Healthcare IT News - August 2007 - (Page 10)

10 Healthcare iT News MY TWO CENTS n August 2007 www.HealthcareITNews.com start changes at Walter reed stat by President Bush to investigate the troubles at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other military healthcare facilities across the country delivered its report to the president at the end of last month. The nine-member bi-partisan commission, led by former Sen. Robert Dole and Donna Shalala, former secretary of Health and Human Services, confirmed what The Washington Post had already uncovered. yes, there were squalid conditions in one of the outpatient buildings at Walter Reed – often held up as a model healthcare facility. And there was an equally appalling and more widespread problem. The war wounded received good care from the doctors and nurses there, some of the best this country has to offer – if they were lucky enough to get it. Tale after woeful tale has emerged about soldiers shuffled from one bureaucratic tangle to another as they sought treatment. Some, it turns out, were denied outright, deemed to have a pre-existing condition. What? Fit to be in the line of fire, but denied care for injuries – mental and physical – sustained while fighting the war on terror. We urge the president and Congress to exercise leadership to set the tone for reform at the military facilities charged with caring for wounded soldiers. It’s unconscionable to shuffle wounded war veterans from one place to another as they seek care. This is where healthcare IT meets the war in Iraq. The commission offered six broad recommendations and 35 actions. At the crux of the advice: Cut the red tape. Streamline the process. Rebuild the broken systems. of the 35 action steps, Shalala said, only six would require legislation. The others could be implemented today by the White House, the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Among the proposed changes is the establishment of a patient-cenhe Panel aPPointed T tered recovery plan for every severely injured person. Another recommendation – this one would require legislative action – is the overhaul of the “confusing disability system that often leaves veterans lost in a sys- Bernie Monegain, Editor tem that’s impossible to navigate. While we are proponents of technology as a means of streamlining broken-down paper systems, we also know that throwing IT at ill-conceived processes results in an unworkable system that’s been automated. We urge a deep and serious review of those processes. Deep does not give license to dilly-dally. By some accounts, the processes have not been changed in 50 years. The cure for this sorely lacking system has to begin today. There’s a price tag associated with the recommendations: $500 million a year now and $1 billion a year later when the veterans age. We know there would also be huge returns on this investment – not only in a more efficient, less costly system, but also in www.HealthcareITNews.com Published in partnership with Please, please begin TODAY to do something to unravel this mess. Don’t let the dust settle on this report. lives respected and restored. no need. Americans on both sides of what has turned out to be a most divisive war would agree on this much. We must take care of our returning soldiers. So many of them are already lost to us. Please, please begin today to do something to unravel this mess. Start small (a journey of a thousand steps approach) or start big, but begin today. Don’t let the dust settle on this report. President Bush called the recommendations “interesting and important.” We say they are “critical” and “urgent.” The president has shown he can be tenacious when it comes to the war in Iraq. We hope he will be as resolute in caring for returning veterans. n More at HealthcareiTNews.com e Connect: MoNeGaIN 0807 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 Bernie Monegain, Editor bernie.monegain@medtechpublishing.com Richard Pizzi, Associate Editor richard.pizzi@medtechpublishing.com Eric Wicklund, Managing Editor eric.wicklund@medtechpublishing.com EDITOR, HIMSS INSIDER EDITORIAL STAFF Nancy Vitucci nvitucci@himss.org ADVERTISING John D. Payne, Vice President Sales john.payne@medtechpublishing.com T (207) 688-6270 F (207) 688-6273 Vincent Biunno, Eastern Sales Manager vincent.biunno@medtechpublishing.com T (201) 666-2118 F (201) 666-9660 Steven Loerch, Midwest Sales Manager steve.loerch@medtechpublishing.com T (847) 498-4520 F (847) 498-5911 Gordon Hunt, Western Sales Manager gordon.hunt@medtechpublishing.com T (949) 366-3192 F (949) 366-3193 WEST MIDWEST NORTHEAST SOUTHEAST ● PRODUCTION Karen Diekmann, Production Manager karen.diekmann@medtechpublishing.com MARKETING Danielle Hartley, Director, Marketing danielle.hartley@medtechpublishing.com READER SERVICES T (978) 671-0449 or cs-hitn@e-circ.net F (978)671-0460 Online: www.myHITN.com Postal mail: PO Box 9369 Lowell, MA 01853 Nicole Carter nicole.carter@medtechpublishing.com CIRCULATION MANAGER CUSTOMER SERVICE I’ve seen virtually countless number of speakers and presenters at what seems like an equally countless number of trade shows, conferences, seminars and other such events. While I think I’ve probably taken something useful away from every one, I have to say that Malcolm Gladwell’s talk at AHIP The Tipping Point of Health Care was easily one of the best presentations I’ve witnessed. It’s not often that a speaker or anyone, for that matter associates innovation in healthcare with the creative works of renowned artists like Picasso and Cezanne. Mr. Gladwell, however, used the analogy to tremendous effect. He explained how Picasso was a big idea guy who began his career with grand notions for his art and a clear vision of how to execute them. Through this burst of innovation, as Mr. Gladwell referred to it, Picasso was able to produce his greatest masterpieces by the time he was in his mid-twenties. After that, it seems the quality of his output leveled ver the years O ‘My money is on the Cezanne approach’ off, or may have dipped a bit. Cezanne was kind of the opposite. He learned from trial-and-error and leveraged a half-century of life experience, development and growth to create his best art after the age of 50. I think Mr. Gladwell is dead-on in his assessment that proposals to fix our healthcare system can be categorized as taking either Picasso or Cezanne approaches. My money is on the Cezanne approach. After 20 years in the health information technology business, I truly feel that there isn’t a single magical solution – even if Michael Moore seems to think there is. It’s got to be a lot of little solutions building momentum toward larger, system-wide reform. And we need to engage as many people as we can in the process and give them the means and resources they need to keep trying new approaches that might work. Like Cezanne, we need to build on our experiences and develop and grow our ideas before we can leTTers see page 11 CORRECTIONS Healthcare IT News is published by MedTech Publishing Company, LLC, which is solely responsible for its editorial content. Editors are expected to meet the highest professional standards for accuracy, objectivity, fairness and independence. Errors of fact are corrected as soon as the error is established and corrections are published in the medium in which the error appeared. Inquiries or disputes about the factual accuracy of the record should be directed to the editor. SUBSCRIPTION FULFILLMENT MANAGER Peggy Tashjian cs-hitn@e-circ.net REPRINTS Reprint Management Services T (717) 399-1900, ext. 139 HITN@reprintbuyer.com EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE Healthcare IT News is published in partnership with the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). HIMSS members are eligible to receive Healthcare IT News and related publications – both in print and online – as a beneﬁt of membership. With the exception of the HIMSS Insider, produced by the staff of HIMSS and appears within the pages of Healthcare IT News every month, HIMSS and its leadership exercise no control over the editorial content of the newspaper and related publications. Neil Rouda VICE PRESIDENTS PRESIDENT Jack Beaudoin John D. Payne Neil Rouda PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENTS Jack Beaudoin John D. Payne 2005 JESSE NEAL AWARD WINNER http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareiTNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=7511 http://www.myHITN.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Healthcare IT News - August 2007

Contents AHIC Redux IT Saving Lives IT, Wal-Mart Style OR Workflow Counting on Quality PHR Position Tapping Talent Slimming Down E-Prescribing Claims Processing

Healthcare IT News - August 2007

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