Healthcare IT News - July 2008 - (Page 31)

www.HealthcareITNews.com July 2008 ■ Healthcare IT News 31 NEWSBRIEFS CaRdINal HEaltH uNvEIlS Supply pERFoRmaNCE tool Cardinal Health of Dublin, Ohio has announced the availability of the Supply Performance Dashboard, designed to allow hospital officials to view automated medical supply dispensing performance data and make improvements to supply chain efficiency. The Web-based application allows officials to view use data from Pyxis supply technologies installed across the entire hospital or health system and analyze key performance indicators like instock percentage, user compliance, supply spend analysis and inventory accuracy. New Toughbook has healthcare in mind Panasonic’s CF-U1 offers the power of a PC and the portability of a PDA. By ErIC WICkluNd, Managing Editor SECAUCUS, NJ – While rivals Hewlett-Packard tHE NEWS: Panasonic unveils a new UMPC. ➔ WHat It mEaNS: Healthcare providers will have ➔ a new tool for point-of-care service. and Apple are battling to develop the thinnest laptop, Panasonic is taking its Toughbook series in another direction. Company officials recently unveiled the Toughbook CF-U1 ultra mobile PC (UMPC), a book-sized PC designed for mobile business uses, such as those found in healthcare settings. Powered by Intel’s new low-power Atom processor, the CF-U1 is a “middle of the road” device, said Greg Davidson, senior healthcare business development manager for Panasonic Computer Solutions. At 7.2 inches wide, 5.9 inches deep and 2.2 inches wide and weighing 2.3 pounds, it’s designed to be the bridge between the laptop, which isn’t mobile enough for healthcare users, and the PDA, which doesn’t have enough memory or applications. “This is a fully rugged device that meets all the Toughbook standards,” said Davidson. “This runs anything a laptop or desktop can Cf-u1 see page 33 pICIS addS to ItS EuRopEaN maRkEt WItH SpaNISH dEal Picis, a Wakefield, Mass.-based developer of information for high-acuity areas in hospitals, has announced that the Madrid Health Ministry has chosen Picis Anesthesia Manager, PACU Manager and Critical Care Manager – all part of the CareSuite platform – for several facilities in Spain’s capital. The contract continues a string of success in Europe for the company, which has products in 14 National Health Services hospitals in Great Britain, 13 hospitals in Finland and eight hospitals in Norway. SecureCare gives doctors an option to manual faxes By ErIC WICkluNd, Managing Editor AUSTIN, TX – Where is the American public getting its health information? Among regular viewers of the long-running TV show ER, the percent who say they have Contacted a doctor or other provider because of something they saw on the show Gone to other sources for additional information on a health issue because of ER Gotten information that helped them make choices about their own or their family’s healthcare Talked with friends or family about health issues raised in the show Learned about important health issues from the show 14% 23% 32% 51% 53% mEdECISIoN to mERgE WItH HEaltH CaRE SERvICE CoRp. MEDecision, Inc. of Wayne, Pa. has reached a merger agreement with one of its biggest clients. The deal, announced June 18, allows the Chicago-based Health Care Service Corp. to acquire all outstanding MEDecision shares for $7 per share in cash, a transaction valued at approximately $121 million. HCSC, which operates Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans in Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, is the largest customer-owned health insurer in the United States and the fourth-largest in the country overall. tRIzEtto gRoup dElayS votE oN aCquISItIoN By apax The TriZetto Group has adjourned a special stockholders meeting until mid-July, delaying a vote on a proposed merger with TZ Holdings, L.P., a subsidiary of Londonbased private equity firm Apax Partners. The proposed $1.4 billion deal has been held up by lawsuits filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery seeking more details on the merger and its benefits to shareholders. The court recently issued a ruling shooting down most of the charges filed by plaintiffs, but asked TriZetto officials to delay any vote until the company discloses more information regarding potential financial benefits to its advisor, UBS Securities LLC. More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: VeNDorS 0708 ● To most physician practices and home healthcare agencies, the fax is a nightmare. The very word connotes minutes, maybe even hours, spent alongside the ubiquitous machine, preparing documents, punching in phone numbers and hoping everything is sent correctly. And yet, the fax is essential. It’s estimated that 80 percent of a patient’s medical record is data accumulated outside the doctor’s office, and that those offices send and receive anywhere between 1,000 and 4,000 pages a month by fax – or about 15 billion fax pages a year. Enter SecureCare Technologies. The Austin, Texas-based firm offers Sfax, an Internet-based fax management system that’s designed to help physician practices and home health agencies save up to 95 percent in administration time and up to 80 percent in the cost of manual faxing. Sfax is marketed through resellers and electronic medical record (EMR) vendors, and will soon be coupled with an e-prescribing vendor. Dennis Nasto, SecureCare’s CEO, says physicians’ offices overlook the fax machine when they consider ways to reduce paper and improve the healthcare process, while EMR vendors “don’t want to be in the fax business.” Implementing Sfax, fax see page 32 e ● Connect: GraPHS 0708 N = 300-500 per survey, taken 1997-98. SOUrCE: kAISEr FAMILy FOUNDATION. Could Cerner fill Fujitsu’s shoes? Japanese firm’s exit from NHS might open door for vendor. By Molly MErrIll, Associate Editor KANSIS CITY, MO - Now that Japanese IT firm Fujitsu Services has dropped out of Britain’s National Programme for IT, speculation has arisen about who will take the company’s place. The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the British House of Commons, Edward Leigh, said Fujitsu’s exit has left a “gaping hole” in the NHS Connecting for Health (CfH) program, by leaving eight trusts in the south of England without a provider. In the meanwhile, Gordon Hextall, COO and interim director of the program and systems delivery for CfH, said “Eight live sites will still be supported by Fujitsu until we find an alternative supplier to take responsibility for those live sites. It is a priority to keep those sites running, and Fujitsu has agreed to cooperate in that transition.” Hextall added, “ I don’t think that it is any secret “Cerner remains strongly committed to its business in the united kingdom, which includes our ongoing efforts supporting the london program and the national Choose and Book system.” – Cerner’s Don Trigg that we are talking to BT at the moment to take responsibility to maintain those live sites.” If this is the case, Hextall predicts that it will take a month for BT, the current local service provider for London, to take over. Jon Moggridge, a spokesman for BT, commenting on the company’s discussions with CfH, said: “We are fully committed to the National Programme for IT in the NHS and would like to NHs see page 32 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=9567

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Healthcare IT News - July 2008 Contents IT’s Financial Link eRx Power SOA Q&A Bent on Wireless Digital Switch IT Legacy Change Agent Panasonic 'Book' Taking a Shift Computer Types

Healthcare IT News - July 2008

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