Healthcare IT News - November 2008 - (Page 38)

www.HealthcareITNews.com November 2008 ■ Healthcare IT News 37 NEWSBRIEFS MEDHOST aDDS paTIENT kIOSk TO EDIS FOR HOSpITalS MEDHOST, an Addison, Texas-based developer of Emergency Department Information Systems (EDIS) software for hospitals, has added a kiosk to its product line to allow patients to check themselves in and ED personnel to know who’s in the waiting room. The Emergency Department Patient Access Self Services (ED PASS) kiosk is being implemented at Northridge Hospital Medical Center in Northridge, Calif. MEDHOST executives say the kiosk allows patients to register quickly and easily and alerts clinicians to high-risk cases. Hospitals take a shine to Sentri7 Pharmacy OneSource finds new success with drug tracking software. By ErIC WICkluNd, Managing Editor BELLEVUE, WA – THE NEWS: Sentri7 proves a success. ➔ WHaT IT MEaNS: Healthcare providers can write ➔ their own rules to help prevent drug interaction errors. A company known for helping pharmacies keep track of medications is seeing success in the hospital market. Pharmacy OneSource, founded in 2001 in Bellevue, Wash., launched its Sentri7 patient surveillance tool one year ago. The softwareas-a-service (SaaS) tool combines medication, laboratory and patient data to improve patient safety with medication-related issues in various areas of the hospital, including the lab, the bedside and the operating room. “Surveillance throughout the hospital … is a bigger market than we’d anticipated,” said Tim Gibbons, the company’s president. “That’s where our biggest growth is now.” Officials point out that many competitors focus on infections caused by a transgression of guidelines, while Sentri7 concentrates on the interactions of drugs, patients and clinicians, beginning at the pharmacy and branching out to all levels of the hospital. sENTrI7 see page 38 HIEs and RHIOs fight for their piece of the healthcare pie “How important do you think (the promotion of health information exchange networks/regional health information organizations) is in improving health system performance?” 35% 32% 23% Covisint targets physicians with latest HIE contracts By ErIC WICkluNd, Managing Editor DETROIT – NExTgEN aDDS pMp TO pRacTIcE SOluTIONS gROup NextGen Healthcare Information Systems of Horsham, Pa., is building up its newly created NextGen Practice Solutions with the acquisition of Practice Management Partners, a Baltimore, Md.-based provider of physician billing and technology management services in the Mid-Atlantic region. Earlier this year, NextGen announced plans to launch a subsidiary devoted to revenue cycle management services for physician practices, and then acquired Healthcare Strategic Initiatives, a St. Louis-based RCM provider. SOURCE: COMMONwEALTH fUND HEALTH CARE OPINION LEADERS SURvEy, APRIL 2008 caRDINal SETTlES WITH DEa, REOpENS DRug cENTERS Cardinal Health of Dublin, Ohio, has paid a $34 million settlement as part of an agreement with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and seven U.S. Attorneys’ offices that will allow the prescription medicine distributor to re-open three centers, which were closed amid an investigation into the shipping of drugs to questionable Internet pharmacies. Cardinal officials said they have expanded their training process, beefed up the compliance team and introduced an electronic system that blocks questionable orders pending further investigation. e ● Connect: GraPHS 1108 Getting physicians to buy into regional health information organizations might be the key to their success. That’s the thinking of executives at Covisint, which has signed contracts to provide the framework for three separate RHIOs in recent months. The most recent contract, announced October 20, has the Detroit-based healthcare IT subsidiary of the Compuware Corporation providing the framework for MSMS Connect, a health information exchange for the 15,000-member Michigan State Medical Society. According to Brett Furst, Covisint’s vice president of healthcare, giving physicians access to tools like secure messaging and data-sharing will improve practice efficiency. Once physicians are convinced of a RHIO’s value, he says, the group can focus on other issues, like funding and transparency. “It’s not a good thing for our RHIOs out there to be struggling like they are,” he said. “We need to bring meaningful results to CoNTraCTs see page 38 Merge launches amnesty program for unlicensed software By ErIC WICkluNd, Managing Editor MEDaSSETS uNvEIlS SOFTWaRE TO aDDRESS Rac pROgaM MedAssets of Atlanta, Ga., has joined the growing list of healthcare IT vendors to address Medicare’s new Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) service. The company has released a RAC solution designed to support healthcare providers’ efforts to address RAC audits. The solution offers a RAC workflow tool to manage audit timelines and activities and to help manage medical necessity documentation, clinical appeals recovery and Medicare reimbursement management. More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: VeNDorS 1108 Healthcare providers using improperly licensed versions of Merge Healthcare’s eFilm Workstation software run the risk of injuring their patients, say officials of the Wisconsin-based provider of medical imaging software. eFilm Workstation allows clinicians to view digital MRI, CT, Xray and other images to diagnose and recommend patient treatment. The company modifies and enhances the software as needed, and those updates are provided to licensed customers. Since debuting in 2003, more than 100,000 copies of the software have been downloaded from the Merge Web site. Company officials estimate tens of thousands of illegal copies of the software are in circulation as well – pirated versions, or mulWEST ALLIS, WI – tiple copies that aren’t properly licensed. Last month, the company launched a campaign to track down those copies. “We want to be sure that we’re protecting our clients and the patients they treat,” said Nancy Koenig, president of Merge’s Fusion division. According to Koenig and Phil Desrude, director of Merge’s eFilm business, healthcare providers with unlicensed copies of the software won’t get the updates, and “their ability to diagnose patients and treat patients can be impaired.” Under the Authentic eFilm Software Amnesty Program, users of eFilm Workstation can access the Web site to determine if their software is properly licensed. If a healthcare provider is using pirated amNEsTy see page 41 allscripts, Misys look beyond the merger By ErIC WICkluNd, Managing Editor ● Officials of the newly created Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions say the key to interoperability lies in one simple fact: When you’re bigger, it’s easier. When you’re one of the largest electronic health record and practice management vendors CHICAGO – in the country, they say, it’s easier to connect healthcare providers to your many products. And when you have the resources, they add, it’s easier to take on the challenges of innovation. “The healthcare industry is one of the last on the planet to use (information technology),” mErgEr see page 39 Allscripts CEO Glen Tullman, second from right with red tie, and Misys chief executive Mike Lawrie, third from left, celebrate the opening of NASDAQ Tuesday in New York. The two are executives in the newly formed Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, to be known as Allscripts. (photo courtesy The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.) http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=10329 http://www.orionhealth.com http://www.orionhealth.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=10330 http://www.healthcareitnews.com/eConnect.cms?id=10349

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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