Edition Thirty (10/14/09)

Hospitals Lagging in I.T. to Meet Meaningful Use
Government Health IT, 10/8/09
Most hospital and physician offices have their work cut out for them to meet the meaningful use requirements, according to a new study from HIMSS Analytics—and they will only do so by carefully architecting I.T. solutions to capture and manage data in a way which is intuitive for clinicians.

The Stimulus Bill: Planning and Perspective
H&HN, October 2009
Most health care leaders are aware $19 billion of federal funds are being directed to advance the adoption and effective use of interoperable EHRs. As health care leaders head up the learning curve and endure a period of hype, anxiety, hope, salivation, and confusion, they should individually and collectively be thoughtful about the implications of the bill.

CCHIT Opens Modular Certification Program
Government Health IT, 10/7/09
CCHIT announced vendors and developers can start applying for its new “modular” certification programs which focus on meeting meaningful use requirements. Through the certification program, called Preliminary ARRA 2011, vendors can apply for certification for EHR system modules, such as e-Prescribing or electronic patient registries.

Blumenthal Stresses Need for Training
Health Data Management, 10/7/09
David Blumenthal says his office will announce what he calls a "workforce training initiative” to educate more HIT management professionals with expertise in EHRs. Linda Kloss, CEO of AHIMA, stressed the task of training 50,000 more professionals should primarily be handled by the existing 270 health information management academic programs.

ONC Releases Patient Data ‘Preferences' Draft
Modern Healthcare, subscription required 10/7/09
ONCHIT has released for public comment a draft document intended to ultimately guide and perhaps even control health care organizations in how patients' can express their “preferences” on the use of their medical records and health care data. The so-called Consumer Preferences Draft Requirements Document is equivalent to what was called a “use case” during the Bush administration.

HITS@AHIMA: Speaker Urges Groups to Create Legal EHR Committee
Modern Healthcare, subscription required 10/6/09
Producing one completed and defensible legal medical record from a hybrid of paper and electronic record-keeping systems has been a challenge for health care organizations. What a clinician might see in daily practice using an EHR as a record-creating and -retrieval device most likely will not be the record system they'll need to reference, review, and defend in court, should a legal issue arise.

CCHIT to Certify Home-Grown EHRs
Health Data Management, 10/6/09
Health care organizations which developed their own EHR systems likely will be able to get them certified as being compliant with the meaningful use requirements of the federal EHR incentive program next year. CCHIT plans to develop a "site certification" program for hospitals and physician groups, which use self-developed EHRs or a mix of commercial and proprietary applications.

Three Barriers to Effectively Using Information Stored in EHRs
Health Leaders, 10/6/09
The health care industry won't realize the full value of its investment in EHRs until it finds secondary uses for all of the data being captured, such as predicting public health trends and improving patient care, according a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers.. Very few health care organizations are building systems and care delivery processes to effectively use the billions of gigabytes of data being collected.

HHS: Everyone can Opt Out of Government-Mandated Electronic Health Records System
CNS News, 10/5/09
The $787 billion ARRA bill calls for the utilization of an EHR for each person in the United States by 2014, but individual Americans can opt to never have an EHR entered in the system, according to Dr. David Blumenthal, who is overseeing the development of the system as HHS's national coordinator for HIT.

Improving Health Care through Electronic Health Records
Health News Digest, 10/5/09
For several decades, the health care industry has debated the advantages of exploiting information, and how the introduction of technology can help or hinder patient care. Today, it is recognized through growing evidence, technology can play a major role in improving patient care and reducing costs of delivery. Yet the health care industry significantly lags behind other industries in adopting I.T.   

Health I.T. Improves Diabetic Care in HHS Study
Fierce Health IT, 10/5/09
HHS is touting the power of health I.T. to improve population health by coordinating care in rural communities for those with chronic diseases, based on the track record of the Columbia Basin Health Association in central Washington State. The health center saw the percentage of diabetic patients getting foot exams soar from 31 percent to 86 percent in the first half of 2008, thanks to an EHR system, which monitored compliance with recommended treatment protocols.

AHIMA Introduces a Bill of Rights
Health Data Management, 10/5/09
AHIMA has unveiled a Health Information Bill of Rights, a set of seven principles for protecting health care consumers. The association will make a wall poster of the rights available for downloading and displaying in waiting areas, and a certification, which an organization pledges to upload the seven principles.

Work Begins on National e-Health Record Network
Post-Tribune, 10/3/09
Doctor's offices and hospitals have slowly started the difficult switch from outmoded paper records to sophisticated electronic systems in a bid to improve care and cut costs. The industry still has to figure out how to ensure the records don't get locked into just one health care provider's computer network and can instead follow patients as they move around.

How to Submit Notice of a Patient Information Breach
HealthLeaders, 10/2/09
HHS posted instructions for submitting a privacy or security breach of protected health information (PHI) to the secretary of HHS. The instructions come after HHS released final guidance on breach notification and the acceptable conditions for covered entities and business associates to encrypt and destroy patient records in order to prevent breaches of PHI.

Blumenthal Says Expect Certified EHR Criteria in Coming Weeks
Government Health IT, 10/2/09
Dr. David Blumenthal said his office will explain in the coming weeks how it will define a certified EHR, which providers must purchase in order to qualify for new federal health I.T. incentive payments. While awaiting the CMS rule, he urged providers to become as familiar as possible with the discussion of meaningful use criteria in the recommendations of the Health I.T. Policy and Standards committees.

New Regulations Spike EHR Demand
Examiner, 10/1/09
New regulation throughout the industry has spiked the demand for EHR implementation. The need to connect payors, hospitals, clinics, radiology, and pharmacy has aided in stepping up the efforts to coordinate a regional health care network.

Health Care I.T. Chief Takes on Meaning of 'Meaningful'
Healthcare IT News, 10/1/09
In an open letter, David Blumenthal discusses what the government means when it refers to the meaningful use of EHRs. The term "meaningful use" has been the subject of much discussion since the federal government tied it into eligibility for incentive payments aimed at promoting the uptake of HIT.

HHS Touts Health I.T. Use at Rural Health Center
Government Health IT, 10/1/09
HHS described in a report how a rural community health center in central Washington used its EHR system to improve health care quality, patient safety, and coordination of care for its growing population of individuals with diabetes. The experience of the Columbia Basin Health Association (CBHA) in Othello, Wash., demonstrates how HIT can improve health care for rural communities.

Work Begins on National e-Health Record Network
Associated Press, 9/30/09
The EMR system at the Department of Veterans Affairs' Kansas City Medical Center gives staff almost immediate access to medical histories, allowing them to seamlessly treat veterans from other states. Interoperability, or allowing providers to share records and view them from anywhere, is a requirement for facilities to receive some of the more than $17 billion in stimulus funding.

Secretary Sebelius Releases $27.8 Million in Recovery Act Funds to Expand the Use of Health Information Technology
HHS Press, 9/29/09
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced awards totaling $27.8 million to health center-controlled networks and large multi-site health centers to implement EHRs and other HIT innovations. The funds are part of the $2 billion allotted to HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) under ARRA to expand health care services to low-income and uninsured individuals through its health center program.

Grants Target Public Health Informatics
Health Data Management, 9/29/09
The CDC has awarded a total of $4.37 million in grants to fund four new Centers of Excellence in Public Health Informatics. The centers will be located at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care in Massachusetts, Indiana University, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Utah. Each center will conduct two new projects to support national priorities in informatics and support real-time biosurveillance for potential public health threats.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Hosts Health I.T. Forum
Modern Healthcare, subscription required 9/29/09
Health care representatives met to discuss health information technology issues policymakers face as they try to establish a national I.T. system and increase adoption among providers. Hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, panelists talked about their experiences with investment in I.T. and how it might improve health care.

Patrick Kennedy Proposes Editable Medical Database
Boston Herald, 9/29/09
Abortions or sexually transmitted diseases can be erased from a patient’s record under a proposed national medical database, said U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy. Although he admitted it defeats the purpose of a one-stop electronic system, Kennedy (D-R.I.) said it comes down to a personal decision for a regulation set to kick in by 2014.



In Exeter: Health Care Reform Taking Place Already
Seacoast Online, 10/9/09
The fiery political debate in Washington, D.C. over the parameters and necessity of comprehensive health care reform is being watched closely at Exeter Hospital, a MEDITECH customer. Exeter Hospital officials said they’ve already begun the transformation to a post-reform future, which focuses on a patient-centered infrastructure, including best-evidence practices and outcomes and EMRs.

Study Links Electronic Health Records to Improved Quality in Primary Care Treatment
Science Daily, 10/6/09
Routine use of EHRs may improve the quality of care provided in community-based primary care practices more than other common strategies intended to raise the quality of medical care, according to a new study by RAND Corporation researchers. Studying 305 groups of primary care physicians in Massachusetts, researchers found practices who used multifunctional EHRs were more likely to deliver better care for diabetes and provide certain health screenings than those who did not.  

Slow With the Flow: Hospitals Lag in Joining Health Info Exchanges
Crain's Detroit Business, 10/4/09
The federal government is funding development of electronic HIEs so providers in unrelated health care organizations can easily share information about patients without resorting to phone tag or faxing. Michigan has set up nine organizations to develop HIEs in different regions, and several exchanges also have sprung up independently of state efforts.

Wisconsin Still Working on Health Care Reform
Bay View Compass, 10/1/09
To maximize the usefulness of EMR, providers need to have the ability to share information between hospitals, emergency rooms, and clinical settings outside of a defined network. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services is working on a plan to create a centralized database, the Wisconsin Health Information Exchange, which can be used by health care organizations from around the state to access certain information from a patient’s medical record.

Telehealth Network Connects Clinics to Hospitals
West Virginia State Journal, 10/1/09
A new initiative proposes to link several clinics in the southwestern part of West Virginia with some of the state's largest hospitals through high-speed broadband network connections. It is only the start of a larger effort to get some 300 health care facilities on-line statewide and give patients access to medical services they otherwise might need to travel hundreds of miles to receive.  

Electronic Medical Records Give Early Warning of Domestic Abuse
Boston Globe, 9/29/09
Boston researchers reported a novel use for EMRs—using data in patient records, they say they were able to identify likely victims of domestic abuse an average of two years before a diagnosis was actually made. Based on the patient's history, including injuries and assaults, they determined whether patients met a definition of domestic abuse.

Home Sweet Medical Home
Health Data Management, 9/28/09
The State of New York has awarded nine grants totaling $59.6 million to organizations, which will implement I.T. to support the medical home model of care. Under the model, primary care practices serve as the focal point for patient care coordination. The model advocates extensive use of I.T. to document and coordinate care across all providers and settings.



Perot, MGMA, AMGA Join Forces to Help HIT Extension Centers
Healthcare IT News, 10/9/09
Perot Systems has joined forces with two medical associations to help push EHRs at more than 70 planned Health Information Technology Regional Extension Centers around the country. The American Medical Group Association and the Medical Group Management Association will help the health care I.T. vendor develop EHR-related training and implementation services for the centers.

HITS@AHIMA: Kloss Provides Blumenthal with Group's Long History
Modern Healthcare, subscription required 10/7/09
Linda Kloss' speech at the annual AHIMA convention, titled “HIM Unplugged,” was an introduction to AHIMA for Blumenthal and a history lesson for the still fairly new leader of the federal government's HIT programs, who has been on the job since April. Kloss announced this summer she will be stepping down in March after 15 years as AHIMA's CEO.

Commentary: Standardizing Admin Processes Long Overdue
Modern Healthcare, subscription required 10/5/09
There are many complex dimensions to health system reform but none are more ripe for change than the cumbersome and costly billing and claims processes. According to recent estimates, billing and claims processes cost providers 20% to 22% of privately insured spending, and cost private insurers up to 8% of total spending.

EHR Implementation is a Journey, Not a Destination
HealthLeaders, 9/29/09
A recent report by IDC Health Insights analyzed how two Norwegian hospitals—St. Olavs Hospital in Trondheim and Ahus Hospital in Oslo—successfully adopted digital technologies. The study, "Best practices: Norway's hospital evolution—A tale of two cities," concluded there wasn't a single template for successful health I.T. implementations.

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