Volume 4 - Issue 7 - September 2009

Editor's Note

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

Welcome to the latest issue of The MEDITECH Community Bulletin. Below are just a few of the items found in this month's newsletter:

• Our Customer Spotlight column features not only a MEDITECH customer, but the many facilities which comprise the Health Information Exchange of Montana. Learn how one rural health system is closing the gap and placing patient data at providers' fingertips.

• The TIGER Initiative is seeking sponsors for a Virtual Demonstration Center. Read about this worthwhile effort in our Industry Spotlight column this month.

• John Sharpe of Comstock Software is once again sharing his wealth of NPR knowledge in our Tricks of the Trade column. He also has a FREE OFFER this month!  Has your organization implemented MEDITECH Client Server 5.5 or greater? Implemented most MEDITECH Modules? Interested in FREE MEDITECH DR (Data Repository) Report Writing Training? Comstock Software will be hosting 1-hour remote MEDITECH DR (Data Repository) Report Writing Workshops via WebEx for the MEDITECH community. Your hospital will provide Comstock Software with access to MEDITECH DR (Data Repository) in your TEST environment. In return for being the host site, your organization will receive free MEDITECH DR (Data Repository) Report Writing training for its employees at no cost. To learn more, contact John at jsharpe@comstock-software.com.

• 20 Years in Business! This month, Systems Personnel celebrates our 20th anniversary. That's right, we've been in business for 20 years now. Don't miss our own press release in Recent News and be sure to visit our new web site too.

• All information and content for the October issue of The MEDITECH Community Bulletin must be received no later than Friday, September 25th. Thank you.

Happy Labor Day!
Donna

Customer Spotlight: So Far Away, Yet So Close…

By: Donna Carroll, Editor, The MEDITECH Community Bulletin

How one rural health system is closing the gap and placing patient data at providers’ fingertips

Located in the heart of beautiful northwestern Montana, the Health Information Exchange of Montana (HIEM) represents a family of health care providers designed to meet the needs of both community residents and seasonal visitors. From preventive medicine and routine procedures to ongoing treatment and complex surgeries, HIEM members are equipped with the expertise and the facilities to improve the health and comfort of the people they serve. And the people they serve number approximately 140,000 spread across an area of 45,000 square miles! With that large of a population in their service area, HIEM medical facilities deliver care to patients through numerous sites, namely, 6 hospitals, 12+ clinics, a long term care facility, and a home health facility.

Among the hospitals is Kalispell Regional Medical Center (KRMC) which is a member of the larger Northwest Healthcare system. KRMC is both a community hospital and a regional referral center, offering the area’s most advanced health services and medical technology. KRMC is a MEDITECH Client Server site, but they also support over 250 other applications, such as MedHOST, Formfast, Softmed, McKesson, Vista Keane, DR PACS, Kronos, LSS, ANSOS, Impac, and eClinicalWorks, just to name a few. With approximately 1800 Northwest Healthcare employees, and another 500 or so outside users connecting to KRMC for support of those 250 applications, there can be over 2000 connections accessing their network at any given time.

The myriad applications utilized by Northwest Healthcare alone, combined with the disparate health information technology in use by other hospitals and clinics in the region and the geographic dispersion of facilities makes gathering complete patient information quite a challenge for healthcare providers trying to assess, plan and treat patients effectively.

With several of the physicians working at multiple hospitals in the region, it was common for patients to be referred back and forth among the facilities. Approximately six years ago, a small group of physicians started talking about the idea of being able to exchange patient information electronically, rather than by phone and paper. Those first conversations started with the idea of having a common platform for all hospital records, but an enterprise-wide conversion to a single HIS vendor was not considered cost-effective or desirable. So, they adjusted their approach to move toward a Health Information Exchange (HIE) and sought potential solutions. After a thorough selection process, they chose the CareAlign™ Aggregation Platform from Informatics Corporation of America (ICA) and thus was born the Health Information Exchange of Montana (HIEM).

The HIEM settled on a three-pronged approach. First, they began building a fiber-optic infrastructure throughout the region to support the exchange of healthcare data across the geographically dispersed healthcare system. Next, they contracted with ICA to provide a secure, aggregated healthcare data repository to integrate vital clinical information from their legacy systems into a longitudinal patient healthcare record. And finally, they decided to expand ICA’s base aggregation platform with clinical communication, disease management, clinical workflow and forms and notes capabilities.

Kip Smith, HIEM’s Executive Director since November 2008, describes the project: “It’s going to be a very robust solution as we are bringing in Pharmacy, Radiology, Inpatient and Outpatient records. It’s a huge undertaking, but we’re getting closer. We’ve completed a pilot implementation between the two MEDITECH hospitals in Kalispell already, and are now bringing in the clinics which are on eClinicalWorks. We will also bring in 3 other hospitals, some with different HISs.”

To learn more about the CareAlign™ Aggregation Platform, we spoke with John Tempesco, Vice President of Client Services for ICA. Tempesco describes the CareAlign™ solution--a web-based application accessible anywhere with an internet connection--“Essentially, CareAlign™ takes data from the various software applications and aggregates it into a centralized data repository which is then ‘vaulted’ by each of the individual sites.” Each entity has a vault of their own data, which is accessible across the entities. Each entity can view each other’s data, but cannot modify it. This is considered a ‘view-only’ model. “The system then looks across all of the data vaults for all references to a patient and dynamically compiles them all into one view to be seen by providers,” continued Tempesco.

Not only does CareAlign™ solve the problem of data sharing amongst numerous entities, it also provides a single sign-on capability. Tempesco explains, “A very common problem in the Emergency Department (ED) is for physicians to have to log into 7-10 systems in order to get all of the information they need on patients visiting the ED. Now, they can log into 1 application and pull information from all sources. So, CareAlign™ is a combination data aggregation and single sign-on solution.”

So, how is ICA’s CareAlign™ Aggregation Platform working for HIEM? Well, Northwest Healthcare, the largest participant in the HIEM, recently won 4th place in Modern Healthcare’s 2009 IT Case Study Contest for their pilot implementation of CareAlign™. Candis Deruchia-Bunten, Director of Healthcare IT at Northwest Healthcare, wrote in the case study, “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will be highly favorable to the information exchange’s initiative because it requires “meaningful use” of EHRs to qualify for financial incentives. Clearly, this would extend to streamlining patient data from disparate sources into a single, unified record. This system also adds value to long-term investments in healthcare information technology by spanning existing systems to improve the clinical value of current technology, reduce costs, increase interdepartmental communication and improve the quality of care.”

Looking forward, HIEM executive director Kip Smith outlines some of the additional benefits ICA’s solution is slated to bring to the community. “Once the initial deployment is complete within the HIEM, we expect incremental rollout of secure clinical messaging, clinical flow sheets and dashboards to enhance communication, acute care monitoring and disease management throughout the community,” he said.

As for Informatics Corporation of America (ICA), they recently won the 2009 Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce's Future 50 Award for the second consecutive year. ICA was named one of 50 fastest growing companies in Tennessee for projecting continued growth in both revenues and the number of employees over the next three years. “Given the nation’s economic uncertainty, we consider it a significant achievement to project growth and to be among this group of 50 outstanding businesses,” says Gary Zegiestowsky, CEO of ICA. “But it’s not just about growth – it’s about making a difference.” Zegiestowsky emphasizes the need for deploying systems that add value to long-term investments in healthcare information technology, saying, “By spanning existing systems to improve the clinical value of current technology, our solution helps healthcare enterprises reduce costs, increase interdepartmental communication and improve the quality of care.”

All of the patients in northwestern Montana have a lot to be grateful for due to the hard work and dedication of the physicians, a software vendor, the IT staff of Kalispell Regional Medical Center, and each of the HIEM participants. Even though their rural medical facilities may be so far away, their critical patient data is so close at hand.

To learn more about Informatics Corporation of America, visit them online at www.icainformatics.com.

To learn more about Northwest Healthcare or Kalispell Regional Medical Center, visit them online at www.nwhc.org or www.krmc.org.

Industry Spotlight: TIGERs Ready to Show their Stripes

By: Donna Carroll, Editor, The MEDITECH Community Bulletin

Once in a while, you encounter an organization that just makes you feel good about the industry in which you work. Technology Informatics Guiding Educational Reform (TIGER) is one such organization. Though I had heard of the TIGER Initiative before, I found myself exploring it in more detail after receiving an email from Marion Ball, Ed.D. who is Co-Chair of the Executive Committee.

Dr. Ball sent me an email in response to the lead article in last month’s issue of our newsletter. The Customer Spotlight article titled “Technology, It’s All About People” was a summary of a conversation with Gary Croteau, AVP & CIO of South County Hospital in Wakefield, Rhode Island. What drew Dr. Ball to the article was Gary’s emphasis on the human factors involved in technology. That focus on human factors is precisely what is behind the TIGER Initiative.

The TIGER Initiative is focused on transforming the role of the nurse to better use informatics tools, principles, theories and practices to make healthcare safer and more effective, efficient, patient-centered, timely, and equitable. The TIGER Initiative seeks to inform and positively impact all nurses delivering patient care through all aspects of the healthcare continuum, representing more than 3,000,000 nurses in the United States today.

The Invitational TIGER Summit was held in Bethesda, Maryland in the Fall of 2006. The invited attendees for the TIGER Summit included over 120 leaders from the nation’s nursing practice, education, informatics/technology organizations, and government agencies and represented more than 80 organizations. During this landmark Summit, a 10-year vision and 3-year action plan for transforming nursing practice and education to better prepare nurses to practice in an increasingly automated, informatics-rich, and consumer-driven health care environment was defined.

What’s more impressive than TIGER’s vision and agenda is the fact that all of its members are volunteers from the nursing community who have committed their own time and talents to further the advancement of its mission. One component of the 3-year action plan is the creation of a Virtual Demonstration Gallery/Center to Showcase Best Nursing Practices through the effective use of IT.

Creation of a Virtual Demonstration Center will identify participants as an industry leader and sponsor of the project and will provide the following solutions to overcoming the nursing shortage by:

1. Providing visibility to the 10-year vision of IT-enabled nursing practice and education to broader healthcare audience.
2. Demonstrating the breadth and depth of IT resources in use by nurses to enhance their practice and educational environments.
3. Demonstrating collaboration between industry, healthcare organizations academic institutions, and professional organizations to create educational modules for nurses that are based upon informatics competencies.
4. Providing universal accessibility to this demonstration for all nursing stakeholder groups.
5. Using practice examples from different practice environments that can demonstrate best practices, results of research, case studies and lessons learned by partnering with nursing professional organizations.
6. Demonstrating how integrated IT systems impact nurses and the quality and safety of patient care.

The purpose of the Virtual Demonstration Center is to engage visitors to demonstrate innovative, high-quality, and maximally efficient care scenarios in compelling ways. Visitors to the Virtual Demonstration Center will better be able to participate in building improved healthcare future states, in a virtual “Gallery Walk” accessible to nurse-focused technology applications and provide exemplars of best practice for technology utilization, contact resources and virtual networking opportunities.

This is a noble purpose, indeed! But, one that will require more than just the time and talents of TIGER’s volunteer members. This effort will also require the time and treasure of outside participants. TIGER is seeking the assistance of industry vendors and organizations willing to sponsor the Virtual Demonstration Center to help enable these TIGERs to show their stripes. This is a great opportunity to stand out as an industry leader and to help a very worthy initiative.

To learn more about the TIGER Initiative, visit them online at http://tigersummit.com. To find out more about the Virtual Demonstration Center, you can download the Executive Summary here. Also, feel free to contact Dr. Marion Ball with more detailed inquiries.

Tricks of the Trade: MEDITECH NPR (Client Server) - Capturing a List of Information from the Run Time User

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

Report writers usually use the IG (IGNORE) Select Operator when a single piece of information needs to be captured at run time from the user. The IG operator allows for information capture, without affecting MEDITECH’s record selection logic.

If only there was a Select Operator that could capture a list of information from the user, without affecting the standard record selection process. There isn’t - but with a little creativity and insight from MEDITECH Knowledge Base Article 4630 (you will need to use your meditech.com user id & password to view this article), you can accomplish the same thing using an LI operator and an entry in the Select Relationship box.

A Select Relationship of C2!’C2 tells the MEDITECH record selection logic to IGNORE Select Field number 2. Now you can use a DO Loop on Select Field 2 to utilize the captured information. A couple of ways you might use this information include: 1) to display it on the screen, OR 2) customize your own record selection process.

Thoughts or Questions? Email them to John at jsharpe@comstock-software.com.

 

FREE OFFER

Has your organization implemented MEDITECH Client Server 5.5 or greater? Implemented most MEDITECH Modules? Interested in FREE MEDITECH DR (Data Repository) Report Writing Training? Comstock Software will be hosting 1-hour remote MEDITECH DR (Data Repository) Report Writing Workshops via WebEx for the MEDITECH community. Your hospital will provide Comstock Software with access to MEDITECH DR (Data Repository) in your TEST environment. In return for being the host site, your organization will receive free MEDITECH DR (Data Repository) Report Writing training for its employees at no cost. To learn more, contact 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.

Peterson Regional Medical Center
Kerrville, Texas

About the Organization:

Peterson Regional Medical Center (PRMC) is a private, not-for-profit, 121-bed acute care community hospital in the heart of the Texas Hill Country. With the relocation of the hospital to a brand new state-of-the-art facility in April of 2008, PRMC anchors a 35-acre campus that includes an ambulatory care center complete with outpatient surgery, imaging, laboratory and rehabilitation services, as well as a regional wound healing center.

PRMC is a modern, spacious facility designed with patient comfort foremost in mind. A four-story limestone atrium bathes the beautifully appointed lobby and upper-level waiting areas in soothing natural light. A specially landscaped healing garden and fountain near our patio dining area provides a peaceful respite for visitors and staff alike. The facility also has incorporated leading-edge technologies designed to enhance the healthcare experience of each patient. Most important, our staff of more than 850 men and women work together for one common goal--the wellbeing of each patient at Peterson Regional Medical Center.

About the Location:

Located 60 miles northwest of San Antonio and 100 miles southwest of Austin, Kerrville is truly a Hill Country paradise where the scenery is majestic and the people are friendly. We are located in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, where sparkling spring-fed creeks meander through the rugged terrain and rolling hills of the Guadalupe River Valley.

Kerrville offers an attractive community with good schools, a university in town, and numerous museums, arts and cultural activities. The Guadalupe River along with our mild climate provides the opportunity to enjoy many outdoor pursuits. Every season in Kerrville offers an array of activities. With an event-filled calendar and our relaxing Hill Country setting, you'll see how easy it is to...lose your heart to the hills.

About the Department:

As a member of Laboratory department, the LIS Specialist will be instrumental in the conversion of the current system to the new, and work closely with members of the lab who currently support MIC, BBK and PTH, as well as with the MEDITECH implementation team, and members of the computer core team from other departments. We are a MEDITECH Magic 5.62 site and are starting the process of conversion to 6.0.

At PRMC, we are committed to supporting an exemplary work environment. We believe that the work environment has a profound effect on relationships, teamwork, job satisfaction, communication and collaboration, professional growth, and turnover.

If you're looking for a vibrant work environment where your input is valued, and professional growth is supported, please consider joining our dedicated team. Employees receive the resources they need to be successful in their careers. They are able to be part of a thriving organization while establishing a valuable network of friends and colleagues who support them in their work every day.

Position Profile:

The LIS Specialist will develop and maintain laboratory dictionaries and participate in the multi-disciplinary computer core group. A positive working relationship with members of other departments, MEDITECH staff and physician offices will be critical to the successful deployment of the new software. Testing and validation of the software through the upgrade process, and maintenance within the LIVE environment will be top priority. Evaluation of the management reporting capabilities of the MEDITECH system for the Laboratory and improvement of these reports will assist the department in maintaining the highest level of performance. The candidate will develop and oversee testing action plan for new software/processes. Management of laboratory interfaces and coordination of training for all laboratory employees using the MEDITECH.

Qualifications:

• BS or AS degree, or related computer training and equivalent work experience;
• 3 or more years of experience as an Analyst or related role responsible for support, maintenance, interfaces, and reporting for laboratory information systems (LIS);
• Specific experience with MEDITECH lab modules (LAB, MIC, BBK, PTH) highly preferred, but not required.

How to Apply:

To learn more about Peterson Regional Medical Center, visit us online at www.petersonrmc.com. Interested and qualified applicants should contact Stephanie Alford at 830-258-7572 or email your resume to salford@petersonrmc.com.

Recent News: Systems Personnel Celebrates 20 Years in Business

SOUTHWICK, MA, September 1, 2009 -- Systems Personnel, a professional search and consulting firm within the Healthcare industry, will be celebrating its 20th year in business later this month. Founded on September 15, 1989, Systems Personnel has built its stellar reputation upon a search philosophy that emphasizes fostering a tradition of respect and caring for people as individuals.

The firm’s tagline is “Your Partner in Healthcare Search & Consulting.” According to Donna Carroll, Vice President of Business Development & Recruitment, it’s a statement that the company takes very seriously and which has led directly to its longevity and success.

“At Systems Personnel, our clients and candidates are more than just business associates,” said Carroll. “They’re our partners. We strive to build long-term relationships by providing individualized assistance backed by two decades of experience and a commitment to quality in every phase of our business. We believe that our clients and candidates deserve our very best, and that’s the standard to which we hold ourselves.”

Read article...

Recent News: Hawaii Hospitals Mark MEDITECH's Presence in All 50 U.S. States

WESTWOOD, MA, August 19, 2009 -- For the very first time, MEDITECH hospitals now span all 50 U.S. states, as we are proud to welcome Hilo Medical Center (Hilo, HI), Ka'u Hospital (Pahala, HI), and Hale Ho'ola Hamakua (Honokaa, HI) to our customer community. Making up the East Hawaii Region of the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation (HHSC), the three facilities have all selected MEDITECH's latest technology platform, 6.0.

"We chose 6.0 because it aligns with our overall health care strategy," explains Hilo's Chief Financial Officer and Chief Information Officer Money Atwal. "We were looking for a centralized community-wide system which would offer a complete electronic medical record for our providers, encompassing all patient information from cradle to grave."

The main goal for Hilo, the first of the three hospitals scheduled to implement 6.0, was to partner with a vendor that could provide an integrated EMR encompassing all patient needs-including, but not limited to, long-term and acute care, emergency department services, and outpatient clinics. "The fact that MEDITECH is one of the very few EMR vendors that offers complete clinical documentation and billing across the continuum of care, significantly increased the value of the system in our eyes," he says.

Read article...

Recent News: Wolters Kluwer Health Announces Release of ProVation Care Plans

Solution delivers interdisciplinary plans of care backed by premier supporting evidence, disease and symptom information

MINNEAPOLIS, MN, August 10, 2009 -- Wolters Kluwer Health today unveiled ProVation® Care Plans, an innovative software solution that arms nurses, pharmacists, therapists and other caregivers with the actionable evidence they need to effectively enhance practice, improve patient safety and demonstrate compliance with credentialing and regulatory standards. The new offering, which will deliver more than 200 clinical care plans, provides nursing interventions; embedded links to current evidence, performance, measures and quality indicators; vendor-neutral EMR and clinical information system integration; and clinical terms based on standard medical vocabularies.

ProVation Care Plans were built by a team of expert clinicians, in partnership with the experts at Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW), the leading international publisher of nursing information such as the American Journal of Nursing, Nursing Drug Handbook and Lippincott’s Nursing Procedures & Skills. ProVation Care Plans enable hospitals to make the most informed decisions through point of care access to disease and symptom information, and supporting evidence from Wolters Kluwer Health sources like UpToDate, which reduces the risk for error and liability, helps to establish clinical consensus on standards of care, and improves patient care and safety. Through ProVation Care Plans, clinicians and facilities also have one-click access to the Ovid journals to which they subscribe.

“Only Wolters Kluwer Health offers a Care Plan solution that is backed by more than 200 years of publishing experience and delivers clinical content and decision support from the foremost brands in healthcare,” said Arvind Subramanian, President and CEO, Wolters Kluwer Health Clinical Solutions. “By combining ProVation Medical’s leading edge technology with trusted information from Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, evidence and literature from UpToDate, and direct linking to full-text articles and journal subscriptions from Ovid, ProVation Care Plans offers an unsurpassed combination of best-of-breed technology and content.”

Read article...

Recent News: Certification Commission Seeks Input On Launch Of New Programs

Plans Training to Orient Vendors and Developers to New Processes

CHICAGO, IL, August 25, 2009 -- The Certification Commission today announced a Town Call web conference on Sept. 3, to gather input from the vendor and developer community on the details and timing of its planned new paths to certification of electronic health record (EHR) technologies, with the goal of supporting more rapid, widespread adoption and meaningful use under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

“We are concerned that providers could not achieve meaningful EHR use in 2011 if they wait until Spring 2010 – the expected date of HHS final approval of requirements – to begin adopting this technology,” said Mark Leavitt, M.D., Ph.D., Commission chair. “CCHIT has analyzed the recommendations of the Federal HIT Advisory Committees and is preparing to offer new paths to certification beginning this October. We invite vendors and developers to join us on a Town Call as we finalize the details of this process.”

Besides updating and enhancing its current certification program for comprehensive EHRs in Ambulatory, Inpatient, and Emergency Department settings, the Commission plans to launch a more limited, modular inspection program for EHR technology, focusing only on compliance with ARRA-required standards.

Read article...

Recent News: PatientKeeper Continues Strong Growth in 2009

Increased Connectivity and Enhanced Workflow Enable Hospitals to Fuel Physician Adoption and Improve Patient Care

BOSTON, MA, August 24, 2009 -- PatientKeeper®, Inc., the leading developer of physician information systems, reported continued growth in the first half of 2009. This growth was driven by new customers including Pennsylvania’s Butler Health System, North Carolina’s Catawba Valley Medical Center and Michigan’s Oakwood Healthcare System and by existing customers adopting new products.

PatientKeeper’s high rate of physician adoption and satisfaction played a key role in the selection of PatientKeeper’s physician portal at Catawba Valley Medical Center, a 258-bed hospital in Hickory, North Carolina. In addition to providing physicians with a unified view of information across all of Catawba’s inpatient systems, Catawba has plans to connect community physicians’ practices to PatientKeeper using the PatientKeeper Physician Practice Connector™. This will provide their physicians with a complete longitudinal medical record across inpatient and outpatient care settings.

“PatientKeeper’s solutions will provide our physicians with streamlined access to a breadth of clinical and financial information, enhancing their ability to deliver the highest quality of care wherever they may be — inside or outside of the hospital,” said Jerry Reardon, CIO of Catawba Valley Medical Center. “We believe this extended capability for data exchange will help us to meet the interoperability requirements of the ARRA stimulus package.”

Read article...

Recent News: Mercy Medical Center Extends PatientKeeper Platform for Health Information Exchange

Physicians Will Have Anytime, Anywhere Access to a Longitudinal View of Combined Inpatient and Outpatient Information from Sage Intergy EHR and Hospital System

BOSTON, MA, August 18, 2009 -- PatientKeeper®, Inc., the leading developer of physician information systems, and Sage, a leading provider of physician solutions including practice management and electronic health records, jointly announced that Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids will be expanding its PatientKeeper platform. With the new capability for health information exchange (HIE) between Mercy Medical Center’s PatientKeeper Physician Information System and Sage Intergy EHR ambulatory electronic health records system, physicians will have access to integrated inpatient and outpatient records, across care settings, to optimize patient care and improve operational efficiency.

Mercy Medical Center CEO, Tim Charles, said, “We are thrilled to be on the forefront of meeting the evolving government and quality standards. Our physicians will be using our existing, well adopted PatientKeeper Portal™ to provide the best care possible for the patients in our community, and I am particularly excited to implement a cost effective health information exchange solution. Leveraging existing technology and improving physicians’ access to key patient information helps us contribute to keeping overall healthcare costs down.”

Mercy will implement PatientKeeper’s Physician Practice Connector™, giving providers access to inpatient information, and outpatient information – through Sage Intergy EHR – anywhere, anytime, through one system. Providers will use the HIE functionality to access an aggregated longitudinal view of current and historical patient information.

Read article...

Recent News: The National Alliance for Health Information Technology Is Ceasing Operation

AHA and CHIME to Continue Focus on HIT

CHICAGO, IL, August 17, 2009 -- After playing a major role in elevating health information technology (HIT) into a leadership issue that is widely recognized as fundamental to achieving such national and organizational imperatives as world-class patient care and lower health care costs, the National Alliance for Health Information Technology is ceasing operation on September 30.

“In a few short years, NAHIT has accomplished its mission: HIT has moved front and center in efforts to reinvent and reinvigorate the U. S. health system,” says Jane Horowitz, NAHIT chief operating officer. “Going forward, the action is shifting from NAHIT’s focus on educating, advocating and building common ground to planning, implementing and using HIT to improving care, safety and efficiency.”

“Other organizations are better positioned to help providers with implementation,” says Horowitz. “In particular, the American Hospital Association (AHA) has close ties with hospital chief executive officers while the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is the leading industry association for chief information officers. These organizations, both ongoing supporters of NAHIT, understand the tremendous value and need for HIT. They are devoting substantial resources for helping their members realize the potential of HIT and ensuring HIT is embedded in health care reform initiatives. We know that the AHA and CHIME will continue to advance the adoption of HIT.”

Read article...

Recent News: Transfusion Management Services Completes BBK Validation for Methodist Hospital System

TUCSON, AZ, July 28, 2009 -- Transfusion Management Services (TxMS) provided independent validation services to Methodist Hospital System (North & South facilities - Merrillville & Gary, IN) for their blood bank system conversion to MEDITECH. TxMS staff created and executed a detailed validation plan with test protocols customized to Methodist’s workflow and requirements. TxMS tested and successfully documented all critical blood bank system functions, including:

• Patient registration and order entry
• Blood product entry, testing, issue and update
• Making, aliquoting and pooling blood components
• Patient ABO/Rh testing
• Patient antibody screening
• Patient crossmatch procedures

Blood bank system validation is a requirement of the FDA and other national and state regulatory agencies, prior to putting a new or upgraded blood bank system into active use. TxMS is an experienced provider of blood bank software validation, ISBT128 labeling implementation support and data conversion for MEDITECH and other systems such as Sunquest and Mediware.”

For additional information...

Worth a Read: Articles of Interest to the Healthcare IT Field