Healthcare IT News - February 2009 - (Page 10) 10 Healthcare IT News February 2009 ■ www.HealthcareITNews.com NEWSBRIEFS CaRE maNagEmENt It RollS out IN oklahoma hoSpItalS INTEGRIS Health will extend its deployment of Allscripts Care Management, implemented in two hospitals in 2006, to all 13 of its Oklahoma facilities. INTEGRIS’ goals are to streamline patient movement throughout the hospitals, improve reimbursement and enhance continuity of care across the healthcare network, said INTEGRIS Vice President Greg Meyers. He said INTEGRIS would also add discharge planning to make it possible for case managers to connect electronically with nursing homes and home care agencies. HHS starts infection patrol By BerNIe MoNegAIN, Editor WASHINGTON – The Department of Health and Human Services has unveiled a plan that includes healthcare information technology as a critical piece in preventing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The plan establishes a set of five-year national prevention targets to reduce and possibly eliminate HAIs, acquired by patients while undergoing medi- ing and sharing data cal treatment or surthE NEWS: ➔ surrounding HAIs. gical procedures. Healthcare-acquired “This plan will The HHS plan lists infections still rampant. serve as our roadmap a number of areas in What It mEaNS: on how the departwhich HAIs can be ➔ Thousands of deaths ment addresses this prevented and outand $20B in costs important public lines cross-agency annually. health and patient efforts to save lives safety issue,” HHS and reduce healthcare costs through expanded Secretary Mike Leavitt said. “This collaborative interagenprevention efforts. Much of the IT component of cy plan will help the nation the HHS plan focuses on harness- build a safer, more affordable Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, bacteria magnified on a CDC slide. healthcare system.” Some hospitals across the INfeCTIoN see page 12 INdIaNa hoSpItal BEgINS poRtal pRojECt Marion General Hospital in Marion, Ind. will develop and roll out enterprise-wide interoperable portals for physicians, patients, employees and consumers over the next two years. Hospital executives selected Birmingham, Ala.-based MEDSEEK for the work. The portals will enable MGH to streamline physician access to data, share data among portals, accelerate clinical and administrative efficiencies across its enterprise and strengthen ties with key constituents. Obama’s IT plan misses ‘big link’ IT without interoperability like cars without roads, industry insiders warn. By Molly MerrIll, Associate Editor ALPHARETTA, GA – Some experts are saying President Obama’s pledge of $50 billion towards the adoption of healthcare information technology overlooks a crucial piece of the EMR picture – the ability “just by virtue to exchange clinical information between of having an EmR hospitals and pracin every hospital tices by connecting the physician EMR isn’t going to reduce costs and system with hospital IT systems. lead to better “An EMR is like a outcomes.” car without roads it doesn’t have the same – Ryan Smith function,” says Robert Connely, CEO of Novo Innovations, Inc. “You have to build highways before you mass produce cars.” In Connely’s view, the country is not done building the roads yet, so it does not have an integrated system. Many parts are tied together, he says, but now the dots have to be connected. Voice tech saves $$$$ for hospitals By BerNIe MoNegAIN, Editor WaShINgtoN StatE hoSpItal CoNNECtS to INFo NEtWoRk Eastern Washington State Hospital recently connected to the health information network operated by Inland Northwest Health Services. The connection creates an electronic patient record that is transportable among facilities. Tom Fritz, chief executive officer of the health information network, said connecting with the hospital “further connects the community in a way that allows for enhanced communications and improves healthcare provider access to critical patient data.” Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City has been able to expand its information systems offerings without burdening its IT staffs. IllINoIS hEalth SyStEm INkS RFId CoNtRaCt The University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC), an alliance of 103 academic medical centers and 191 of their affiliated hospitals, has signed a three-year agreement extending radio frequency identification to all its members in the United States. UHC has contracted with Redwood City, Calif.based AeroScout, Inc., which uses standard Wi-Fi and other wireless networking standards to track the real-time location of equipment and people. AeroScout is one of two suppliers for asset tracking systems and equipment. Ekahau based in Reston, Va., is the other supplier. More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: HoSPItaLS 0209 “They have to be connected first or there is no value,” Connely maintains. Carol Gacioch, a nurse at McCain Correctional Hospital in North Carolina, says, “Each region oBAMA see page 11 In this harsh economic climate, two Boston hospitals continue to reap millions in savings from voice recognition technology. At Beth Israel Deaconess Me d i c a l C e n t e r, C I O Jo h n Ha l a m k a , M D says 1,000 physicians use the dictation system that was first deployed in 2002. The eScription software is now John Halamka, part of Nuance MD Communications’ product suite. By making the patient documentation process easier for physicians, Beth Israel achieved a cost savings of $1.5 million in 2008, Halamka said. Since rolling out the technology, he figures the savings amounted to more than $5 million. Also, Beth Israel physicians SpeeCH see page 11 BOSTON – Partners to roll out new clinical IT HeAlTHCAre IT NewS Staff Top five IT applications 2008 Clinical information systems Computer practitioner order entry Electronic medical record Enterprisewide clinical information sharing Closed-loop medication management l – Partners HealthCare will roll out new acute care and preoperative clinical technology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Pa r t n e r s will deploy Needham, Mass.-based iMDsoft’s MetaVision at both hospitals in all critical care and general care in-patient beds. The BOSTON system will also be used to document all pre-op, operating room and acute care at the hospitals and their respective ambulatory surgery centers. Partners, a teaching affiliateof Harvard Medical School, will be the first U.S. hospital system to implement MetaVision hospitalwide. ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: PartNerS 0209 45% 42% 31% 30% 30% SOURCE: 19TH ANNUAl HIMSS lEADERSHIP SURVEy, SPONSORED By CISCO l e l Connect: GraPHS 0209 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/partners-roll-out-new-clinical-it
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.