Healthcare IT News - June 2008 - (Page 18)

18 Healthcare IT News ■ June 2008 phySICIaN pRaCtICES & amBUlatoRy CaRE were surprised to see that their quality measures were not as good as they had hoped. The providers have since implemented protocols to improve the quality of care, and I’d say about 85 percent of them are overwhelmingly enthusiastic about the project.” Watson’s office provides CDEMS training and technical assistance to the participating providers. Many of them are in small, rural physician practices. Watson estimates the cost of the program at about $10,000 per organization the first year, dropping to around $5,000 each succeeding year. In addition to the federal grants, the Kansas Office of Local and Rural Health provided some additional funds to help providers cover the staffing costs associated with the program. “Some of the smaller clinics were concerned about the workload associated with the data reporting,” said Chris Tilden, director of the Office of Local and Rural Health. He noted, however, that the Webbased query system allows provid- www.HealthcareITNews.com ers to report patient data with relative ease. Jennifer Brull, MD, a solo family practice physician in Plainville, Kan., agreed that staff time would be the greatest cost to small practices if funding for the registry disappeared. Still, she suspects that she would continue to monitor and report the data even if she had to pay for it herself, as the program has delivered real benefits to her patients. “Reporting patient data has made a big difference in my care of diabetics because it allows us to see what kind of progress we’ve made over time,” Brull said. “We can create reports for individual patients, print lists of patients who need things like foot exams or their cholesterol checked. It’s been a real eye-opening experience because you begin to notice the little things that often get overlooked in a 15minute office visit.” The long-term goal of the project remains the construction of a truly statewide registry, Watson said, although in the coming years her office will focus on adding more providers to the project, particularly in Kansas counties that are currently unrepresented. For many of these providers, a project like a diabetes registry is their initial exposure to the benefits of healthcare IT tools. “Some of our providers have decided to move on to electronic medical records,” said Watson. “Many of them have really turned the corner on IT and realized that it can work for them.” ■ More at kaNsas Continued from page 17 Rosie Sowles, LPN, of Prairie Star Family Practice in Plainville, Kan., enters patient data into the online CDEMS system. Prevention and Control Program developed the system in 2002. An electronic registry designed to assist medical providers in tracking the care of patients with chronic health conditions, CDEMS is a Microsoft Access database application. “We currently have about 45 organizations that are implementing this project at 80 different sites,” Watson said. “When providers first began tracking their patients, they Integrated Document Workflow I N TEG R ATED Streamline Health document management solutions integrate across the enterprise D O CU M E N T HealthcareITNews.com e ●Connect: KaNSaS 0608 does your state or region maintain a diabetes registry? Has it influenced the care of your patients? e-mail your comments to associate editor Richard Pizzi at richard.pizzi@medtechpublishing.com. to ensure access to all patient information and improve clinical and operational efﬁciencies. aCP Continued from page 17 WORKFLO W Join Streamline Health in booth 1543 at HFMA ANI conference in Las Vegas. Win a Wii™, visit: www.streamlinehealth.net/ hfma.shtml patients. ACP claims the challenges for implementing e-health activities effectively lie in the adoption of universal technical standards for the exchange of electronic health information, and in a more fundamental concern of economic support for healthcare information technology. “Payment policy reforms are necessary to appropriately compensate physicians for their investment in and implementation of e-health services,” said Joel S. Levine, MD, chairman of the ACP Board of Regents. ACP representatives said confidentiality, privacy, and standardization are needed to create a trusted nationwide health information network, because providers and individuals will be reluctant to adopt e-health activities unless they are confident that systems are secure and accurate. ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e ●Connect: aCP 0608 e ● Connect: StreaMlINe 0608 www.HealthcareITNews.com HealthcareITNews.com www.streamlinehealth.net/ HealthcareITNews.com

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Healthcare IT News - June 2008

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