Brooklyn’s Kings County Hospital Center to Introduce Self-Service Kiosks in the Emergency Department

As a person who had the benefit of training at Kings County Hospital, I am proud to see the institution continue its progressive vision. The local community will benefit from the option. SV

MAITLAND, Fla. – Kings County Hospital Center, a 627-bed public hospital located in Brooklyn, N.Y., plans to deploy self-service kiosks in its emergency department to streamline the check-in and triage process. The MediKiosk™ software solution, from Galvanon, an NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) company, automates patient registration and helps emergency department staff prioritize treatment based on medical urgency.

“Like many emergency departments, we experience extremely high patient volumes every day,” said Albert Porco, CIO of Kings County Hospital Center. “By using MediKiosk to expedite the check-in process, we will be able to better manage wait times and decrease stress associated with a visit to the emergency department.”

Galvanon

MSSNY HIT GRANT AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED

A total of six winners of listed, one in each of the major regions of New York State for an approximate total of $4.58 Million. SV

MSSNY

CMS Proposes E-Prescribing Standards

On Nov. 13, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt announced that the department, through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is proposing rules to adopt new standards to advance the use of electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) for formulary and benefit as well as medication history transactions used under the Medicare prescription drug benefit. The proposed standards will be published in the Nov. 16 Federal Register.

The Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 requires CMS to adopt final standards for e-prescribing. All providers and pharmacies transmitting prescriptions electronically for Medicare-covered drugs are required to comply with any CMS standards in effect. The standards cover:

Transactions between prescribers and dispensers for new prescriptions; refill requests and responses; prescription change requests and responses; prescription cancellation, request, and response; and related messaging and administrative transactions
Eligibility and benefits queries and responses between prescribers and Part D sponsors
Eligibility queries between dispensers and Part D sponsors

E-prescribing standards (104 pages)

NYC DOHMH helps EHR software vendor develop features to monitor and improve population health

I have seen the team in action and it is very impressive. Under Dr Mostashari's leadership, a highly motivated group including physicians and public health professionals have significantly accelerated the evolution of Electronic Health Records. SV

Although e-health records are often touted as supporting disease prevention and better patient care, the systems available to doctors and clinics do not achieve those goals, an assistant commissioner of New York City’s health department told a congressional panel.

Even systems certified by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology generally lack four features needed to improve population health, said Dr. Farzad Mostashari, who heads New York City’s Primary Care Information Project.

He listed these features:


Structured data collection -- using standard terms and codes that can be interpreted by computers -- for a minimal set of priority clinical terms, such as smoking status.


Registry functions, which enable users to generate lists of patients needing certain treatments or tests. For example, a medical practice should be able to compile a list of all patients over age 50 who have not had colon exams and send them reminders.


Quality measures, or built-in capabilities to assess the health of a set of patients and how well they are being treated for priority conditions.


Decision support tools, which deliver reminders and warnings to doctors and inform them of best practices in treatment.

Mostashari said the city is working with its chosen EHR vendor to build these features into its system and will work with users of other products and their software providers to add functionality to those systems. Although Mostashari did not name the vendor, it is Westborough, Mass.-based eClinicalWorks.

He spoke at a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Management, Organization and Procurement.


GovHit

Oregon to receive federal grant money to create database for Medicaid patients

I wonder which company will get the contract. SV

A two-year $5.5 million federal grant aims to help Oregon create a secure online database of health records for the states 400,000 plus Medicaid beneficiaries.


Portland Tribune

CMS Medicare to reward use of Electronic medical records and e-prescribing in 2008

In addition to PQRI bonuses related to HIT (up to 1.5% of the their total allowed charges), CMS has pushed back the deadline for conversion to e-prescribing (non-faxed) to January 1, 2009. SV


The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today issued a final physician payment rule designed to improve accuracy of Medicare payments and give physicians and health care professionals additional financial incentives to provide higher quality and value in the delivery of care.

These structural measures, which focus on whether a health care professional uses electronic health records and/or electronic prescribing, emphasize the importance of this technology for delivery of high-quality health care services. Physician and non-physician professionals not meeting PQRI measures will be allowed to participate by reporting on their use of health information technology. The Physician Assistance and Quality Initiative Fund will provide $1.35 billion for physician payment and quality improvement initiatives for services furnished in 2008.

CMS

2007 CCHIT inpatient EHR certifications

Here are the product versions and dates of certification.
Just as with the 2007 outpatient certifications, the list is short. SV

Computer Programs and Systems, Inc. (CPSI) (CPSI System, 15) 11/5/2007

Eclipsys Corporation (Sunrise Acute Care, 4.5 SP4) 11/5/2007

Epic Systems Corporation (EpicCare Inpatient, Spring 2007) 11/5/2007

Healthcare Management Systems, Inc. (Healthcare Management Systems, 7.0) 11/5/2007

Pre-market conditionally certified products*

Prognosis Health Information Systems(ChartAccess 1.0) 11/5/2007

Siemens Medical Solutions USA Inc.(Soarian Clinicals 2.0C5 with Siemens Pharmacy and Med Administration Check 24.0) 11/5/2007


CCHIT inpatient certification criteria

Kaiser Permanente Personal Health Record, My Health Manager, has 1.6 million registrants

With 8.7 million insured members, this PHR could become the most used of all. This is a rather robust application. It will be interesting to see if the equipment vendors provide interfaces as they have with Microsoft's HealthVault. SV

My health manager provides critical time-saving features, including online appointment scheduling and prescription refills. In addition, users have 24/7 online access to lab test results, eligibility and benefits information, and even their children's immunization records. With secure e-mail messaging, members can also communicate with their doctors at anytime, from anywhere. More than 275,000 secure e-mail messages are sent each month to Kaiser Permanente doctors and clinicians, demonstrating growing consumer interest in e-visits.

Kaiser Permanente

Medical Mutual of Ohio and The Doctors Company Join Forces With Ohio Physicians to Deliver Personal Health Records

CLEVELAND, OH--(Marketwire - November 6, 2007) - Today, the largest Ohio-based healthcare insurer, Medical Mutual of Ohio, and one of Ohio's largest medical liability carriers, The Doctors Company, and its Ohio based subsidiary OHIC Insurance Company (OHIC) announced an initiative to better connect patients to their physicians using iHealth, a secure, online and transportable personal health record (PHR) service. The initiative will reach out to Medical Mutual's network of physicians in Ohio, several of whom already offer the iHealth service, regarding the patient and practice benefits of secure online connectivity and patient-owned PHRs.

Medem