Now that MEDITECH and PtCT have officially
come together, how will this change affect our customers and
their strategic plans? To address these concerns, we recently
sat down with two key players in the merger—Vice
President of Marketing Hoda Sayed-Friel and Director of Home
Care Sales Brian Doyle—to dig deeper into the future of
home care I.T., as well as how the merger fits in with
MEDITECH's overall "Care Without Walls" initiative.
Let's
start with the basics: why this merger and why now?
HODA: People who have heard me give speeches and presentations know how passionate I am about using technology to facilitate chronic disease management. MEDITECH has designed its systems to share information among medical practices, clinics, Emergency Departments, nursing floors, rehab facilities, patient homes, and pharmacies. And many of today's "Top 20" chronic conditions—like diabetes and congestive heart failure, which represent 80% of our health care dollars—are especially well-suited to being treated and monitored in the home.
So, I believe
that merging the Home Care products into MEDITECH is a
natural extension of our overall mission: to connect
providers for more seamless, safer care delivery. That's what
our "Care Without Walls" initiative, and the PtCT
merger, are really all about: making certain that our
customers are uniquely positioned for the community-based
care and population health management challenges that all
health care organizations are facing now.
MEDITECH
first announced a majority ownership stake in PtCT back in
April 2007. How has the company been strengthened since then?
BRIAN:
You can't overstate the impact MEDITECH has had in
stabilizing all aspects of PtCT's operations. First and
foremost, we returned to profitability, which is the key to
overall success in any business. MEDITECH's deliberate and
methodical practices have helped us to realign our vision of
home care software. I could list several specific
achievements which have occurred across Service,
Implementation, and Development over the past 30 months, but
I think the clearest evidence of all of the improvements is
the fact that in April 2007, we did not have a customer LIVE
with "Maestro" (now MEDITECH's Home Health and
Hospice applications), and today we have 25 customers LIVE.
What
does this merger specifically mean for our current Home Care
customers?
BRIAN: Larry
Polimeno mentioned
some of the many ways our current customers will benefit from
the change. What's especially important is that MEDITECH's
financial resources, as well as time-tested infrastructure
and methodologies, will continue to lead to improvements
across the areas of home care service, implementation, and
development. Furthermore, our customers are now fully joined
with MEDITECH's global vision of health care, which gives
them a solid path for the future.
HODA: Customers should also rest assured that daily operations will be kept consistent. The on-line customer service system will function in the same way, and for the early part of 2010, customers will be able to access it in the same manner they are familiar with—they'll automatically be re-routed to www.meditech.com without any extra steps. Eventually, our customer service system for Home Care will be re-tooled to function in the same manner as the MEDITECH system for other products.
One new feature
that's very exciting is the new Home Care Web
portal now on www.meditech.com,
which replaces both www.ptct.com and The Conductor e-newsletter.
One of our biggest immediate goals is to improve
communication with our existing customers, so we can get
updated information into their hands in a more real-time
manner. I want customers to know how important we feel Home
Care will become in the years ahead. And we also want their feedback on how we can best serve their needs.
How
do you see the addition of Home Care applications—and
the company's "Care Without Walls"
initiative—affecting current MEDITECH (acute care)
customers?
HODA: One thing we hope for is that all
of our customers—both current and future—will begin
to move beyond viewing Home Care, Hospice, and Telehealth as
secondary concerns, or merely "other things to consider,"
when establishing their strategic I.T. plans. I do believe
that, in the very near-term, more health care decision makers
will begin to automatically include these areas in their
approach to information systems, just as naturally as they
would include the Laboratory and Pharmacy departments.
MEDITECH
systems have always been known for their integration. How
well does Home Care integrate with the acute care HCIS?
HODA: Currently,
our HCIS is receiving vital signs, visit notes, care plan
notes, 485s, and financial transactions from our Home Care
applications. I'm also very happy to say that the new version
also shares allergy and medication information, which lays
the foundation for true medication reconciliation.
Will
your Home Care product be able to demonstrate Meaningful Use
of I.T., as defined by the Department of Health and Human
Services?
HODA: While the
Meaningful Use Criteria for 2011, 2013, and 2015 are of
course still being finalized by HHS, it is clear that our
Home Care products will offer benefits in demonstrating these
requirements. The biggest specific area is probably "reconciling
medications at each care stage," which I described above.
In addition, the 2013 requirements specifically reference
"patients have access to self-management tools," an
"implemented ability to incorporate data uploaded from
home monitoring devices," and "access to
comprehensive patient data from all available sources."
BRIAN: I also believe our Telehealth
offering will play a key role in satisfying requirements for
"engaging patients and families."
What
can you tell us about MEDITECH's new organizational structure,
since the merger?
HODA: John
Youngblood will remain in charge of Service for our Home Care
applications, and will report to Janice Burns, MEDITECH
director of service. Janice has been with us for 23 years,
and is currently responsible for the Administrative, Billing/AR,
and Clinical Continuing Care applications, which serve our
Long Term Care and Behavioral Health customers as well as the
General Financials for all customers.
Beth Hellriegel will remain in charge of Implementation for
our Home Care applications, and will report to Cathy Turner,
MEDITECH Director of Implementation. Cathy has been with us
for 18 years, and is currently responsible for our Nursing,
Order Entry, and EMR products. Many of you likely know Cathy
from her work as director of our Nurse Informatics Program
and leader of our Nurse Web
Portal.
BRIAN: Steve Miller will also remain in a
leadership role as part of MEDITECH's Development team,
reporting to Bob Gale, senior vice president of product
development. I'll continue reporting to Stu Lefthes, vice
president of sales for MEDITECH, and I will continue to work
closely with Hoda to expand our market.
Will
former "PtCT" staff still continue to work out of
Atlanta?
BRIAN: Yes, and
we're pretty excited about the fact that our Atlanta facility
will be "MEDITECH-ized" in the year
ahead—including exteriors, interiors, networks, and
infrastructure!
HODA: The facility will be known
internally as "MEDITECH Atlanta," in the same
manner we currently refer to "MEDITECH Canton," and
so forth. Its building and infrastructure work will be done
by the same wonderful staff who worked on our award-winning
Massachusetts buildings in recent years.
Finally,
could you tell us what's in store for the future of Home Care
and MEDITECH in general?
HODA: Big
things! The MEDITECH HCIS already collects and shares more
information about chronic diseases than any other system. But
down the road, we are positioned to go even further, to use
technology as part of a groundbreaking new model where we are
actually facilitating the coordination of care for the
prevention and treatment of chronic diseases. That's where I
see us heading.
BRIAN: It's easy to see the critical role
home care will play in the future, not only of health care I.T.,
but care delivery itself. I'm excited about the potential for
an HCIS which incorporates Home Health, Hospice, and
Telehealth applications, and I believe our customers will be
drawn to these offerings—not only for the clinical
benefits, but for the strong business case I can make for our
integrated solution. As the population continues to age, the
combination of greater consumer demand and lower cost will
likely propel home care to the forefront of our industry.
MEDITECH
Medical
Information Technology, Inc.
MEDITECH Circle
Westwood, MA 02090
781-821-3000
www.meditech.com