Healthcare IT News - December 2007 - (Page 15)

www.HealthcareITNews.com December 2007 ■ Healthcare IT News 15 NEWSBRIEFS INtERNIStS lauNch cERtIFIcatIoN WEB SItE The American Board of Internal Medicine has launched a new Web site – www.abim. org – intended to provide internists and subspecialists with information about professional certification and improving their practice performance. Physicians have a dedicated “Physician Login” tool, allowing registered users access to their individual home page detailing where they are in the certification process. Consumers can access the site to find out if their physician is certified and learn how board certification impacts patient care. experts urge docs to adopt healthcare It By RICHaRd PIzzI, Associate Editor p calIFoRNIa clINIcS chooSE tEch SERvIcES pRovIdER Molina Healthcare of California has selected MED3000, Inc., to provide Revenue Cycle Management, ASP Practice Management technology, patient communications technology, and coding services. MED3OOO will provide technology services to Molina’s 19 primary care clinics located in Northern and Southern California. Molina Healthcare is a managed healthcare company that serves patients who have traditionally faced barriers to quality healthcare, including individuals covered under Medicaid. need to adopt more information technology if they are to succeed in the contemporary healthcare market, said speakers at the recent HIMSS Virtual Conference & Expo. C. Martin Harris, MD, Cleveland Clinic CIO and executive director of eCleveland Clinic, and William Bria, MD, chief medical information officer at Shriners Hospitals for Children, addressed attendees online at the HIMSS-sponsored event. hySICIAN pRACtICES North Carolina physicians to benefit from Stark relaxation By RICHaRd PIzzI, Associate Editor GREENVILLE, NC They discussed the challenges and costs of healthcare IT in the ambulatory physician practice. Harris noted that healthcare has “lagged behind” other indus tries in implementing technology that makes it possible for consumers to get more involved in their Martin Harris, MD care. He warned that if the problem were not remedied, physicians could lose business. “The pressure to deliver innovative services will come to bear on providers, and it will come from consumers,” said Harris. “Providers have to be prepared for the coming wave of consumerism in healthcare.” Harris said the “sheer volume” of healthcare information has expanded dramatically over the past few years, and patients have access to this data directly via the Internet. Last year alone, the results of more than 10,000 randomized controlled medical vCe see page 16 “the workflow aspects of healthcare are similar in complexity to those in aerospace.” – William Bria, MD e-prescribing study reveals more benefits – New research that tracked the number of prescriptions received by pharmacies before and after physicians began using electronic prescribing showed an 11 percent increase in new prescriptions filled. The research – conducted by SureScripts and Walgreens using prescriber data from IMS Health – links a physician prescribing electronically, or “e-prescribing”, to more of that physician’s prescriptions making it to the pharmacy. The study’s results suggest that e-prescribing could help address prescription leakage, one part of the long-standing problems of patient adherence. ■ DEERFIELD, IL More at MISSISSIppI clINIcS INStall REvENuE cyclE SoFtWaRE North Mississippi Health Services plans to implement a Web-based patient-billing and receivables management product to improve financial outcomes across its facilities in north Mississippi and northwest Alabama. The regional healthcare organization will use the Sunrise Patient Financial platform from Eclipsys to streamline billing processes, maximize reimbursements and improve cash flow and patient satisfaction. The platform will provide all of NMHS’ facilities with a single-point of entry for corporate and hospital-level information. – Spurred by the relaxation earlier this year of the Stark regulations, University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina plans to offer an electronic health record system to physicians in the 29county region it serves in North Carolina. UHS executives say that a comprehensive, communitywide EHR will improve the health status of a region that has, in the words of the health system’s chief information officer, “one of the highest incidences of chronic disease in the state.” Stuart James, CIO at UHS, said the health system intends to offer a partially subsidized “sustainable EHR offering” to physi- Schuyler Williams, RN, works in the intensive care unit at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville, NC. PCMH is part of University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina. cian practices in the region. “We’re looking at this community EHR as an alternative to a RHIO or stand-alone vendor solutions,” said James. “Small practices in this region can’t afford stand-alone IT support. We believe that the demand is there if the system is affordable and integrated.” UHS implemented an enterprise EHR system – which was termed “HealthSpan” – from UHS see page 17 HealthcareITNews.com e ●Connect: erx StudY 1207 MaSSachuSEttS pRactIcE to IMplEMENt NEW EhR The Lahey Clinic, a multi-specialty group practice in Burlington, Mass., will install a community-wide electronic health record for its 500 physicians over the next year. One of the largest group practices in New England, Lahey Clinic plans to adopt EHR software from Allscripts. The new EHR will interface with inpatient clinical information systems across the Lahey Clinic network, including the Lahey Clinic Medical Center, which is a teaching hospital of Tufts University School of Medicine. More at Emergency physicians & health Information Exchange 80% 66% Preferred data elements in an HIE system. California physicians include IT in “Standards of Excellence” program By RICHaRd PIzzI, Associate Editor 65% 59% 59% EKG Discharge Med lists Lab results Radiology reports summaries HealthcareITNews.com e ●Connect: PHYSICIaNS 1207 e ● Connect: GraPHS 1207 SOURCE: JAMIA; NOvEMBER 2007; v. 14, N. 6.; PP. 700-705. – The California Physician Group Association, a professional association of more than 150 of the Golden State’s largest physician groups, has approved implementation of a statewide Standards of Excellence program that includes healthcare information technology adoption as a primary measure of quality patient care. The use of healthcare IT is one of three domains in which the capability of CAPG’s medical group members will be assessed. The other two are “care management practices” and “accountability and transparLOS ANGELES ency.” The SOE assessment program plans to acquire its data from CAPG member practice surveys. CAPG leaders argue that the SOE initiative is intended to reveal the infrastructural differences between medical group practices following the managed care model and care provided by more “loosely connected, unaffiliated physicians.” They realize the program could have policy as well as financial implications. “The healthcare purchasing audience is getting choosier and more CaPg see page 17 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8194 http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=8196

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Healthcare IT News - December 2007 Contents Paying Docs Seal of Approval Key to Success Stage 4 Stark Payoff New Kids on the Block Real-time Trend On the Block Picture Perfect Head of the Class

Healthcare IT News - December 2007

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