Healthcare IT News - May 2008 - (Page 8)

8 Healthcare IT News MY TWO CENTS ■ May 2008 www.HealthcareITNews.com Break down data silos to stop infection deaths T HE RECENT REPORT from the Government Accountability Office that blasts the Department of Health and Human Services for lack of leadership in preventing hospital-acquired infections comes as a surprise. Part of the problem outlined in the 54page report has to do with how HHS agencies collect data on the infections. There are four separate programs for collecting the information, and each collects data on a specific type of infection. Each set is funneled to its own separate database – a silo. This renders the data practically useless. The GAO suggested the obvious: Link the databases. “Although officials from the various HHS agencies discuss HAI (healthcare acquired infection) data collection with each other, we did not find that the agencies were taking steps to integrate any of the existing data by creating linkages across the databases, such as creating common patient identifiers,” states the GAO report. “Creating linkages across the HAI-related databases could enhance the availability of information to better understand where and how HAIs occur.” In a letter to the GAO, federal officials noted that HHS said they are improving data collection and sharing. Perhaps the GAO findings should not have come as a surprise. HHS is not the first government agency to come up short on the information technology front. Just the other day Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte, former director of national intelligence, was on TV discussing the government’s lack of integrated information regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which led the United States to war. Things are better now, he said. We hope so. The death toll in Iraq so far is 4,052 Americans. Some reports show between 4,900 and 6,375 Iraqi military deaths and between 82,987 and 90,521 civilian Iraqi deaths. In hospitals, bad information or lack of information can be deadly, too. More than 99,000 people die of hospital-acquired infections each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What surprises us about the situation with the HHS data as described by the GAO is that HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt – a strong advocate for healthcare information technology Bernie Monegain, Editor –would tolerate siloed information in his own backyard. It seems like a case of the cobbler’s son going without shoes. Leavitt has been a strong voice for national standards and for interoperability – for data exchange – throughout his tenure at HHS. We can only assume that he and his team are already at work putting the needed links together to make the infection data meaningful. Leavitt was traveling in East Asia when the GAO report was released at a hearing of the House’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on April 16. “We will make every effort to move forward with the recommendations as proposed by GAO,” Don Wright, deputy assistant secretary at HHS, said at the hearing. We wish Secretary Leavitt had been there. Perhaps he would have shed some light on what he plans to do – or what work might already be under way – to link HHS data. Whatever might be in the works needs to be done quickly. People are dying everyday – as if they were in a war zone. We know it’s not all about data. GAO recommendations also include ensuring that staff members wash their hands and hospitals use antibacterial-coated medical devices and properly ventilate operating rooms. Still, as Secretary Leavitt himself would say, the right data at the right time is critical. Starting this fall, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which falls under the umbrella of HHS, won’t pay hospitals more to treat patients who developed infections at the facilities. That makes sense. But what about HHS’ responsibility to make the right data available to hospitals? In his opening remarks at the April 16 committee hearing, Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) called for HHS leadership on this front. “The failure of HHS leadership is MoNEgaIN see page 9 www.HealthcareITNews.com Published in partnership with 71 Pineland Drive, Suite 203 New Gloucester, ME 04260 T (207) 688-6270 F (207) 688-6273 Neil Rouda neil.rouda@medtechpublishing.com MedTech Publishing Company PUBLISHER EDITORIAL Jack Beaudoin, Editorial Director jack.beaudoin@medtechpublishing.com Patty Enrado, Contributing Editor patty.enrado@medtechpublishing.com Diana Manos, Senior Editor diana.manos@medtechpublishing.com Molly Merrill, Associate Editor molly.merrill@medtechpublishing.com Bernie Monegain, Editor bernie.monegain@medtechpublishing.com Richard Pizzi, Associate Editor richard.pizzi@medtechpublishing.com Eric Wicklund, Managing Editor eric.wicklund@medtechpublishing.com Nancy Vitucci, nvitucci@himss.org For advertising contacts, see page 85 or visit http://www.healthcareitnews.com/ page.cms?pageId=3 Karen Diekmann, Production Manager karen.diekmann@medtechpublishing.com EDITOR, HIMSS INSIDER EDITORIAL STAFF ADVERTISING PRODUCTION MARKETING Danielle Hartley, Director, Marketing danielle.hartley@medtechpublishing.com Nicole Carter, Manager, Audience Development nicole.carter@medtechpublishing.com Jenna Perez, Coordinator, Marketing/Circulation jenna.perez@medtechpublishing.com READER SERVICES T (978) 671-0449 Email: cs-hitn@e-circ.net F (978)671-0460 Online: www.myHITN.com P.O. Box 9369, Lowell, MA 01853 The YGS Group T (717) 399-1900, ext. 139 HITN@theygsgroup.com John Glaser, vice president, CIO, Partners HealthCare, Boston Denni McColm, CIO, Citizens Memorial Healthcare, Bolivar, Mo. Jane Olds, COO, Louisiana Health Network, New Orleans Wes Rishel, vice president, Gartner, Inc. William Spooner, senior vice president, CIO, Sharp Healthcare, San Diego Paul Tang, vice president, CMIO, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, California Steven Waldren, director, Center for Health IT, American Academy of Family Physicians REPRINTS CUSTOMER SERVICE EDITORIAL BOARD March was month for celebrating e-prescribing That said, the ongoing success of any ongratulatIons on your March issue. For supporters of e-prescrib- technology depends upon continuous innoing, the month was truly a cause for vation and improvement. E-prescribing is no different. celebration. Ensuring the quality of e-prescribing The news from Washington (“Five top physician organizations launch push for e- and the overall prescribing process is a prescribing”), Massachusetts “The ongoing success shared responsibility. Technology ven(“Massachusetts No. 1 in e-preof any technology dors, physician pracscribing”) and Michigan (“Survey shows e-prescribing wins con- depends upon continuous tices, pharmacies and SureScripts, operaverts”) reflects the unprecinnovation and tor of the Pharmacy edented momentum behind improvement.” Health Information e-prescriptions and the nation’s Exchange, each play their part by adhering progress towards paperless prescribing. At the same time, some of the comments to industry standards and best practices in a fourth article from Ohio (“E-prescribing that seek to continuously improve the qualerrors raise worries”) assert that this is not ity and integrity of the e-prescribing process overall. yet time to declare victory. SureScripts has, from its inception, mainToday’s e-prescribing infrastructure supports a more accurate, effective and rapid tained a vigorous support operation. It has transmission of prescription and other served as the source of dozens of improvehealth-related information between pre- ments to industry standards and the basis for a growing compendium of e-prescribing scribers, pharmacies and payers. best practices. This said, we all must commit ourselves to making the process even better. In this spirit of continuous quality improvement, SureScripts will soon launch a portal designed to solicit more information more directly from pharmacists (and soon thereafter, physicians) around the country, around the clock. By widening our lens, we hope to create the opportunity for greater and more timely feedback; the kind of detailed feedback that, recent experience affirms, can only come directly from end users. Stay tuned for more details. Thank you and keep up the great work! your thoughtful coverage of the industry is as essential as any of the players in it. Best Regards, Ken Whittemore, R.Ph., MBA Senior Vice President Clinical Practice Integration SureScripts lETTErS see page 9 Neil Rouda Jack Beaudoin, John D. Payne Neil Rouda VICE PRESIDENTS PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENTS PRESIDENT Jack Beaudoin John D. Payne 2005 JESSE NEAL AWARD WINNER http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/page.cms?pageid=3 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/page.cms?pageid=3 http://www.myHITN.com

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Healthcare IT News - May 2008 Contents Help Wanted Speeding Up Government Silos Privacy Pressures Tracking Disease Rah Rah Health! TriZetto Suit Outcomes Watch Ambulatory EHRs

Healthcare IT News - May 2008

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