Healthcare IT News - June 2008 - (Page 10)

10 Healthcare IT News ■ June 2008 systems and the need to make the radical change in processes to take advantage of technology. Grants and loans may ease the pain of the initial cost of implementation, but unfortunately they do not pay for what eHrs do best. eHrs make it possible to collect and display information needed to assess and treat patients from all settings of care. the advantage of coordinated, accessible data is obvious to most physicians. Unfortunately no one pays the physician to coordinate the care of patients to ensure better outcomes. as long www.HealthcareITNews.com cial disconnection, through such mechanisms as global payments to hospital/physician consortiums and other measures. Until these discrepancies are resolved at the national level, states may be expected to continue to experiment with ways to encourage adoption of It at the practitioner level. ■ MorE at healthcareITnews.com e connect: DUKE 0608 duke Continued from page 9 space, staff workﬂow efficiency, transcription, and paper handling. they have also documented benefits in improved quality and safety of care from the use and re-use of the medical data collected such as the ability to utilize preventative reminders or analyze chronic care conditions for improved outcomes. these benefits, though persuasive, may not be enough to remove the barrier created by the cost of the as our reimbursement is on an incident rather than episodic basis, the drivers to collect the necessary information from the various settings of care with data related to the patient’s problems may not be there. It may even be a disincentive because payment is enhanced by documenting the delivery of more care and more complex procedures rather than providing less care for a particular visit. the federal government and insurance companies are experimenting with payment alternatives that may address this finan- she founded health care Information consultants (hcIc) to assist organizations in healthcare information technology planning and management. James oakes’ career spans 30 years in healthcare information systems and management engineering, with extensive experience as an operating manager, as a vendor executive, and as a consultant. he specializes in helping healthcare providers plan and optimize their use of information resources, systems, and technology to improve clinical, operational, and ﬁnancial outcomes. ● Joan r. duke, FhImss, has been involved for more than 30 years in all aspects of healthcare information systems. LAN of the Free. Introducing the new Welch Allyn Spot Vital Signs LXi with wireless technology. ® Now you can have the freedom you deserve—the new wireless Spot Vital Signs LXi integrates with your existing hospital infrastructure. Using Welch Allyn Connex™ Data Management System, the Spot Vital Signs LXi will wirelessly send vitals data to a range of EMRs. You choose the technology and we’ll provide the workflow that’s best suited for your hospital and your nurses, letting them wirelessly capture and document patient vitals from the bedside with no extra steps. And that’s liberating for everyone. For more information, please call 1.800.289.2500. www.welchallyn.com brIa Continued from page 9 What does your standard workweek at Shriners look like? We are heavily invested in both the tactical and strategic aspects of It. We have one electronic health record in the Shriners system. all 22 hospitals are served from a central facility in tampa, Fla. the issues that I address regularly are downtime, disaster recovery, reporting to and alerting physicians, the creation of structured order sets, best practices. another major thing we’re involved with is business or clinical intelligence, e.g., mining a clinical warehouse. the Shriners system is a selffunded charity organization. they fund both the clinical care enterprise and research. We are busily working on the information infrastructure for research and incorporating that research knowledge into clinical practice. You were a founder of AMDIS. Why the need for it? rich rydell and I wrote three books on the physician-computer connection. We have maintained a very strong advocacy for clinician involvement in healthcare It, and in trying to promote the integration of clinical workﬂow needs and intelligence into the operation of It systems. this year also marks the 17th annual meeting of the Physiciancomputer connection Symposium (July 15-18, 2008 in ojai, calif.). I’m currently chair of the amDIS-HImSS physician community. We’re creating podcasts, an It survival guide for physicians, and we organize the Sunday symposium prior to HImSS. We’re also meeting with aHrQ and the Institute of medicine regarding the translation of care guidelines into machine-readable form. We want to go beyond physician acceptance of It to really demonstrating the value of these systems. Healthcare It systems should be putting the best information and guidelines in front of the physician at the point of care. We must have higher expectations for incorporating medical information into these systems. Healthcare It systems must include clinical decision support at their core, because that’s where you inﬂuence patient safety. ■ MorE at healthcareITnews.com e connect: BrIa 0608 Advancing Frontline Care™ e ● connect: WELCHaLLYN 0608 ©2007 Welch Allyn MC4788 ● www.HealthcareITNews.com healthcareITnews.com healthcareITnews.com www.welchallyn.com

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Healthcare IT News - June 2008

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