Healthcare IT News - September 2007 - (Page 18)

18 Healthcare IT News ■ September 2007 costs, Ward said. Lee Memorial also uses Lombardi technology to connect various databases behind the scenes to provide the right data whenever it’s needed. Lombardi software makes it possible for Lee Memorial to automate the monitoring of professional development including tracking license expirations, notifying employees of upcoming classes and providing online registration. Lombardi manages promotions, disciplinary actions and terminations. HoSpItalS & IdNs Forty percent of Lombardi clients are in the financial sector – banking and insurance. Manufacturing, telecom and government make up another 25 percent. Healthcare represents about 15 percent of the business, Jeff Ward according to Phil Gilbert, the company’s executive vice president and chief technology officer. Among the customers are Aflac, Hasbro, Dell, Harris Teeter and Pfizer. Lombardi’s competition in the healthcare sector tends to be from solution providers that have applications that are “old school,” Gilbert said. In a report last year, Gartner analysts cited Lombardi software for ease of use and real-time feedback. They also gave the technology high marks for enabling collaboration between business users and the IT team. “This type of business process technology is likely to change the dynamic between IT people and business people,” Gilbert said. “It’s www.HealthcareITNews.com lee Continued from page 17 eliminated errors often encountered in the old manual process, said Jeff Ward, manager of general financial systems at Lee Memorial. The health system has more than 5,800 employees, 2,500 volunteers and 800 physicians on staff over five campuses. Removing paper forms from employee-related tasks, such as expense reports, has been critical to streamlining and reducing Removing paper forms from employee-related tasks, such as expense reports, has been critical to streamlining and reducing costs. no longer this big, opaque black box. Jeff (Ward) is a great example. If you look forward 50 years, a dedicated IT department will be a thing of the past.” ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: Lee 0907 l TeleHealTH Continued from page 1 before seeing a specialist, said Kropp. Today, clinics focusing on each specialty are held via videoconferencing two to three times a month, beamed to Kansas City from the four remote sites – Trenton, Mo., Chillicothe, Mo., Garnett, Kan. and Leavenworth, Kan. A study of 460 telemedicine patients in Trenton and Chillocothe over 15 months showed they saved $40,000 in travel costs, according to Kropp. St. Luke’s uses two flat panel screens with cameras on top – and also the add-on tools, such as electronic stethoscope, vital sign monitoring tools and examination cameras. North Chelmsford, Mass.-based AMD Telemedicine provides those tools for St. Luke’s and many other telemedicine programs around the world. AMD President Steve Normandin says over recent years he’s seen telemedicine programs expand from a primary care focus alone to specialties and sub-specialties. Vendors such as GE Healthcare and Siemens are among AMD’s competitors. AMD boasts 5,000 installations in 68 countries. The company has installations in Thailand, Egypt, Mexico Norway, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Yugoslavia and many other locations. It is installing nearly 70 more telemedicine sites to the 50 already established in Kazakhstan (land of Borat), a country that spans 2.7 million kilometers, with a population of 15.2 million. As at St. Luke’s in Kansas City, digital signals are sent from telemedicine devices over a video line. Physicians can see and talk with the patients as well as get detailed information about their conditions. Kropp said St. Luke’s is looking into expanding its program to hospitals outside its own system – perhaps on a contractual basis. It would be one way to capture a return on investment, he said. While Medicare started reimbursing telemedicine services in 1999, most private payers do not reimburse for the services and most states do not require them to do so. ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: teLeHeaLtH 0907 l e l Connect: PICIS 0907 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=7673 http://www.picis.com/DCHS http://www.picis.com/DCHS http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=7654 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/eConnect.cms?id=7715

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

Contents Alaska Sweep SiCKO Debate Data Exchange Rx EDITH knows Hold That Script IT in the Sun Breathing Easy IT on the Menu Ambulatory EMRs Identity Crisis

Healthcare IT News - September 2007

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