Healthcare IT News - March 2009 - (Page 18) 18 Healthcare IT News ■ March 2009 PHYSICIAN PRACTICES & AMBULATORY CARE The two-office, nine- physician practice of Greenfield Health in Portland, Ore. is applying information technology and e-mail between patients and doctors in ways that help clinicians better focus on patient needs. www.HealthcareITNews.com OREGON Continued from page 17 “It’s similar to what happens when somebody comes into your home,” she said. “It’s a lot less clinical. We tend to ‘over-medicalize’ the experience” of visiting a doctor’s office. Beyond the makeup of the physician’s office, Arena said Greenfield Health makes every effort to involve the patient in all aspects of his or her healthcare. The practice has hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in information technology services that connect physicians with patients through electronic medical records, e-mail and phone systems and other services. Among the vendors involved in the 22 “moving parts” of the practice’s IT system are GE Healthcare (whose Centricity platform is used) and Kryptiq, which is based in nearby Hillsboro and has been associated with the practice since its inception. ■ MORE AT HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: OREGON 0309 PRESCRIBE Continued from page 1 ● LAN of the Free. By implementing Welch Allyn FlexNet technology, your facility will enjoy: enterprise applications (supports 802.11e, 802.11i, 802.11h, 802.1x) ® Introducing the new Welch Allyn FlexNet™ for 802.11a life-critical wireless networks. What today’s healthcare IT professionals demand—superior security, scalability and performance—is now available from Welch Allyn. Revolutionary Welch Allyn FlexNet™ technology allows you to operate realtime patient monitoring on your shared 802.11a/b/g network along with your other hospital applications. without a person ever having to handle it. Fournier works closely with MASHARE, a regional collaborative initiative operated by the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium. She is the project manager of MA-SHARE’s e-Prescribing Gateway project that seeks to improve the speed of adoption, accuracy and value of e-prescribing applications. Fournier says the project has made it possible for 2,000 physicians to use e-prescribing. “We are living proof that it is possible to do this (e-prescribing) safely and at scale,” Fournier says. Walt Zywiak, principle researcher in Emerging Practices, CSC’s Global Healthcare Sector, and Melissa Harmon, research analyst, in Emerging Practices, say the major distinction between the two systems is that EHRs build e-prescribing into the visit and include access to complete patient records. Standalones just provide e-prescribing functions. Zywiak and Harmon say standalone systems can be easier to purchase and implement. “Whether providers are going to have to throw away money that they will not be able to recoup,” is really the issue, says Zywiak. “A standalone system may be less expensive this year, but it could be more expensive to use the standalone system and then switch to an EHR later,” points out Fournier. “One solution is to consider paying a little more for an e-prescribing solution that can be expanded to more EHR functionality over time,” says Wes Rishel, vice president and analyst at Gartner. “Another is to invest in an EHR, but start out simply doing only the functions for e-prescribing and other really immediate and obvious improvements in their office processes.” But providers have to recognize that the current incentives for e prescribing will ultimately be supplanted with incentives for use of a more extensive EHR, Rishel says. An average standalone system can be as much as $5,000 per year, and EHR software costs about $42,000 and $9,000 a year to maintain, says Zywiak. These costs are just the beginning costs for using a system, and many providers say this is where incentive programs fall short. Fournier says the incentive programs help. “I can’t say enough good things about the pilot and incentive programs,” says Fournier. “They have put to rest some of the fears people have about e-prescribing.” She says because the formats have all been tested extensively it gives people confidence that their prescriptions can be transferred safely. “The pilots are making people sit up and take notice,” she says. ■ MORE AT HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: PRESCRIBE 0309 For more information on Welch Allyn FlexNet Technology, contact your local Welch Allyn representative or call customer service at 1.866.892.8361. www.welchallyn.com © 2009 Welch Allyn MC5953 ● http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/patients-top-priority-oregon-clinic http://www.welchallyn.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/e%E2%80%99-e-prescribing-still-gives-docs-pause http://www.welchallyn.com
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