Healthcare IT News - November 2008 - (Page 23)

24 Healthcare IT News ■ November 2008 phySIcIaN pRactIcES & aMBulatoRy caRE responses the physician chooses the appropriate diagnosis and treatment plans. Bradd calls these “canned responses.” In addition to the treatment plan, they include any medication advice and links to educational resources. The consult can then be uploaded directly into the patient’s EMR. “I have created a billable event, paid for something that many physicians do for free,” says Bradd. ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: vovS 1108 www.HealthcareITNews.com of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Yee was part of the team that helped develop a home-grown electronic referral system for San Francisco General Hospital to link patients from a primary care provider to a specialist. The system, called eReferral, is unique, said Yee, in that it marries healthcare information technology with an expert spe- Hal Yee cialty reviewer. “This product was home-grown out of necessity. We didn’t have the funding needed for this type of investment. We had to build it ourselves, on a shoestring,” said Yee. The results of the system have “transformed how specialty care has been provided in the safety net of San Francisco,” said Yee. NetChemistry Inc., a Newport Beach, Calif.-based company, developed a home-grown product for the Orange County Health Care Agency to provide electronic referrals between the ER and the primary care provider. Ninety-nine percent of indigent patients in the county are connected with a medical home, says Keith Matsutsuyu, owner of Houstonbased ELM Technologies and the principal of NetChemistry. The eReferral is a methodology used to encourage support of the patient’s medical home and connecting the patient back to it, he said. ■ More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: e-referral 1108 VoVS Continued from page 21 we (MedFusion) are proud to be part of that solution,” says Malik. Te r r y M c G e e n e y, MD, CEO of Leawood, Kan.-based TransforMED, says VOVs are a good tool for managing patients with diabetes, obesity and hypertension. TransforMed just finished a pilot project that tested a new model of patient-centered care, which used VOVs. To request a VOV at Skyline Fa m i l y Pr a c t i c e patients must be a registered at the practice and be registered online. VOV consults cost Terry between $15, $30. McGeeney, MD McGeeney says the key is to keep costs at or below the patient’s co-pay. When the physician has a patient request he is notified by e-mail and logs onto a secure server to access the patient and the request. Based on the patient’s e-reFerrAl Continued from page 21 ● Falls Church, Va.-based Computer Sciences Corporation. “The main challenge as a safety net is that we suffer due to the large disparity between resources available and demand for specialty care, even with an innovative referral management system, we are still challenged by more patients needing specialty care than we have resources to provide that care,” said Hal Yee, associate professor When it comes to patient care, every employee counts. ● MHM Continued from page 21 At API, we understand patients are the driving force behind everything you do. From IT to human resources and every department in between, your employees are all working toward the same goal – the safe and effective delivery of care. Our suite of labor resource management tools is designed exclusively for the healthcare market. Each application empowers employees to get the job done quickly and cost-effectively so everyone can focus on what matters most. Learn more by calling 262-670-2784 or visiting www.apisoftwareinc.com/hcitn to request a case study highlighting one organization’s use of API’s labor resource management tools. e ● Connect: aPI 1108 we are facing an aging population and chronic disease epidemic that requires a transformation in the way we deliver healthcare,” said Howes, “and it has to start in the primary care delivery system.” Howes spoke at the New England HIMSS Chapter Conference on HIT on Oct 17. The National Committee for Quality Assurance defines the patient-centered medical home as a healthcare setting that facilitates partnerships between individual patients and their personal physicians. The most dependent NCQA criteria for the medical home is coordinated and integrated care, quality and safety, and enhanced access – all of which, Howes pointed out, need IT. “Not all IT tools are being used to their full potential by physicians. It requires changing habits and expectations and every step is very difficult for physicians, but they recognize where this is going, Howes said.” More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: MHM 1108 ● ONLY HEALTHCARE | ONLY API http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.usa.siemens.com/ms4solves http://www.usa.siemens.com/ms4solves http://www.healthcareitnews.com/eConnect.cms?id=10341

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Healthcare IT News - November 2008

Healthcare IT News - November 2008 Contents $700M Strong PHR Power Stepping It Up Geo IT EMRs Go Rural HiMSS Insider: Making a Difference Home for the Blues Merge Amnesty Management Solutions: Outsourcing Appeal Clinical Toolkit: Enterprise PACS

Healthcare IT News - November 2008

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