Volume 5 - Issue 3 - June 2010

Editor's MUSE-ings

By: Donna Carroll
Editor - The MEDITECH Community Bulletin
VP, Business Development & Recruitment - Systems Personnel

Welcome to the latest issue of The MEDITECH Community Bulletin.

Okay, I know, “MUSE-ings” is a little goofy. But hey, why not take advantage of the fact that the 2010 International MUSE Conference begins today?! Although I won’t be attending the MUSE conference, I can’t help but wonder if the convention halls will be buzzing with this little piece of news: Meditech Announces Release 7. Don’t panic just yet…Vince Ciotti will help keep you informed (and chuckling) in his Health Data Management blog from April 1st.

Speaking of MUSE, make a point of stopping by Array Software’s booth (# 618) while you’re there. With its long history of providing exceptional customer service, Array Software continues to meet the needs of their customers with two new products for MAGIC hospitals converting to MEDITECH’s Client/Server or 6.0 platforms.

Below are just a few of the items found in this month's newsletter:

• Our Customer Spotlight column this month recognizes Murray-Calloway County Hospital for its recent appearance in MEDITECH’s CIO portal on its website. The hospital is celebrating is 100^th anniversary this year and the article appropriately discusses how IT has driven a positive evolution at the hospital.

• The Industry Spotlight focuses on a Case Study: The Tactical Truth of a CPOE Strategy. Learn how Catholic Health East used task automation software to standardize procedure names across different MEDITECH versions.

• This issue’s Vendor Spotlight column features Missouri-based software vendor, MedTranDirect, and how they helped Capital Region Medical Center to achieve an 80% time savings in remittance processing. Read the article to see how they did it.

• Our Featured Employer column this issue describes St. Mary’s Hospital at Amsterdam (Ascension Health Information Services) and its current opening for a Senior Analyst, Clinical Informatics.

• In this month’s Tricks of the Trade column, John Sharpe of Comstock Software explains how to utilize page trailers in NPR reports.

• There are numerous press releases in this issue’s Recent News, including many updates from MEDITECH Inc., partnering vendors, and customers.

• All information and content for the July 2010 issue of The MEDITECH Community Bulletin must be received no later than Thursday, June 24th. Thank you.

Start the summer right, and be safe!
Donna

Customer Spotlight: Information Technology Drives Positive Evolution at Murray-Calloway County Hospital

Source: http://www.meditech.com/

In order to enhance the quality of patient care and grow as a regional provider, Murray-Calloway County Hospital (Murray, KY), knew they were on the right path when they became a MEDITECH customer in 2002. Since going LIVE with MEDITECH, the hospital continues to build on its Health Care Information System (HCIS), and according to Regina Davison, director of information systems at Murray-Calloway, the hospital is well on its way to becoming a state-of-the-art health care facility.

Driven and committed, Davison and the entire I.T. team work hard in preparing the health care organization for its I.T. related projects. Davison credits the dedication of her I.T. staff, who have become integral components behind the success of many recent I.T. initiatives at Murray-Calloway.

We recently had the opportunity to chat with Davison to learn about her latest duties, challenges, and accomplishments as director of information systems, and how MEDITECH continues to play a key role throughout Murray-Calloway's exciting evolution.

MEDITECH: How have your previous I.T. experiences helped to prepare you for your newest role as director of information systems at Murray-Calloway? What are some challenges you are currently facing?

Davison: My health care experience spans back 20 plus years, accumulated from two other hospitals. Prior to accepting my position here at Murray-Calloway in 1996, I held a lead role in computer operations at a MEDITECH MAGIC facility here in Western Kentucky, where I assumed the role of lead computer operator for eight years. Upon accepting my position here at Murray-Calloway, I was hired in first as a computer programmer, writing and modifying code for our in-house system, which included writing code for our MEDITECH conversion. After the conversion, my role then shifted into financial systems specialist. Then, in May 2008, I was appointed as director of information systems, after having served as interim on a couple of occasions.

Health care I.T. is a very interesting, intriguing, and demanding field. Assisting others, giving them the tools needed to do their jobs, and influencing patient care in a positive way is extremely rewarding and something that we strive for here at Murray-Calloway.

Right now, our organization's main focus is to grow as a regional provider. Since our facility is in the midst of a large expansion, we are currently putting forth major recruiting efforts in order to get both generalized and specialized practitioners on board. Our new addition, which includes 187,000 square feet of additional space, is expected to open very soon, hopefully by March or April. The extra space will provide our organization with a new surgical suite, and new patient ancillary departments. It will also allow us to offer private rooms to all of our patients—it's quite expansive. Needless to say, we’re all anticipating our grand opening with great excitement.

MEDITECH: Influencing patient care and guiding I.T. projects is a team effort and requires a commitment from everyone involved. What is your leadership style like and how do you lead and motivate your staff members for I.T. related projects?

Davison: I believe that team-oriented projects help to keep our I.T. staff motivated—while we may all have our own responsibilities throughout the day, our common goal is to be available for one another whenever a challenging situation may present itself.

For example, last January our region was plagued by an ice storm which left our facility running on a back-up generator and without power for three days. I live 30 miles away from the hospital and due to the severity of the storm, I could not get out to the main roads. I tried contacting the hospital to let them know I could not make it in. Unfortunately, as a result of the storm, the phone lines at the hospital were down. Luckily, via cell phone, I was able to get in touch with our system administrator who was already at the hospital. He calmly told me not to worry and that he and two hospital administrators were communicating with radios and having extensive round-the-clock meetings. He assured me that he and the other I.T. staff would stay on-site for as long as was needed.

I was extremely relieved knowing that throughout all the chaos, everything was being handled appropriately. It's times like these when you find out what your organization is really capable of and fortunately for us, our teams are fully committed to patient care, no matter what. I'm truly fortunate to work with such a great group of dedicated individuals.

MEDITECH: It's wonderful to know you have such a strong and supportive relationship with your team. How has your relationship with these members and other executives helped to emphasize the importance of I.T. in the care setting?

Davison: Our management team puts great focus on the importance of patient care and patient safety, and this has been one of the main reasons our facility continues to move forward with our MEDITECH solution.

Since we plan to go up with Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) very soon, we recently invited one of our on-staff physicians to be the first physician member of our I.T. team. In order for an I.T. project of this nature to be successful, it's essential for executives and physicians to work together. With the help of Dr. Williams and other on-staff physicians we are confident that we can put together a good CPOE team that will help us move forward with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). We want the physicians to know and recognize that we not only want their input, but need their input for this to be a success.

MEDITECH: In addition to CPOE, how have MEDITECH's other integrated solutions benefited Murray-Calloway and what do you like most about the system from an I.T. perspective?

Davison: Integration is vital to our organization. With an integrated system, we have been able to gain huge improvements in operational efficiency and in care delivery. The Enterprise Medical Record (EMR) is providing our physicians seamless and immediate access to x-ray and lab reports and by using the system on a daily basis, medical staff members are able to make clinical decisions more quickly and efficiently.

The ability to write custom reports and build our own customer defined screens has been a huge win for us and we've also been able to create our own patient labels, bar codes, and special forms without ever having to involve a third party vendor. During our Scanning and Archiving implementation, we used our own print shop and imported bar codes to our pre-printed forms.

MEDITECH: Health care is constantly evolving and MEDITECH is actively monitoring the latest legislation, particularly the areas which impact our industry the most. As a MEDITECH customer, do you feel you are well positioned for ARRA? How is this latest piece of legislation affecting your health care organization's I.T. strategic direction?

Davison: We are confident we will be able to meet the Meaningful Use requirements set forth by the government. As mentioned, we recently implemented Scanning and Archiving and we are already noticing improvements. Our Scheduling, Admissions, Medical Records, and Cardiopulmonary departments are now scanning documents into patient charts on a daily basis.

In order to prepare for our CPOE rollout, physicians are being trained on e-signature and we are seeing a drastic improvement in medication administration since we implemented MEDITECH's Bedside Medication Verification (BMV) solution a little over a year ago.

In preparation for ARRA, perhaps one of the most vital projects we've been working on this past year is implementing LSS at five of our hospital-owned physician practices. So far, one practice is completely LIVE with the billing and clinical components of LSS, including e-Prescribing, and we are looking forward to getting our other practices LIVE soon.

MEDITECH: As you continue to expand and add more applications and functionality to your MEDITECH HCIS, what are some of the other I.T. projects are you currently working on?

Davison: Due to the many changes coming in health care and because we are on an ongoing mission to provide our patients with the safest, highest quality health care in the region, we will continue to evaluate and implement the latest technology solutions available. That being said, MEDITECH will remain a key element as we move forward. As MEDITECH continues to update its system, we will continue to update ours—with the Client/Server 5.6 update next on our agenda.

In the next year we plan to implement MEDITECH's Operating Room Management (ORM) solution, we hope to complete the install of a new wireless system and patient monitoring system, and our team meetings are already under way for our CPOE project.

Even though it's been a challenging year, it's also been extremely rewarding. Everyone at Murray-Calloway is excited about our organization's positive transformation and because we continue to take full advantage of MEDITECH's integrated solutions, we are reaching our goals and becoming a leading-edge health care facility.

Industry Spotlight:  CASE STUDY: The Tactical Truth of a CPOE Strategy

Source: http://www.bostonworkstation.com/downloads/docs/customer_related/Catholic%20Health%20East.310.pdf

Since the HITECH Act has offered financial incentives for hospitals that meet specific requirements by 2012, Catholic Health East (CHE) is even more motivated to get its CPOE capability up and running in six of its eight Meditech facilities. Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) is a process of electronic entry of medical practitioner instructions for the treatment of patients. Not only does this save doctor's time, but it improves quality of care, patient safety and satisfaction. But implementing a CPOE strategy takes more than the flip of a switch.

Based in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, CHE is a multi-institutional Catholic Health System. The System includes 34 acute care hospitals, four long-term acute care hospitals, 25 freestanding and hospital-based long-term care facilities, 14 assisted-living facilities, four continuing care retirement communities, eight behavioral health and rehabilitation facilities, 32 home health/hospice agencies, and numerous ambulatory and community-based health services. Catholic Health East facilities employ approximately 54,000 full-time employees.

Affecting the tactical plan for CHE's CPOE strategy is the concurrent upgrade of the MEDITECH information system in each facility. To ensure a consistent and accurate implementation, CHE needed to enter all data involved with the CPOE implementation into both MEDITECH 5.54 and 5.64 versions.

A critical step in the CPOE implementation was to standardize procedure names in MEDITECH so physicians need only use a pull-down menu to locate a procedure and easily send the instructions through the system. These orders will then be communicated over the network to the medical staff or to the departments (i.e., pharmacy, laboratory or radiology) responsible for fulfilling the order.

To manually reformat and accurately key in thousands of procedures in hundreds of categories could take several weeks. For example, in diagnostic imaging alone, there are ultrasound, MRI, CT scan and many more types of tests. Additionally, CHE planned to amend each procedure with a prefix of the common code of the category to make it easier for the physician to find the procedure they need. This change would sufficiently slow the implementation to potentially miss the benchmark for HITECH's financial incentives.

Tony Lettera, Meditech applications analyst, and his IT staff realized that trying to manually standardize the procedures across both versions of their MEDITECH systems would not only take far more time than they could spare, but manual data entry would also be fraught with inaccuracies. They chose to automate this critical project using Boston WorkStation from Boston Software Systems. Boston WorkStation is task automation software that allows healthcare organizations to automate thousands of common tasks, manage workflow and improve productivity.

"If it weren't for Boston WorkStation, we'd need 100 more people to accomplish what we set out to do," said Lettera. "In many ways, automation has been a key factor in our ability to move this critical CPOE implementation forward. The MEDITECH upgrade alone was a big project. Laying the CPOE implementation on top of that could have been a nightmare. Boston WorkStation made it all work quickly, easily and reliably."

Donna Karver, manager of Meditech Financial and Administrative Applications noted,  "Its easy to take for granted the tactical steps involved in executing a major technology initiative which has the potential to change the way healthcare is administered. It makes sense to stop and think about how we can accomplish these projects more efficiently. Automation has played an indispensable tactical role in our larger strategic initiative."

Having successfully saved countless man-hours by automating this CPOE project,  Lettera and his team are constantly looking for areas where automation can reduce time and provide accurate results. As part of the Meditech upgrade Lettera and his team needed to remove site codes on over 5,000 procedures as part of a reconciliation process. Using Boston WorkStation to automate the task, they built 280 procedures in only two hours.

Lettera also used Boston WorkStation to speed the copying and re-filing of 19,000 drug names into MEDITECH RXM. Doing this reconciliation by hand would take a staff person weeks of work. By automating this task, it took only four days with minimal human oversight.

Learn More

Talk to us! To discuss automation in your MEDITECH 5.6/6.0 environment or for more ideas using Boston WorkStation to automate time-consuming manual tasks, call us at 866-563-5105 or visit www.bostonworkstation.com.

Vendor Spotlight: Drastically Reduce Remittance Processing Time with 835Direct

THE CHALLENGE

One vital element of receivables management and cash flow is the processing of insurance payments.  Timely posting of accurate payment and adjustment information can accelerate cash flow by advancing the patient account to the next stage of billing or collections.  Although HIPAA implemented a standard format for electronic remittance of data, the ANSI 835, a majority of the remittance documentation received by hospitals today is still on paper.

The healthcare industry spends 15% of each dollar on payment processing compared to only 2% in retail industries¹.  Of the remittances processed by healthcare facilities, 80% - 90% are still provided on paper.

Paper insurance remittances are generally translated manually into payment and adjustment transactions for each documented account.  This process is very time consuming and prone to error.  In addition, vital details about these payments are often excluded in the interest of time.  For example, charge level denials and other detailed adjustments that are often available in the electronic remittances or on the paper equivalent are often summarized or excluded.

MEDITECH users are capable of automatically posting 835s to patient accounts as payments and adjustments.  This process, when available, provides for a significant savings in time and accuracy for these transactions.  However, these files are only available from payers that choose to provide them.  Although HIPAA requires that any electronic remittance must be in the 835 format, they do not require payers to provide their remittances electronically.

Along with the benefit of automated posting, the 835 provides a wealth of information regarding denials, revenue and payments from the payer that can be used to manage future billing operations, analyze revenue, and negotiate payer contracts.

THE SOLUTION

In an attempt to address these issues, Capital Region Medical Center, a member of the University of Missouri healthcare system, decided to implement a solution to increase the number of 835s versus paper remittances and to capture the 835 data for denial management.  Capital Region Medical Center, located in Jefferson City , Missouri , has been a MEDITECH user since 2006.

The first step in the process was to capture 835 data for analytics.  To address this issue, they chose 835Direct, a web-based application by MedTranDirect, a Missouri-based software development company with 24 years experience in Healthcare IT.  835Direct allows a facility to securely import 835s into a database where payment and adjustment data can be analyzed for trends in denials and revenue by payer.  In addition, the product can be used to electronically store the data for the future production of EOBs, remittance reports, and insurance logs for any historical remittance or range of remittances.

This product addressed the need to analyze electronic remittance data, but what about the paper ones?  Once again, they implemented a component of 835Direct.   This process uses OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology to convert scanned paper remittances into 835s.  Capital Region staff can upload a scanned remittance to a secure FTP site through 835Direct.  Overnight, the remittance is converted into an 835 and transferred back to 835Direct.  This file can then be imported into MEDITECH as a payment and adjustment file or viewed in 835Direct for future analysis or hard copies.

For Capital Region, a typical remittance processed through this procedure contains transaction activity for 200-300 accounts.  Previously, when processed manually, it took about four hours to calculate the necessary adjustments for each account and post the transactions manually.  Using the automated procedure, it takes about five minutes to upload a scanned copy of the remittance, another five minutes to download the 835 the next day, and about fifteen minutes to post and reconcile the 835 to the MEDITECH system.  This is a time savings of about 80% for each processed remittance.

Capital Region does not use this process for all paper remittances, only larger ones where the automated procedure saves a significant amount of time over the manual process or where the data contained in the remittance is vital for payer communications.

For all remittances that can be processed in this manner, the facility has a scanned image of the original document, the associated 835, and a report of the same data available from 835Direct on demand.  In addition, all data contained in the 835 is retained in full detail in the 835Direct database.  By including all remittances provided electronically, Capital Region is able to analyze payment, adjustment and denial data for all major payers.  They can reproduce this data either electronically, or on paper, in a consistent format, regardless of the original method of remittance data delivery from the payer.

Teresa Blanchard, Insurance Manager at Capital Region, believes that this new process has had a major impact on their operations.  “We can process remittances much faster than ever before and with less staff”, she said.  “We no longer have to worry about posting payments to the wrong account or manually calculating adjustments.  The OCR process and 835Direct allow us to handle more and more remittances automatically through MEDITECH and to capture and archive vital data on each transaction.  I would highly recommend this process to any other MEDITECH facility.”

After implementing the system, Blanchard noticed some other significant improvements over manual remittance processing.  “Previously, when the cashiers were figuring contractuals manually, they were sometimes including amounts with remit codes which should have been reviewed and billed separately with a modifier.  Once we started receiving 835s using our custom formula for contractuals, we were able to identify these charges and refile line items to receive additional reimbursement.   We view this component as an improvement in customer service as well.  We have reduced the number of payments posted to the wrong accounts which reduces phone calls from upset patients.”

Blanchard has used this process to automate MEDITECH processing of patient accounts in their workflow.  “The auto posting of remit codes to MEDITECH at the time of payment posting helps expedite the patient accounting process as well.  For example, if the claim was denied for no authorization, the remit code can be set up on MEDITECH to pull to a collector or biller worklist for review.”

This process works by taking a scanned remittance and extracting all data from the form.  The data collected is compared to a library of remittance formats.  If identified, the map associated with that remittance format is used to translate the account information into payments and adjustment data.

When new formats are encountered, a mapping process takes place for the new remittance format.  This adds a day or two in processing for each new remittance type, but the customer participates in the process and can translate any codes unique to the payer into HIPAA compliant adjustment codes. The customer can also combine codes that they consider to be equivalent.  Once this process is complete, the map is added to the library and all future remits from the payer can be processed in the 24 hour window.

The process is about 98% accurate when reading scanned images of 300 DPI or better.  Imaging software is used to verify the data collected to make sure that transaction totals match total payment or charge figures elsewhere on the claim.  Occasionally, due to print quality, creases or other issues with the source document, characters are scanned incorrectly and must be rekeyed by the translation staff.   This is done by viewing the original scanned document next to the transaction data and correcting each suspect transaction before delivery to the customer.

The 835Direct OCR technology can make a major impact on your AR days and remittance processing cost while providing new information on transactions between you and your payer.

For more information on how to implement this process at your facility, please contact Kalon Mitchell, President, MedTranDirect, at (417) 581-9585 Ext. 206 or kmitchell@medtrandirect.com.

[1] Nick LeCuyer and Shubham Singhal, “Overhauling the U.S. Healthcare Payment System,” The McKinsey Quarterly: Web Exclusive (June 2007)

Tricks of the Trade: MEDITECH NPR (Client Server) – NPR Report Page Trailer Placement - Part 1 of 2

By: John Sharpe, President, Comstock Software, Inc.

Word processing programs like Microsoft Word are the product of almost 30 years of incremental, yet continuous design, development, and testing. These programs have made document design and creation so simple, that you and I take for granted all that goes on behind the scenes.

This makes it all the more difficult for us, to understand why the NPR report writer, just doesn’t quite do things the way you think it would. Take for example the page trailer. A page trailer sounds like it would come at the bottom of a page, but does what it should though, by coming at the end of the detail & any other report sections you’ve included in the report.

This sample report demonstrates the scenario. The report contains a page header, a detail line and a page trailer.

To get the page trailer down to the bottom of the page, you can manually insert detail (D) lines until you have enough on the page.

But … if you want to change the page parameters at a later time, you have to go back and manually figure out how many lines are just enough to push the trailer to the bottom, without overflowing to the next page.

You’re busy – who has time to make manual adjustments every time the users of the report need a change?

Using a footnote to hard-code the number of lines in the page trailer and a line attribute to dynamically print the correct number of lines...

...your page trailer now appears at the bottom of the page.

Here’s where using a line attribute pays off, you can add horizontal lines, much like the lines on a yellow legal pad, by changing only 1 character in the line attribute.

Presto! Now you have just the right number of lines.

The point of our exercise here isn’t necessarily to print horizontal rule, but to gain a deeper understanding of the NPR Report Writer and how you can manipulate the placement of the page trailer using a line attribute. Next time you need to build a bunch of check boxes, or can’t quite get the bottom of the page where you need it, you’ll be able reach back through the cobwebs and come up with a new solution of your own based on this new knowledge.

In the meantime, won't you join your colleagues in asking and answering questions at the MEDITECH Knowledge Exchange? Thoughts? Email them to John at jsharpe@comstock-software.com.

John Sharpe is President / NPR Consultant at Comstock Software, Inc. Learn more about NPR Report Writing at the MEDITECH NPR Report Writing Blog.

Featured Employer: Sponsored by MeditechCareers.com

The online career hub for MEDITECH professionals

Every month, we feature one employer who has advertised their job posting on our affiliate web site: MeditechCareers.com. In addition to the basic job posting, we provide some information about the employer, their location and environment, and highlight them as a "Featured Employer" in this newsletter.

To advertise your MEDITECH-related opportunity on MeditechCareers.com and become a "Featured Employer", contact Donna Carroll at 413-569-1111.

Ascension Health Information Services
St. Mary's Hospital at Amsterdam
Amsterdam, New York

About the Organization:

Ascension Health is transforming healthcare by providing the highest quality care to all, with special attention to those who are poor and vulnerable. Ascension Health, which provided $926 million in care of persons who are poor and community benefit last year, is the nation's largest Catholic and nonprofit health system. Our Mission-focused Health Ministries consist of 107,000 associates serving in more than 500 locations in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

Ascension Health Information Services (AHIS) is a subsidiary organization of Ascension Health. With more than 1,100 associates, AHIS is one of the largest healthcare IT services companies in North America. Ascension Health created AHIS to make better use of System wide IT resources and to support achievement of the organization's Strategic Direction. Through AHIS, we leverage our System's size by achieving operating efficiencies through technology advancements, data center consolidation, best practice implementation and shared resources teams. AHIS was formed not only to support System growth and change but also to improve our IT capabilities, disaster recovery, security and business operations.

This position is with AHIS; available at St. Mary's Hospital, located in Amsterdam, NY.  St. Mary’s Hospital, Amsterdam, N.Y., a member of Ascension Health, is the largest acute care hospital in the Montgomery, Fulton and surrounding regions with 152 beds and more than 1,100 associates. We treat over 260,000 outpatient visits a year. Our range of services is designed to fulfill the total healthcare needs of the community, while being the lowest cost provider. More than a hospital, St. Mary’s has become a highly accessible healthcare system with four off-site family health centers and seven behavioral health service locations in two counties. St. Mary's has been recognized by Health Grades for general surgeries and maternity services.

Founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1903, St. Mary’s Hospital is dedicated to improving the health of the entire community, providing healthcare services that address the spiritual, social, emotional and physical needs of patients, with special attention to the poor and underserved.

About the Location:

St. Mary's Hospital at Amsterdam is located in upstate New York within close proximity to the Capital Region. The hospital’s history and heritage stretches to the colonial days of the pre-Revolutionary War in the early 1700s and the creation of the byzantine Erie Canal that heralded the dawn of Montgomery County as "the Gateway to the West."

Amsterdam, NY is the midpoint between today’s celebrated Cooperstown and Saratoga attractions, neighboring the State Capital of Albany, NY, and in the foothills of the great Adirondack Mountains. Amsterdam is located within a 3 1/2 hour drive to three major cities including New York City, Boston, MA, and Montreal, Canada. We are also centrally located to many lakes and hiking trails of the the high peaks region, Berkshires, and the Catskill mountain ranges.

The area is bordered to the southwest by Cooperstown in Otsego County, to the south by Schoharie County, to the north by Fulton County in the foothills of the Adirondacks, and to the northeast by Saratoga County. The beautiful Adirondack mountain region is a short drive away and offers outdoor activities including camping, biking, swimming, hiking and skiing. Additionally, major metropolitan cities such as Boston, Manhattan, and Montreal are easily accessible by car or train. The area offers a number of outdoor activities, from stock car racing at Fonda Speedway, to quieter pursuits at any of the seven recreation areas for hiking, bicycling, fishing, boating or just relaxing. Golfers can enjoy three 18-hole courses, including one designed by Robert Trent Jones. There are no less than 18 sites of historic and cultural interest, including a martyr's shrine, and sites related to the Mohawk Indians and the Revolutionary War. Agriculture is a main industry in Montgomery County, as evidenced by a landscape dotted with dairy farms and produce stands. It's not uncommon to see a horse-drawn wagon making its way along a country road, indicative of the area’s Amish population. Local architecture ranges from farmhouses to more stately Victorians, to Revolutionary-era homes, to mill buildings that are remnants of the Industrial Revolution. Shopping malls and retail centers can be found in the town of Amsterdam and in downtown areas. Quaint stores offer personal service and one-of-a-kind items. Dine out at one of the local restaurants, or take in a movie at one of the local theaters. Other cultural resources are less than an hour's drive away, including horse racing and concerts at Saratoga Springs, or sporting events, performances and museums in Albany, the state capital.

About the Department:

St. Mary's at Amsterdam offers a team work environment where everyone contributes to the services provided at the facility. The working environment is focused on team based and cross departmental collaboration to achieve the strategic objectives of the main facility while aligning ourselves with the Ascension Health mission and core values. Our environment includes several off-site clinics, acute care, ambulatory surgery, emergency services, urgent care, and a skilled nursing facility. The Information Services department supports all department applications as well as hardware, network and server support services.

The hospital’s Health Information Systems (HIS) platform is Meditech MAGIC where a fully-integrated system is implemented using Meditech from patient scheduling and registration to billing and accounts receivables along with third-party vendors including Iatrics, and Pyxis. The IS department includes 15 application support and technical staff including management and administration. The hospital is currently deploying programs and processes to further enhance clinical quality and service excellence through implementation of key clinical solutions such as Physician Order Entry, Bedside Medication Verification, and Emergency Department Management. St. Mary’s is pro-active in moving to a fully functional electronic health record (EHR). St. Mary’s is looking for a highly-qualified, energetic, experienced individual for this key role. This position reports to the Manager of Application Support.

Position Profile: Senior Analyst, Clinical Informatics

Ascension Health Information Services (AHIS) located at St Mary's Hospital in Amsterdam, NY is seeking an experienced Systems Analyst - Clinical Informatics who is responsible for the overall investigation, support, development, and implementation of current and future Nursing computer systems including MEDITECH modules and other non-MEDITECH systems. This position will evaluate and promote new technologies for use at St. Mary's, with an initial focus on streamlining the nursing documentation and assessment process. This position will help to implement and support advanced clinical implementations including CPOE and Bedside Medication Verification. Responsibilities include:

• Responsible for the overall support and development of current and future nursing computer systems including pre-implementation process and workflow and the impact these new systems may have on all affected clinicians.
• Serves as the liaison between Clinical and Information Services (IS) personnel and may server as the project lead for Nursing implementations.
• Participates in building and supporting implementation of new technologies.
• Use troubleshooting skills to resolve computer system problems and/or application issues as they pertain to nursing areas.
• Organize and conduct facility specific meetings as needed. Attend, organize, and lead other meetings as requested.
• Test or oversee the testing of all software updates, new releases, and enhancement requests for assigned modules.
• Provide backup and support for other departmental personnel.
• Serve as a focal point for communication with applicable departments about computer system concerns and other related IS issues.
• Help to develop and implement policies and procedures that guide and support the provision of IS services.
• Continually assess and improve the performance of IS services provided.
• Function as part of the Information Services team for the support of all hospital IS related services.

Qualifications:

• Nursing Degree preferred
• Nursing Informatics certification highly desirable
• Acute care staff experience in a hospital (required)
• Strong organizational, interpersonal and communication skills
• A strong understanding of information systems design, integration and functionality
• Ability to work and collaborate with others in a cross-functional team setting.
• Must be able to demonstrate understanding of regulatory requirements (JCAHO)
• MEDITECH experience highly preferred.
• Ability to fulfill requirements of on-call rotation
• Willingness to reside within a commutable distance from Amsterdam, NY.

How to Apply:

This position is with AHIS; available at St Mary's Hospital, located in Amsterdam, NY. All interested candidates should apply at the AHIS Career Center or click here to go directly to the job posting.

AHIS is an Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/D/V.

Recent News: Summit Healthcare Unveils New Provider Office Integration Solution at 2010 International MUSE

MEDITECH Integration and Automation Leader to Launch Summit Provider Exchange; Sponsor Heart of MUSE Charity; Present Sessions on Customer Success

BRAINTREE, MA, May 26, 2010 -- Summit Healthcare, a leader in healthcare system integration and task automation, today announced that the company will be launching its new Summit Provider Exchange solution at the 2010 International MUSE Conference (booth #519).  In addition to the new product launch, Summit Healthcare will have a dominant presence at International MUSE as the exclusive sponsor of the Heart of MUSE charity initiative, and as the presenter of four conference sessions during the event. The company will also be making an additional Heart of Muse donation on behalf of visitors to the Summit Healthcare booth.

Summit Provider Exchange

Summit Provider Exchange is the latest addition to the Summit Apex Suite of integration and automation tools. The new offering is designed to facilitate physician office integration and health exchange participation by integrating bi-directional patient ADT Order and Results data between the hospital and physician office EMR systems. This solution provides healthcare organizations with the ability to connect to an unlimited number of offices with easy customization, mapping and smart routing of data including order control and management features.  The advantages of integrating with a physician offices are numerous and immediate.  External providers will now have access to critical patient data allowing for increased productivity and improved clinical decision making while allowing for increased revenue opportunities at the hospital.

Heart of MUSE Sponsorship

This year, Summit Healthcare once again will be the exclusive sponsor of the Heart of Muse charity initiative during the International MUSE conference. The charity chosen by the MUSE organization this year is LOVE FOR KIDS, a children’s charity in the Dallas/Ft. Worth community, which aims to enrich the quality of life of children who are in need of caring services. Those making a donation to this charity will be entered into a 50/50 raffle and will receive a Heart of Muse collector’s pin.

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Recent News: Alice Hyde Medical Center Implements Summit Express Connect to Integrate MEDHOST with MEDITECH

Acute Care Facility Selected Summit Healthcare for its Deep Expertise in Integrating Systems and its Strong MEDITECH Client Base

BRAINTREE, MA, May 20, 2010 -- Alice Hyde Medical Center has implemented technology from Summit Healthcare, a leader in healthcare system integration and task automation, to integrate its MEDHOST Emergency Department system with MEDITECH. Alice Hyde chose Summit Express Connect coupled with Summit Healthcare’s Outsourcing Services to give clinicians rapid access to critical patient data.

Alice Hyde Medical Center, a 76-bed acute care facility located in Malone, New York provides high-quality health care to the more than 45,000 residents in the North Country. The organization was looking to send its point to point interfaces through an engine so it could turn off redundant interfaces, leverage existing interfaces for other projects and utilize the alerting and monitoring features that an engine provides. Alice Hyde implemented Summit Express Connect, a robust interface engine used for both hospital and physician office EMR integration with 3rd party vendor systems. The company also contracted for Outsourcing Services for assistance in developing and managing interfaces.

“We were looking to quickly and cost-effectively leverage our existing interfaces and streamline information to all care givers, despite the fact that we were running two disparate systems,” said Joel Benware, chief information officer, Alice Hyde Medical Center. “The Summit Healthcare interface engine coupled with their professional services division allowed us to meet an aggressive deadline and stay within our budget. We look forward to a long partnership ahead with Summit Healthcare.”

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Recent News: Giving I.T. the Old College Try

MEDITECH and Northeastern University join forces to introduce I.T. to health sciences students, inspiring a tech-savvy new generation of clinical leaders

WESTWOOD, MA, May 5, 2010 -- MEDITECH recently headed back to school, by joining forces with Northeastern University's Bouvé College of Health Sciences on a project to introduce health care information technology into the department curriculum. In March, a pilot group of nursing students began using our Patient Care System (PCS) during the laboratory simulation portion of their training.

“Educating our students in health informatics is essential and a top priority at Bouvé. Information systems are rapidly becoming the norm in hospitals across the country, so it is important that our students become familiar with these tools early in their careers," says Bouvé College Dean Steve Zoloth. "Incorporating I.T. into the curriculum has long been a goal of ours. Bouvé is one of the first health colleges in the nation to have a fully integrated system for its students, and we are extremely grateful to MEDITECH for helping us to make it happen.”

Brenda Douglas, MS, RN, clinical instructor and nursing skills laboratory coordinator, lent her expertise in spearheading the MEDITECH system launch at Northeastern. She believes using I.T. to supplement classroom learning provides her nursing students with 'on-the-job' practical skills, which will serve them well as they move forward.

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Recent News: Interior Health Authority Implements Summit Healthcare Integration and Automation Tools for Meditech 6.1 Migration

Canadian IDN Selected Summit Healthcare for Scripting Technology, Dictionary Management and Downtime Reporting Tools

BRAINTREE, MA, May 3, 2010 -- British Columbia’s Interior Health Authority has successfully begun its MEDITECH 6.1 migration with integration and automation tools from Summit Healthcare, a leader in healthcare system integration and task automation. Interior Health selected Summit Healthcare because of the company’s deep MEDITECH integration expertise and its Summit Apex integrated product suite – a comprehensive toolset for streamlining MEDITECH 6.0 migration efforts. To assist in its migration from the MEDITECH Magic platform to MEDITECH 6.1, Interior Health is currently using Summit Scripting Toolkit™ and Summit InSync™ and has contracted for the implementation of the Summit Downtime Reporting System™.

As one of five health authorities in British Columbia, Interior Health recently made the decision to migrate from the MEDITECH Magic platform to MEDITECH 6.1 to meet its evolving needs. The business requirements outlined in the RPF process required a vendor that could provide robust, scalable scripting software and software to automate the migration and synchronization of MEDITECH’s data dictionaries across all MEDITECH platforms. Interior Health also required a business continuity solution that would provide secure access to critical patient data in the event of a MEDITECH or network downtime.

Now live with the Summit Scripting Toolkit and Summit InSync, Interior Health is using the Summit Scripting Toolkit to handle its intense data migration efforts and eliminate manual data entry that often accompanies a migration or implementation. Interior Health is using advanced features such as global segments to meet its internal tracking and auditing requirements. Summit InSync is in place to easily analyze, synchronize and maintain the organization’s test and live dictionaries between MEDITECH Magic and MEDITECH 6.1 platforms.

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Recent News: Washington County Hospital Selects Corepoint Integration Engine to Replace Existing Interface Engine in their MEDITECH Environment

Washington County Hospital replaces 40 interfaces in two weeks using Corepoint Integration Engine’s test-as-you-develop functionality

FRISCO, TX, April 28, 2010 -- To improve internal workflow within their MEDITECH environment, establish connectivity with their referring physician offices, and replace an under-performing interface engine, Washington County Hospital evaluated and implemented Corepoint Integration Engine.

“We were having difficulties with our previous interface engine," said Application Manager, Robert Close. Additionally, they wanted to have better control of their integrated application environment, less dependence on application vendors, and continue to establish interfaces with their referring community of physicians. To achieve those goals, the Washington County Hospital team sought to find a more robust interface engine from a vendor dedicated to customer support.

Close continued, "Because of the ease of use, monitoring tools, alerting and notification features, along with the ability to access and review message logs based on our preferences, we selected Corepoint Health.”

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Recent News: Catholic Health East Chooses Zynx Health as Its Provider of Evidence-Based Order Sets and Plans of Care

LOS ANGELES, CA, April 26, 2010 -- Catholic Health East (CHE), a multi-institutional health system headquartered in Newtown Square, Pa., announced it has selected Zynx Health, the market leader in providing evidence-based and experience-based clinical decision support solutions, to deploy order sets and plans of care to 18 of its acute care hospitals. The deployment of ZynxOrder and ZynxCare will enable CHE to improve patient care and demonstrate meaningful use of its electronic health record systems (EHRs) as established in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

CHE established an Advancing Clinical Transformation (ACT) initiative to drive excellence in quality and patient safety outcomes across the care continuum. CHE chose Zynx Health for its proven ability to measurably improve the quality, safety and efficiency of patient care. Together with the robust Zynx Health library of evidence-based order set and plan of care templates and proven integration with MEDITECH and Siemens, CHE’s EHR systems of choice, Zynx Health solutions will enable CHE to achieve their ACT objectives.

“Our goal was to identify a content provider that had extensive knowledge for both nursing and medicine and could easily integrate with our current EMR system,” said Donette Herring, vice president and CIO for Catholic Health East. “Zynx Health showcases a depth and breadth of clinical experience through meticulous research methodology in the analysis of peer-reviewed studies, best practices and guidelines that are then published into recommendations and clinical decision support solutions.”

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Recent News: Schneck Medical Center Selects Summit Healthcare as Its Partner for MEDITECH Integration

Partnership Also Lays Foundation for Schneck’s Strategic Interoperability Goals

BRAINTREE, MA, April 20, 2010 -- Summit Healthcare, a leader in healthcare system integration and task automation, has partnered with Seymour, Indiana’s Schneck Medical Center. Summit Healthcare will provide Schneck with tools to help the organization gain control of its interface environment and automate various processes. Summit Healthcare’s integration engine will also lay a foundation to help Schneck meet its strategic interconnectivity goals over the next few years.

Schneck is initially investing in two components of the Summit Apex suite, Summit Healthcare’s integrated product set that provides a comprehensive offering for HIS integration and automation. The first product is Summit Express Connect™, a robust, powerful interface engine that will give the 116-bed medical center the power and flexibility to develop and manage its interfaces in one easy-to-use application. Schneck has also contracted for Summit Scripting Toolkit™, a powerful scripting application which allows users to easily build scripts and interfaces.

“As we began our search for an integration partner, we knew we needed to find a company with the tools to help with our current interface needs as well as solutions that would act as a foundation for future integration initiatives,” said Craig Rice, director of IT, Schneck Medical Center. “We chose Summit Healthcare not only for its robust Apex product suite, but also because of its strong presence, deep experience and record of success in the MEDITECH space, which was important to us as a long-time MEDITECH user.”

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Recent News: IatriTRAC receives AHA's RACTrac Certification

BOSTON, MA, April 14, 2010 -- Iatric Systems, a leading provider of healthcare software and interface services, today announced that its IatriTRAC auditing software solution has achieved RACTrac Compatibility certification by the American Hospital Association (AHA). The certification was awarded after a comprehensive Vendor Test and Validation Process through the AHA’s Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) Program.

“Iatric Systems is very pleased that our IatriTRAC software solution has been recognized by the AHA as RACTrac Compatible,” said Frank Fortner, senior vice president of application software for Iatric Systems. “IatriTRAC provides MEDITECH hospitals complete management of both “auto” and “complex” RAC audits in real-time, all from the convenience of their HIS. It also features visual indicators to help meet important deadlines as well as the export of CSV files to produce customized management reports.”

The RAC Program was instituted as part of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, authorizing a RAC demonstration program to identify erroneous Medicare payments (including underpayments and overpayments) to health care providers. The three year program revealed more than $1 billion in improper Medicare payments in California, New York and Florida, leading the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to expand the program to all 50 states by 2010.

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Recent News: Unity Health Center, First Hospital in Oklahoma to Achieve Stage 6 on HIMSS Scale

SHAWNEE, OK, April, 2010 -- Unity Health Center has achieved Stage 6 on the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Adoption Model scale. Unity is the first and only hospital in Oklahoma to accomplish Stage 6 certification. The average stage for Oklahoma hospitals is Stage 2. The achievement is the latest in a series of accomplishments underscoring Unity’s focus on improving patient-care safety and quality.

“Our Stage 6 journey was a hospital-wide initiative which began in 2005,” states Kena Jones, Vice President of Technology and Pharmacy, Unity Health Center.  “We are constantly evolving and working continuously to improve and deliver quality, safe and compassionate patient care services to those we serve.  We recognized early on that leveraging technology and automation as part of the improvement process makes patient care more efficient, safer and more productive.”

Unity Health Center has a successful track record of delivering clinical and financial technology that helps improve outcomes, having implemented solid solutions over the years to document care, streamline processes and improve workflow. This designation is a key quality indicator that benefits patients of Unity Health Center. For the patient and all customers, it means a continued focus on improving care delivery to ensure quality and value.

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Recent News: Micromedex CareNotes® System Available Within the MEDITECH Health Care Information System (HCIS) in 2010

ANN ARBOR, MI, January 19, 2010 -- Thomson Reuters and MEDITECH have collaborated to offer the Micromedex CareNotes® System content  integrated within four applications of the MEDITECH Health Care Information System (HCIS) — Emergency Department Management, Physician Care Manager, Oncology, and Patient Care System.

Hospitals use CareNotes, one of the Micromedex clinical evidence solutions from Thomson Reuters, to provide patients with educational information about all aspects of their care and health.

MEDITECH customers will be able to add CareNotes content within their workflow late in 2010, streamlining the process of finding, delivering, and documenting personalized and relevant patient education in the hospital.

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