Healthcare IT News - October 2007 - (Page 22)

22 Healthcare IT News ■ October 2007 hoSpItalS & IdNs www.HealthcareITNews.com Small Mississippi hospital prepares to go paperless By rICHArd PIzzI, Associate Editor NATCHEZ, MS – Natchez Regional Medical Center, a 179-bed hospital here, will implement a subscription-based electronic health record and forms automation system. Optio Healthcare, based in Alpharetta, Ga., will supply the products and services to NRMC. The contract with Optio includes various subscription- based software modules in addition to Optio’s EHR and forms automation products. NRMC will also be implementing Optio’s document design and distribution, patient-signature capture and OptioFax products. “The ability for our physicians, health information management and ancillary staff to gain simultaneous access to upto-date patient data is the most important aspect of our decision to go with Optio,” said Melissa Findley, director of health information management at NRMC. “When it comes to managing medical records, we have several manual, paper-based processes that Optio’s solutions will automate.” NRMC serves as a referral center for five Mississippi counties and two Louisiana parishes. Owned by Adams County, the hospital serves the healthcare needs of the county’s 94,007 residents. Findley said she expects the new technology will significantly reduce the cost of paper and printing throughout NRMC. She hopes to see a boost in the hospital’s revenue cycle “within a few months” as a result of Optio’s Deficiency Management product, noting that the product will reduce the number of “days’ not final billed.” Findley thinks that it is only a matter of time until small hospitals like NRMC go paperless. “Eventually, all hospitals and healthcare facilities will have to follow suit,” she explained. “For our facility it was an easy decision.” ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: Miss 1007 ● BeTHIsrAel Continued from page 19 “I use it almost daily,” Bucey said of the VFA facility assessment program. “It is a tool that allows us to track all our assets. We can look at all our buildings, the list of requirements, what needs to be renewed and enter all that data into a database.” At its core, the VFA assessment system is designed to take an objective approach to the assessment process, said Ameeta Soni, vice president of marketing and business development. “It takes the assessment data done by engineers and architec ts, looks at the scenarios to see which one is the best and most cost effective Mike Kwok and shows how to prioritize these capital items,” she said. VFA project director Mike Kwok added that the program not only helps facility managers identify the wear and tear on any given area, “it answers questions they might not have thought about.” A key facet of the system allows users to assign priority levels to each area, with a “one” needing the most attention and a “five” needing the least, Bucey said. Once an assessment is made, Bucey’s team uses the tool to calculate the facility condition index – the relationship of the deferred maintenance cost requirement over the replacement value. “So if the asset is $100 and you have $10 worth of deferred maintenance, your ratio is 10 percent,” he Ameeta Soni said. By reviewing the FCI, the engineering staff can compare the status of each building and forecast the funding needed to reach the FCI goal, Bucey said. “We can demonstrate what it takes to keep our buildings in good shape by showing how much we need to spend,” he said. “We can develop capital models that are broken out to include all upgrades and present that information to our board.” ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: BetHisrael 1007 ● e ● Connect: pDs 1007 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=7843 http://www.pdspc.com http://HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=7836 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/eConnect.cms?id=7901

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Healthcare IT News - October 2007 Contents Global Harmony Telegrowth New Rules Keeping Tabs What's Free? PHR of Its Own Intelligent Closing Practice Management Paper Tiger

Healthcare IT News - October 2007

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