Healthcare IT News - August 2007 - (Page 20)

20 Healthcare IT News August 2007 ■ PHySICIAN PRACTICES & AmBULATORy CARE of care, making them immediately aware of a quality problem and encouraging quick action to resolve it. The Marshfield Clinic previously garnered national attention for its internally developed EMR, called Cattails MD, which was the first inhouse system to gain certification from the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology. Marshfield executives said they leaned heavily on their homegrown EHR and other IT tools to hit nine of the 10 PGP diabetes quality measures. “Information technology is very helpful in dealing with our care management protocols,” said Theodore Praxel, MD, Marshfield’s medical director of Theodore Praxel quality improvement and care management. “We’ve got 2,000 tablets and 400 wireless points in 41 clinic locations. We can capture the neces- www.HealthcareITNews.com sary information up front and then return it to providers in as close to real-time as possible.” The Marshfield IT staff created an intervention list – called “iList” – that ranks patients hierarchically according to who meets, or does not meet, quality metrics. The timely data – which is only 48 hours old – helps providers determine which patients need what kind of care. Praxel said Marshfield intends to invest a large majority of the bonus payment into additional quality improvement tools such as iList. Marshfield’s performance payment from CMS will be approximately $4.5 million, while the University of Michigan Health System will receive $2.7 million from Medicare. While only two PGP practices will receive bonus payments based on the first year results, many observers expect all participants will create significant returns for Medicare. “All ten of the CMS sites are moving toward patient registries and electronic data reporting,” said Jeremy Meller, CIO of the clinic division at Marshfield. “The current results simply show that different sites are at different points in the evolution of their strategies. This project should encourage people that investment in IT shows a real return.” ■ More at PIloT Continued from page 1 Marshfield, Wis., and the University of Michigan Faculty Group Practice in Ann Arbor, Mich., together provided more than $9.5 million in savings to the CMS trust fund. Marshfield provided savings of $6.03 million and the U-M FGP saved Medicare $3.5 million over the course of the project’s first year, which ran from April 1, 2005 to March 31, 2006. “We proved that you don’t have to reduce the quality of care to cut Medicare costs,” said Caroline Blaum, MD, a geriatrician who leads the Michigan PGP project. “We actually added services at no cost to patients or payers.” The U-M FGP created a diabetes quality program that relied on the University of Michigan Health System’s electronic medical record to provide physician feedback on the quality of care for patients with diabetes. U-M physicians can access patient information at the point HealthcareITNews.com e ●Connect: PIlot 0807 PCMa Continued from page 18 in July, is a win-win for patients and physicians. It could also save the federal government $26 billion and prevent 1.9 million prescription errors over 10 years. PCMA released a study conducted by the Gorman Health Group, LLC that concluded physicians who use e-prescribing “dramatically improve” savings and quality of care. Today, however, fewer than one in 10 physicians use e-prescribing, according to PCMA. As Congress considers a $30 billion update of physician Medicare payments, it should also consider ensuring that physicians participating in Medicare use e-prescribing,” said PCMA president Mark Merritt. Physicians support e-prescribing, but do not endorse PCMA’s recommendation, according to Joseph Heyman, MD, a board member of the American Medical Association. “Physicians are eager to adopt new technologies that have the potential to increase patient safety and quality of care, but hitting doctors with an unfunded e-prescribing mandate at the same time the government plans to cut Medicare physician payments 10 percent next year is untenable,” Heyman said. ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e ●Connect: PCMa 0807 e ● Connect: SPotwave 0807 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=7545 http://www.spotwave.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.spotwave.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=7516 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/eConnect.cms?id=7564

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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