Healthcare IT News - March 2009 - (Page 10) 10 Healthcare IT News ■ March 2009 www.HealthcareITNews.com our frontline caregivers with an evidence-based management approach to creating a smarter, safer and patient-centered healthcare environment. Consider this unacceptable barrier to effective, patient-centered care. In our “wired, on-demand” world, nurses on a typical shift can spend up to 20 percent of their time “hunting and gathering” to: • Track down patients for emere must support w excerpts from an open letter to the obama health team gency or time-sensitive interventions; • Find essential equipment for a procedure; and • Chase specialists to assure the proper course of care. Across hospitals right now, we have an opportunity to reduce much waste and risk simply by being able to find my patient, my colleagues and medical devices the instant I need them. The technology that enables this visibility is a healthcare real-time location system entire Obama Health Team (RTLS) – a simple, economito be open to the vast array of cal and profoundly powerful innovative solutions, includway to solve so many day-toing real-time location that day problems that impede can bring immediate, hospicare delivery and skyrocket tal-wide value for minimal costs. investment. ■ manuel Lowenhaupt, mD More at HealthcareITNews.com As a physician who's spent e ●Connect: LoweNHaupt 0309 more than three decades working to improve healthcare, I certainly Manuel lowenhaupt, Md, is president, understand that there are many big CeO and chairman of the board of problems to fix. We urge you and the radianse, Inc. busH Continued from page 9 of automation and process control to a medical group’s interaction with patients that athenaCollector and athenaClinicals have done for the billing and clinical office workflow. What do you wish you had done differently between the founding of athenahealth in 1997 and now? I don’t know if there is a specific thing, as the original concept Todd Park and I had in mind is quite different than what athenahealth is today. We originally looked to own and operate birthing centers and soon encountered the byzantine rules and process breakdowns in healthcare that prevented us from getting paid and effectively operating our offices. It was then we created athenaNet and began our journey to help bring process integrity to the delivery and payment of medical care. Is the $20B-plus designated for healthcare IT in the government’s economic stimulus package the right amount at the right time? In terms of the right amount, I really can’t say. However, what looks very promising is that the Obama Administration and Congress allocated the vast majority of the Healthcare IT funding in the form of incentives or pay-for-data programs. It is clear with recent industry numbers indicating only 4 percent of U.S. doctors are using a fully-functional EHR that the traditional systems being sold for the past decade or so have not worked. HCIT vendors will now have to make a shift from just selling tools to a doctor to actually helping her utilize a clinical system in order to participate in whatever incentive-based program is rolled out. I think this will be a market changing event as some legacy software vendors will have to experience a painful tradition in order to do so. Obviously, athenahealth is unique in our ability to keep our network current daily with clinical, billing and other various privacy and interoperability standards – that is part of our service. What are you reading? The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – It’s an intense and beautiful book that I hope my kids are given in English 101 in college some day. More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: BusH 0309 I use it every day. Select from more than 25 accelerated bachelor’s degrees and 17 master’s degrees online including these for healthcare professionals: Healthcare Management, Management of Health Informatics, and Long-Term Care Administration The Nation’s Largest Master’s of Healthcare Administration Degree Program* Of all the tools I use to make a difference in healthcare today, the one I use the most is what I learned through Bellevue University. My degree gave me the knowledge and confidence to take the lead in my facility, making a difference every day. Call 800-756-7920 to enroll today. e Ask about th Science in Bachelor of t of Health Managemen cs Informati Real Learning for Real Life www.bellevue.edu/info/healthcareIT Accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools • www.ncahigherlearningcommission.org • 800-621-7440 • The Bellevue University College of Business degree programs also are accredited by the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE). Bellevue University is a member of AACSB International - the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business • www.aacsb.edu/about • Bellevue University does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or disability in the educational programs and activities it operates. * Compared to programs ranked in the April 7, 2008 issue of Modern Healthcare magazine. ● http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/excerpts-open-letter-obama-health-team http://www.bellevue.edu/info/healthcareIT http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.bellevue.edu/info/healthcareIT http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/newsmaker-interview-jonathan-bush http://www.ncahigherlearningcommission.org http://www.aacsb.edu/about
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