Link: Thoughts on the Year Ahead
John Halamka presents his ideas about the major issues for 2012..
ICD10 - John predicts 25% of IT capacity will be consumed by ICD10 this year. Not good...
Meaningful Use Stage 2 including inpatient clinical documentation - now this is exciting. Potential criteria will likely include improvements to clinical records that improve care coordination and communication between providers. John suggested use of templates and social-networking like group documentation.
ACO Planning - The reform changes for ACOs will include focus on prevention and wellness. New business intelligence (BI) and clinical decision support (CDS) capabilities will be helpful in meeting these goals.
Compliance - Compliance issues will include "conflict of interest tracking, learning management systems for compliance education, and enhanced revenue cycle systems that provide decision support."
Security - yes, the past year had a long list of data breaches, malware, and mobile devices so security of PHI must be improved, particularly if we intend to move clinical decision support to the bedside or engage in Health Information Exchanges.
Link: A New Year's Forecast For The Health Care Bill
NPR topics presents a summary of the impact to the Affordable Care Act in a discussion between Audie Cornish and Noam Levey of the Los Angeles Times.
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Link: Usability and Successful EHR Meaningful Use
Recently the ONC posted on the Health IT Buzz Blog about the "challenges providers face in achieving Meaningful Use of electronic health records (EHRs)."
The concept of "useability" has long been known in other industries where new technology or applications enter the workplace. Some time ago I wrote about usability of health IT, however I expanded the definition to include a few more "E-bilities" as shown in the following graphic contained in the post: Part 4 of The Value of the Internet for Improving Healthcare.
This is the last post in the series and it focuses on capabilities, or "e-bilities" of technology to improve healthcare. Regardless of the mode of use (e.g. email or internet), technology must be easy to use, secure, reliable, and accessible.
For the past year, the SHARPC-Project 1 has focused on making use of technology easier for clinicians. One ONC staff member, Jacob Reider, MD had some interesting comments that focused on "The User Experience." His comments spanned the continuum of User Experience with a framework for how tools and/or applications can/should evolve.
Functional (it does what it is claimed to do)
Reliable (it works consistently)
Usable (it works in a way that is consistent with the user’s expectations)
Meaningful (it does something important or valuable)
Pleasurable (it is enjoyable to use)
So, I will end with one thought. Even if the system meets "Useability" standards for clinicians, achieving quality health data analytics still requires that accurate, timely and quality data is entered into the EHR avoiding the Garbage In-Garbage Out phenomenon.
Link: 8 Key issues for population health management in 2012
This article in Healthcare IT News caught my eye. A white paper written by the Care Continuum Alliance described significant market movement toward accountability and value driven healthcare outcomes as a result of collaborative models, such as ACOs. However, there are 8 key issues that could affect population health management in 2012:
Each of these items contains a plethora of complex issues that will require agreement, alignment, and cooperation between distinct parties. In order to simplify my thoughts on this topic, I offer the following.
Accountable care and collaborative models certainly provide the opportunity with electronic records to capture and disseminate research and/or de-identified clinical data for surveillance. The link to "accountability" also provides the impetus to develop predictive analytics, a personal favorite.
It is well known that mobile technology, including smart phones, are changing the nature of "computer use" and internet access. According to the article the author stated that "a patient-centered, consumer-empowered, pull-rather-than-push model will dominate, with social media in a position of importance."
Reducing re-admissions? Well, we should already be doing this, unfortunately the quality of healthcare in certain situations, or the variable factors in a patient's condition and care makes this a tough goal to reach all the time. However, Medicare tracking is looking a 3 conditions - heart failure, acute myocardial infarction and pneumonia.
Finally, the other items tout the value of competitive forces in healthcare resulting from support of "insourced programs," development of health insurance exchanges in 2014, and the single idea that is near and dear to a nurse - support for prevention and wellness!
Prevention and wellness has not been a priority for most clinicians due to its non-reimbursable status. Let's hope that changes. Since the Prevention and Public Health Fund is under discussion, Medicare added annual wellness visits and expanded coverage of obesity and cardiovascular disease prevention services.
2012 brings a year of great change and challenge. Best wishes to all for a safe, happy, and prosperous new year!
As clinicians, do we ever wonder how excellent patient care can be achieved? Do we become too involved in our deadlines, our tasks, or our own needs and lack the time to reflect and to improve? It is certainly an issue in today's healthcare environment as the delivery of care changes in the path to Meaningful Use...
Well, I watched this video today, posted by Brian Ahier. It is an epic portrait of how one individual came up with an idea that would provide quality care/experience to customers.
Click this link to watch the video - a moving and heart-felt story.
The Simple Truths of Service: Inspired by Johnny the Bagger
May you have a Happy and Safe Holiday Season!
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Date: December 13, 2011.
Time: 2:00 to 3:30 EST.
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Looking for best of breed HIPAA Training?
To stay current on the HITECH Act and its quickly changing regulatory scheme visit the HITECH Survival Guide website and/or sign up for our free monthly compliance newsletter. Also, check out our FREE EHR Checklist.
If you need tools that will help with your compliance initiatives then check out the HSG Store. Are you for an Internet Lawyer with HITECH /HIPAA experience?
During today’s broadcast of The McLaughlin Group [1], there was a statistic tossed out about how $16
A Cincinnati newspaper, citing state public access to documents, successfully argued that HIPAA does
The 2006 HIMSS convention took place in San Diego, and I was able to spend two days seeing everythin
Popular Mechanics is reporting a “top 15 new technology concept for 2006″ implanted medical devices| Healthcare IT, also known by the acronym HIT, is all about using information technology solutions such as hardware, networking, and software to help improve healthcare, save lives, reduce costs, and improve profit margins for healthcare organizations. Healthcare IT has always been important but recently it has been receiving more attention because the government and consumers (patients) | are demanding better service from care providers and healthcare IT is a good way to improve service.The healthcare system, especially in the USA, has some critical problems such as nurse and physician shortages, spiraling costs, poor consumer (patient) service, and lower revenues which lead to mergers | or acquisitions. Healthcare IT is in even worse shape because outdated infrastructure, legacy architectures, and monolithic applications prevent positive change from occurring. Healthcare IT can, if used properly, help reduce costs, improve care provider productivity (which can then alleviate some of the shortages), and significantly improve customer service to patients. |
