News & Information for the MEDITECH Community
Volume 1 - Issue 6 - November 2006
About This Publication:
The MEDITECH Community Bulletin is a periodic newsletter covering a broad range of topics that are relevant to the MEDITECH community. In addition, this newsletter provides a forum for guest contributors including consultants and, of course, MEDITECH customers. The MEDITECH Community Bulletin is published and distributed free of charge to you by Systems Personnel, a professional search firm specializing in the Healthcare IT and Management market. Visit us online at www.CarrollSearch.com.
If this is the first time you're reading the The MEDITECH Community Bulletin, consider it a warm hello and a handshake as we introduce our newsletter to your company. If you're a long-time recipient, we hope that you'll find this issue of the The MEDITECH Community Bulletin just as useful as always.
Thanks for your continued ideas, contributions, and feedback!
Regards,
Donna Carroll
QUICK LINKS:
Industry Spotlight | Customer Spotlight | Tricks of the Trade
Recent News | Worth a Read | Contact Info
Industry Spotlight: National Health Information & Technology Week is November 5th -11th, 2006
The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) instituted Health Information and Technology (HI&T) Week 17 years ago to educate peers, family, friends, and the public about the critical role played by HIM and HIT professionals in healthcare. The week has continued to grow into an increasingly visible opportunity for education and celebration. For 2006, the Canadian Health Information Management Association (CHIMA) continues to co-sponsor HI&T Week.
This year, AHIMA is celebrating their profession and educating people on its importance from November 5th through 11th. The theme for this year’s week reflects the important role HIM and HIT plays in providing information between healthcare providers and settings for improved continuity of care: “Managing Information, Improving Care.” The work HIM professionals do helps advance the cause of quality healthcare. HI&T week is a means to let everyone know about their crucial contributions to health information, so that people can truly see how improved patient care results from reliable data and the professional management of information.
The MEDITECH Community Bulletin would like to use the occasion of National Health Information and Technology (HI&T) Week to recognize all HIM professionals for their important contributions as members of multidisciplinary patient-care teams. Not only are they responsible for managing patient health information, but HIM professionals play the critical role of ensuring the information is complete, accurate, and kept confidential. The move from paper to electronic medical records (EMRs) will help doctors, nurses, and other medical staff make important healthcare decisions on a real-time basis.
Medical Records in The Information Age
Like any information-intensive field these days, the Medical Records field is greatly impacted by the explosive growth of computers. Medical Records, contemporarily known as Health Information Management (HIM), is dedicated to the effective management of patient information and healthcare data needed to deliver quality treatment and care to the public. As the healthcare industry moves further into the information age, HIM professionals perform an integral role in the implementation of electronic medical records (EMRs).
Implementing EMRs ranked among the top priorities of conference attendees this year at the HIMSS Annual Conference and Exhibition in San Diego, CA (February 12th-16th, 2006). As more physician offices consider and implement EMR systems, the challenge hospitals are now facing is integrating with them. When physicians choose vendor solutions that differ from the hospital's clinical applications, without an integration option available, the hospital risks losing that physician and the referral revenue they represent.
But, vendors are addressing the issue of EMR Interoperability with solutions that allow hospitals to deliver electronic results & clinical information to physician offices regardless of the EMR systems in place. One such vendor is Accenx Technologies, Inc., a leading integration solutions company in the healthcare industry. Accenx unveiled their latest solution, EMR Interoperability for Physician Outreach with RyTRAK ACM-ASP, at the HIMSS 2006 Conference.
Accenx's EMR Interoperability solution provides hospitals with the technology to deliver all types of electronic clinical results to physician office EMR systems and offers to manage the integration process, including support and maintenance for each physician office. The key benefit for hospitals is having a service to offer to referring physicians that secures loyalty and the revenue they represent, while alleviating the burden on IT staff resources to manage and execute the service, so they can remain focused on the unending internal priorities for the hospital. Other benefits include simple deployment, secure (encrypted) information exchange which is HIPAA compliant, no VPN required, and a low cost alternative to traditional integration options.
"EMR Interoperability is key to healthcare and creating more efficient ways to provide patient care and safety," explains Mike Connors, VP Business Development, Accenx Technologies. "Our EMR Interoperability for Physician Outreach solution establishes interoperability between hospitals and physician offices so electronic clinical information can be shared seamlessly, bettering the continuity of care and establishing the foundation for RHIOs."
Are you an HIM Professional?
As an HIM professional, you perform a very important role. No matter what your specific title, if you’re involved in health information management (HIM) or health information technology (HIT), your work is vital to delivering quality healthcare. Without the information and privacy and security safeguards you provide, the field of healthcare could not advance. More and more, your work is getting noticed by those outside the industry.
Fast-paced changes in technology have accelerated the demand for HIM professionals. The U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, projects a 49 percent growth in the number of HIM workers by 2010, making HIM one of the nation’s fastest-growing health occupations. The field currently offers nearly 40 different work settings and more than 125 job titles. Opportunities in the field include management of a hospital’s HIM department, working in information systems with implementation of the EMR, or designing health information systems for a software vendor.
Regardless of the path you choose, we’ll be there with you.
Systems Personnel is a professional search firm specializing in Healthcare Management and Information Technology. All of our clients need Health Information Management & Technology professionals at one time or another. If you’d like to keep your career options open, then please let us know. Even if we don’t have an immediate opportunity for you, we’d be happy to discuss your background, interests, and career options in order to consider you for future opportunities. Please feel free to call or email us at any time. Your personal privacy is guaranteed!
Again, we’d like to thank you for all that you do and wish you a happy
National Health Information and Technology Week!
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Customer Spotlight: Lodi Memorial makes the jump to electronic medical records
Hospital Paper Swept Away
By: Joe Goldeen, Record Staff Writer
Reprinted from: Recordnet.com - October 30, 2006
LODI - Lodi Memorial Hospital eliminated patients' paper charts last week, taking a leap into the 21st century since it first started planning its electronic medical records system four years ago.
Patient charts in the medical/surgical, intensive care, obstetrics, physical rehabilitation and transitional care units of the 173-bed, 54-year-old nonprofit community-owned hospital are no longer being kept on paper. Soon, patient records in the emergency department and inpatient surgery all will be relegated to computer screens.
"Information won't get lost. Information is readable. If a patient comes in four years down the road and they told us today they were allergic to codeine, it will be in the system," longtime registered nurse Kathy Osborne said.
"I love it, and I'm hearing from other nurses - once they get through the stress of learning how to use it - they love it, too," said Osborne, a self-admitted technology geek who has been instrumental in training hospital staff on the new system.
Osborne, who started her career at Lodi Memorial in the 1960s as one of its first intensive-care nurses, recalled when "good day" was the only note a nurse would enter into a patient's chart.
"You really didn't chart much more than that in those days," she said.
That's all changed as government regulators, accrediting agencies and insurance companies require more information be kept on patients. Anyone who's been to a hospital in recent years has seen clerks wheeling large file cabinets around hospital floors, often containing individual patient records that are inches thick.
Ken Cohen, director of San Joaquin County Health Care Services, called electronic medical records "extremely valuable" as a health-care tool, citing the following reasons:
- Reducing errors through improved legibility.
- Improving documentation by being timely and more accurate.
- Improving communication between medical team members who take care of patients.
- Reducing lost records.
- Having the patients' previous medical histories readily available for return visits and readmission.
- Saving paper.
- Saving storage space.
- Sending records electronically to physicians and hospitals around the country if the patient is out of state and the medical professionals need the history. This is more accurate, more timely and more comprehensive than faxing because you can't fax radiology images and certain other records.
- Providing ease of ordering.
Cohen, whose agency also operates San Joaquin General Hospital, said the public hospital in French Camp does not have electronic medical records, but it is under consideration.
"We have just issued a request for proposal to complete an Information System Strategic Plan and to provide a road map for the implementation of electronic medical records," he said.
By the end of 2007, Lodi Memorial will have spent about $8 million implementing its electronic records system created by Medical Information Technology Inc. (Meditech) of Westwood, Mass., according to hospital spokeswoman Carol Farron.
The federal government's Medicare, a major income source for most hospitals, is the driving force behind the effort, requiring all hospitals to have electronic billing in place by 2013, Farron said.
Other incentives for moving ahead with the new system include "more efficient and timely patient care; our staff and doctors can use their time more efficiently; and patient safety," Farron said, noting that there is no reimbursement from any source for the costs of the new system.
"Our costs of providing care go up, but our reimbursements remain the same," she said.
When a patient enters Lodi Memorial today, everything is handled electronically: ordering, results, charges, billing, medical history, nursing and ancillary such as X-rays and diagnostic imaging, respiratory therapy and dietary assessments.
"Before, a physician or any user would have to always track down the chart if they wanted to review or add information to it. Now they can go to a highly secure site electronically and view the chart that will have the most current test results," Farron said.
Doctors, nurses and ancillary staff can add their notes to the chart, keeping it constantly current.
"It standardizes patient care. It eliminates the bad handwriting. You can have all the information you need at the click of a button," said Dr. Param Gil, an obstetrician/gynecologist.
Gil's anticipating next year when the system will allow Computerized Physician Order Entry, which is just as it sounds: physicians entering their instructions on patient care through the computer.
"That will mean less medication errors," she said.
While physicians - who are not hospital employees - have little choice but to get training and use the system if they want to continue seeing patients in the hospital, not all were immediately enthralled with its introduction.
"It's easy, but it's more time consuming. Now you have to log in every time you use it. It takes more time, but it's still a good thing," said Dr. Nicole Tate, also an OB/GYN.
Lynn McCarty, the hospital's medical/surgical director, emphasized the safety factor of electronic medical records.
"We're answering the call of the Institute of Medicine study on deaths due to medical errors. These are preventable deaths, and this is one of the solutions," she said.
Glenn Barge, in charge of the hospital's computer and technology systems, said this is by far "safer for the patient."
Should there be a computer meltdown or power outage, restricting access to the system, a summary sheet of every single current patient's medical record can be printed from a dedicated computer within 10 minutes.
"It's not very pretty, but it's usable and it's going to save us," he said.
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Tricks of the Trade: Option to Print Detail in C/S
Contributed by: Pat Korolog, Applications Specialist II, Kalispell Regional Medical Center.
When building a report where the user only wants totals I always like to create the report with detail and check my numbers. Further, I want the user to print the detail to assure that the detail is displaying what they expect and the totals are accurate. I use this method to give the user the ability to print detail as an option. This is also handy when the user wants the detail at times but does not need it at other times.
Step 1.
Create a computed field as follows:
Step 2.
Plot the field on the Selects page:
Step 3.
Put a line check on the detail page so that if the user answers “Y” to the Detail? Prompt the line will print. Put this on all detail lines.
This is a handy method for putting the responsibility to q.a. the data in the report back in the user’s hands.
Pat Korolog, RN, is an Applications Specialist II for Kalispell Regional Medical Center. Pat has over 12 years of experience working with MEDITECH HCIS, performing implementations, applications support, and NPR report writing and training.
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Recent News: Health agency plans massive data warehouse
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began a monumental effort to load all the prescription drug claims information for claims from 2005 and 2006 into a single data repository. The goal is to link this data in a single source so that users can see information about both the health care provider and the beneficiary. “Integrating the data into a single source also will allow the CMS to better identify potential fraud and abuse because "people can begin to get a sense for a single version of the truth," said John Evangelist, director of integrated data and program management at the CMS.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9004370&intsrc=news_ts_head
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Worth a Read: Articles of Interest to the Healthcare IT Field
The State of State RHIO’s
By: Greg Goth
HealthCare Informatics, October, 2006
Initial findings for developing Regional Health Information Organizations show that what works for one state may not work for another and that’s okay. Groups tasked with the creation of RHIO’s can share guiding principles and ideas to streamline development of electronic health records across a region.
http://healthcare-informatics.com/issues/2006/10/016/
ICD-10 On The Way
By: Kathryn Foxhall
Healthcare Informatics, October, 2006
Amid much controversy over the newest revision of the The International Classification of Diseases (Revision 10) – the healthcare industry may be forced to transition from the ICD-9 codes that have been in use for the last thirty years to the ICD-10 codes as early as October 1, 2010. What can you do to prepare for this transition?
http://healthcare-informatics.com/issues/2006/10/022/
E-Discovery and HIM: How Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Will Affect HIM Professionals
By: Kim Baldwin-Stried, MBA, MJ, RHIA, CPHQ
AHIMA Web Site
How new federal rules on evidence gathering and medical records management which take effect in December. This article discusses the changes in federal rules and how the role of the HIM professional will change.
http://library.ahima.org/xpedio/groups/public/documents/ahima/bok1_032032.hcsp?dDocName=bok1_032032
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