHRs, including VISTA based products, to the list!

The pack is now 87 strong and growing!
More choices means more competition.
Its a great time to be shopping for a system. SV


CCHIT.ORG