Saturday, April 20, 2013
Sunday, March 11, 2012
ICD-10 Delay - What to think ?
The reasoning behind delay always has logical sound to it but the problem is with Meaningful use in rearview mirror for 4 years, there will not be right time for ICD-10. ICD-10 doesn't just bring the complexity but it bring the detailed terminology coding for the diseases which helps in Physician Documentation to identify the health problem with more details and also it helps better understand reimbursement for the treatment.
So in inquisitive mind, you will think since ICD-11 is coming in 2015, why not go with it skipping ICD-10. That sounds like a good idea but it is not, imagine how much time and energy has been spent by Healthcare organizations and Vendors associated with Terminology content delivery. Along with that comes the deviations that we have to create for ICD-11 to fit our fold which will take around 2-3 years to do, which takes to 2018 for implementations. With all that in mind, it doesn't seem like a good idea to wait for 6-7 more year for new iteration of ICD.
So all in all, ICD-10 delay will not help anyways which organizations are expecting it will, on contrary it will create more problems.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Stress Handling
I have understood that if you have avenue to relieve that stress than well and good but most of us don't have way to do so. Family and Friends usually are the best way to get that off the system but not every thing that you going through can be shared so what would be the best way to do so.
I have a thought around this, if you take anything that is happening to you as reasoning behind some better big picture that relieves some stress. I always felt that if you leave all happening around you to God that helps rationalizing why all these is happening to you.
So all in all anything that is happening to you is the path to ultimate good and you have no idea what God have planned for you.
So forget the Past, live in present and don't worry about future.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Mobile phones used to open records - and doors - in healthcare
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Physicians' Perception Of EHR Is Often Defined By Previous Usage
Physicians' Perception Of EHR Is Often Defined By Previous Usage, Sage Survey Shows
August 4, 2011
Meaningful use is still the strongest driver to implement the technology
Sage Healthcare Division, developer of electronic health records (EHR) for medical practices across North America, recently released the results of a survey conducted among physicians nationwide in an effort to examine perceptions and determine attitudes toward these systems. The sample included both physicians using EHR and those in the market for this technology.
The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of potential cost savings, benefits of these systems to small and midsized practices and to find any intangibles of using EHRs, such as physicians providing care from multiple locations or helping physicians have more time away from the office because of increased mobility and connectivity.
"Implementation of EHRs in the U.S. continue to grow as an increased number of physicians and staff gain a better understanding of the efficiency and cost-saving benefits of using the technology," said Betty Otter-Nickerson, president of the Sage Healthcare Division. "However, a significant number of office-based practices have yet to implement an EHR solution. Sage's survey was conducted to examine current perceptions and predominant trends that will help us design the best solutions to maximize the benefits of EHR."
The survey findings indicated that meaningful use incentives are still one of the strongest drivers for most physicians (64%) to implement EHR technology, but for 32 percent of those who are in the market for EHR, insufficient capital is still a key challenge to move to EHR.
Interestingly, both users and potential buyers of an EHR solution see the value of using the technology but have substantially different perceptions and expectations on the system. In fact, EHR users said they measure their EHR success through reporting and tracking healthcare outcomes (64%) and error reduction (62%), but those who have yet to purchase EHR responded they would measure EHR success through increased revenue (74%) followed by reporting and tracking healthcare outcomes (60%).
Also, current EHR users are more aware of additional benefits than those who haven't implemented the technology yet and expected achievements with EHR are stronger for those who have already purchased the solution.
Other Key Findings
All survey participants:
- Seventy-seven percent saw ease of use and quickness as a top characteristic in an EHR solution
- Thirty-nine percent of respondents ranked improved and timely access to accurate patient information as the most important reason to achieve their EHR goals, followed by reduced time spent in information search and management (34%)
- Physicians who have already implemented EHR perceive more value in lower costs and improved staff efficiency than those in the market for an EHR solution (35% versus 25%)
- When surveyed physicians were asked about SaaS as an alternative to an in-office solution, both those with or without EHR (39%) had security and data privacy concerns about the outsourced solution.
EHR users:
- Physicians who have already implemented EHR largely reached their business goals of lower costs and improved patient service (80%) and improved staff efficiency (74%)
- Seventy-two percent of those surveyed saw the increased availability of floor space that was previously occupied by paper records as a major advantage of EHR, second only to reduced administrative costs (82%)
- Fifty-six percent see error reduction as the number one tangible benefit of EHR, followed by ability to share patient information (38%)
- Sixty-eight percent have seen mobile access to information as the biggest intangible benefit of EHR (34%)
- Of all the EHR users surveyed, 52 percent said that reduced paper and office expenses saved them the most money
- Seventy-six percent of respondents said they would invest in EHR again.
Non-EHR Users:
- Of all the non-EHR users, 30 percent would prefer having in-office EHR to an outsourced solution, such as SaaS or off-client software
"Some of our EHR customers have indicated they are spending more time away from the clinic because of the system's efficiency and accessibility off-site," said Otter-Nickerson. "This accessibility also saves them time during each patient visit, which translates into more quality time spent with the patient. Another great advantage of EHR is that doctors can look up a patient's entire history and have a comprehensive view of their health. Consequently, doctors can make more informed decisions, thus improving the quality of care and potentially generating better health outcomes."
Sage has been providing ambulatory healthcare systems for almost 30 years, serving more than 400,000 healthcare professionals including 80,000 physicians in the United States with EHRs, practice management systems and other services to streamline patient care. Each year, Sage clients serve more the 133 million patients.
About Sage Healthcare Division
Sage Healthcare Division provides end-to-end clinical and financial technology solutions so physicians and medical professionals can work with patients instead of paperwork. Serving more than 400,000 healthcare professionals including 80,000 physicians, Sage Healthcare Division provides electronic health records and practice management systems, processes 33 million transactions and 1.3 million e-prescriptions monthly, and serves several specialties including primary care, OB/GYN, pediatrics, cardiology and orthopedics in all sized practices and Community Health Centers. Physician-focused and patient centric, Sage Healthcare Division is based in Tampa, Fla., and is a division of Sage North America. For more information, visit www.sagehealth.com.
About Sage North America
Sage North America is part of The Sage Group plc, a leading global supplier of business management software and related products and services, principally for small to medium-sized businesses. Sage North America employs 3,900 people and supports more than 3 million small and midsized business customers. Formed in 1981, Sage was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989. Sage has more than 6 million customers and 13,600 employees worldwide. We operate in over 24 countries covering the UK, Europe, North America, South Africa, Australia, India and China. For more information, visit www.sagenorthamerica.com.
SOURCE: Sage Healthcare Division
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Being Successful !!
Monday, May 10, 2010
Codification of Data in sense of Interoperatibility
So question comes, after all these why it is difficult to have discrete data transfer... the issue is Codification of data. Now mind well, it is not that vendors don't do that with their product but all of them have coding standards which don't talk to each other or lacking some mapping to standardized coding system. For example, Medications; I don't believe vendors don't have the medication data codified but problem is mapping of that codified data to more standardization like RxNorm. So the push is to go towards that from Govt. through ARRA initiatives but I think there has to be some push or fire in the belly of the clinical data provider to get that mapping done so more standardized data possibility in market.
Another glitch in achieving this goal, is flexibility in programs again, don't take it that I am saying being flexible is wrong but allowing user defined data in Clinical data would create a data where there will be data with not codes attached or mapping. So how would you achieve this, I would again go back to data providers to have data upto date so no user defined entry needed. And from vendor side, only allow that if there is possibility to map it to some standard code while adding that entry.
Again, Codified Data is necessity in Discrete Data exchange through integration, that integration my be HIE, RHIO or internal Product integration...
Food for thought !!! is to how to attain this with already existing clients with free entry data without codification !!!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Processes, Processes Processes !!!!!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Friday, September 19, 2008
Need To fix the issue at root...
Hospitals Slow To Help Doctors Adopt EHRs, Study Finds
The federal government has eased physician self-referral and anti-kickback regulations to encourage hospitals to subsidize doctors' adoption of electronic health records, but most hospitals are not taking advantage of the temporary change in policy, according to a Center for Studying Health System Change study released Thursday, Modern Healthcare reports.
The relaxed physician self-referral and anti-kickback regulations are set to expire Dec. 31, 2013.
Looking at 24 hospitals in 12 representative metropolitan areas, researchers found that only seven hospitals were pursuing a strategy to provide financial or other support to doctors to purchase EHR systems, with just four hospitals reporting that they had begun implementing their plans or that implementation was scheduled for the near future.
The remaining 17 hospitals were in various planning and evaluation stages and did not expect to take action this year.
The report found that the two main factors motivating hospitals to support physician EHR adoption were improving quality and efficiency and "aligning physicians more closely with the hospital."
Hospitals said they were not doing more to subsidize EHR adoption because of the burden of ongoing health IT projects, budget limitations and a lack of physician interest.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded the study (Robeznieks, Modern Healthcare, 9/18).
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Can IT Help Hospitals Improve Their Relationships With Community Physicians?
In boardrooms across the country, health system chief executives are searching for any tactic that might better align hospital and physician interests. Downward pressure on physician incomes has placed unprecedented strain on hospital-physician relations. At a minimum, doctors are increasing their productivity by reducing the time they spend on hospital initiatives. On the other of end of the spectrum, some physicians are competing directly with local hospitals through physician-owned outpatient centers.
From a hospital perspective, this growing disconnect could not come at a more inopportune time. From reining in supply costs by standardizing preference items to enhancing quality on reported metrics by complying with evidence-based guidelines, physicians hold the power to make or break hospitals' most critical priorities. Health system executives have responded by experimenting with a wide variety of strategies to exert greater influence over physicians.
So what does this have to do with IT? Until the spring of 2007, not a whole lot. That's when HHS and IRS ruled that hospitals and other key stakeholders could subsidize up to 85% of the costs of electronic health records for physician offices. A new hospital-physician alignment strategy was born. Prior to the changes, the Stark Act and federal anti-kickback rules were interpreted to bar hospitals from donating technology or making other gifts to doctors or independent physician practices.
Hospital leaders theorize that subsidizing EHRs can generate significant goodwill with physicians. They envision a world in which the seamless transfer of information between the physician office and the hospital would encourage doctors to admit patients to that hospital. In its Annual Survey of Executive Opinions on Key Information Technology Issues, Modern Healthcare reported that more than 70% of hospitals already extend IT benefits to physicians through the waiver program or plan to do so in the next two years.
While their peer executives celebrated the Stark ruling, hospital CIOs cringed. During recent Advisory Board research on physician office EHR implementation, one hospital IT executive commented, "I used to view Stark as my friend. I could tell independent physicians, 'I would love to help, but Stark won't let me.' ... Philosophically, it's not too hard to argue that the physician office [electronic health record] would be wonderful, but the fact of the matter is that I'm faced with an unlimited list of capital requests just from my own facilities, never mind trying to take on all the needs of physician offices."
The challenges of implementing EHRs in independent community physician offices are numerous. They include:
- Allocating the necessary resources within an already overburdened hospital IT department;
- Educating physicians on the hardware and infrastructure investment they must make without the hospital's support;
- Integrating physician office data with information from inpatient systems (which might not be integrated themselves);
- Accelerating change management within independent community physician offices where the hospital has little or no authority; and
- Protecting physician productivity (and income) following implementation.
For hospitals subsidizing physician office EHRs, the stakes are high and failure is not uncommon.
While serving as the National Coordinator for Health IT, David Brailer wrote, "Clinicians who purchase an EHR and who attempt to change their clinical practices and office operations face a variety of risks that make this decision unduly challenging. Implementation failure and partial use of EHRs are commonplace."
To be sure, offering physician office EHRs to community physicians will change the hospital-physician relationship, but not necessarily for the better. Hospital IT departments will effectively become vendors for their community physicians, providing services to doctors for a fee, albeit a heavily discounted fee.
Because most physicians expect the same level of service and flexibility offered by vendors, many hospitals have turned to a vendor-hosted application service provider model. While outsourcing affords a number of benefits, it limits the hospital's opportunity to build close relationships with physicians and potentially restricts access to patient information. Furthermore, early adopters have found that even when implementation is outsourced, many physicians still hold the hospital accountable for successful deployment.
Beyond any hoped-for improvements in physician-hospital relations, there is genuine value in collecting and communicating information between care settings. Wiring community physician offices with an interoperable office-based EHR holds the potential to elevate care quality by breaking down information silos across sites of care.
With poor information transfer causing 20% of adverse drug events, there is a clear opportunity to reduce these events and the associated costs through office-based EHR adoption. In order to achieve these community-wide gains, however, a critical mass of physicians must adopt the office-based EHR, and the systems must be interoperable with inpatient systems.
Unfortunately, securing interoperability is fraught with roadblocks, including the multitude of vendor products, uncertainty over data ownership and physician concerns with patient privacy. As a result, only about a third of family practice physicians with an office EHR have an interface with the hospital, according to a survey conducted by Family Practice Management.
Hospital executives viewing EHR subsidies as a powerful strategy for aligning interests with their community physicians should consider that the negative ramifications to hospital-physician relations of a failed implementation might very well outweigh any potential goodwill generated from a successful deployment. Hospitals and health systems hoping to strengthen their relationships with community physicians through EHR subsidies might be better off considering alternative strategies.
Source : Matt Cinque (iHealthbeat)
U.S. Lags Behind Other Countries in EHR Adoption
EHR use in the U.S. increased from 17% in 2001 to 28% in 2006, according to the report. However, if adoption continues at the current rate, it will take more than 30 years to expand clinical support tools to all U.S. physicians, the report states.
Meanwhile, 98% of physicians in the Netherlands, 92% of physicians in New Zealand and 89% of physicians in the United Kingdom have adopted EHRs. In addition, 79% of physicians in Australia and 42% of physicians in Germany have adopted EHRs.
Canada's adoption rate is lower than the U.S., with 23% of physicians using EHRs (DerGurahian, Modern Healthcare, 7/18).
Source : ihealthbeat.
How Long Will It Be Until the Majority of U.S. Hospitals Use EHRs?
Forty-six percent of respondents said they believe that most U.S. hospitals will use electronic health records within 10 years, while 31% of respondents predicted that the majority of U.S. hospitals will use EHRs within five years, according to a new survey by health care technology firm Picis.
Fifteen percent of respondents said most U.S. hospitals will use EHRs within 15 years, while 8% said it will be 20 years before most hospitals use EHRs.
The survey also found that nearly 90% of respondents said they believe that EHRs are going to "revolutionize" the health care system.
More than 55% of respondents said patients would be more likely to want to visit a hospital that has an EHR system, while about 3% said patients would be less likely to want to visit a hospital with an EHR system, according to the survey. About 42% of respondents said an EHR system would not make a difference in whether patients wanted to visit a hospital.
Results are based on a June survey of 325 physicians, nurses, IT technicians and hospital administrators.
Source: Picis
Interesting : Online Tool Lets Seattle-Area Residents Compare Health Care Performance
The Community Checkup report lets users search for performance data on several health conditions, including diabetes, heart disease and depression. The site also provides information on how consistently health care facilities provide recommended care to patients.
The Web site includes performance results for 26 hospitals, 14 medical groups and many clinics in the Seattle area.
The information on the site was compiled using public data from HHS. Later this year, the Health Alliance will publish the second Community Checkup report and update the online information (Black, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 9/9).