Healthcare IT News - December 2008 - (Page 12)

12 Healthcare IT News December 2008 ■ www.HealthcareITNews.com NEWSBRIEFS Moody’S: HEaltHcaRE REFoRM could BENEFIt HoSpItalS President-elect Barack Obama’s plan to extend healthcare to uninsured Americans will be beneficial to hospitals, medical centers and hospital equipment makers, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The New York-based rating agency said the Democratic party’s healthcare agenda includes increasing research funding and providing $10 billion a year over five years to healthcare providers for adoption of healthcare information technology. “The expected spending could positively affect the top-line growth of many healthcare providers,” the report speculated. Henry Ford goes to single sign-on Radiology rollout makes acess easier for 1,400 users. By ANNe RAwlANd GABRIel, Contributing Writer DETROIT IllINoIS HoSpItal goES WIRElESS tHRougHout Methodist Medical Center, a 330-bed hospital in Peoria, Ill., has deployed wireless technology to boost patient care and safety through expanded patient monitoring. With a single, integrated wireless platform, Methodist Medical Center provides wireless coverage throughout the facility, enabling it to monitor more patients while increasing the use of cellular phones, PDAs, pagers and laptops at the point of care. The medical center is using technology developed by GE Healthcare called GE CARESCAPE Enterprise Access. MobileAccess powers the technology. – While many are still evaluating single sign-on (SSO), Radiology Services at Henry Ford Health System is already a step beyond. To reduce access bottlenecks for 1,400 users spread across 13 Detroit-area sites, the department just completed an eightmonth pilot of active-proximity technology that detects users Microsoft Surface technology is in use in entertainment, retail and hotel sectors, but not yet in healthcare. Texas Health Resources is working with Microsoft to develop new applications. from dozens of feet away. “Among other things, the pilot helped us find a logon/logoff balance,” said Darryl Bonner, supervisor of radiology information services. “If you’re just walking over to confer with a Darryl Bonner colleague, you don’t want the system to log you out. For our environment, a 10foot walk up and a 20-foot walk away is the sweet spot. Now, you couldn’t take the devices away from the doctors who have them.” Healthcare providers demonstrate Imprivata’s single sign-on technology. Neuroradiologist Jeff Corrigan, MD, is among the lucky handful in the pilot. “It definitely speeds things up,” he said of the readers that detect the encrypted sso see page 13 Decision support boosts care for rural patients By JoHN ANdRews, Contributing Editor PINE BLUFF, AR – When it comes to SoutH dakota HoSpItalS REcEIvE gRaNtS FoR It Fourteen rural hospitals in South Dakota will receive $194,766 in grants to boost healthcare information technology initiatives. The grant funding comes to the state’s Department of Health through the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program, a federal initiative that provides funding to state governments to strengthen rural health. Below the Surface Texas Health innovates with Microsoft unit. DALLAS By BeRNIe MoNeGAIN, Editor MIcHIgaN HoSpItalS lauNcH data ExcHaNgE callEd tHIS Three Michigan hospitals are poised to link for data sharing. Deckerville Community Hospital, Harbor Beach Community Hospital and Mercy Hospital-Port Huron are part of Michigan’s “thumb” region. The data-sharing initiative is called Michigan Thumb Health Information System, or THIS. THIS has been designed to include access to and from other regional healthcare systems. The scope of the initiative is intended to more than double – growing to several other critical access and tertiary hospitals in the region. More at HealthcareITNews.com e Connect: HoSPItaLS 1208 l – Texas Health Resources, which operates 13 hospitals in Dallas and surrounding areas, is developing ways in which Microsoft’s new Surface technology might be used in healthcare. One brainstorming session came up with 100 ideas for how the technology, which looks like a card table with a computer surface, could be used on the healthcare front. Emerging as the top concept to test further is the use of the unit in patient-physician consultations. Ferdinand Velasco, MD, chief medical officer at Texas Health Resources, describes the computer as a “specialized computing platform.” It provides a touch screen that is multitouch a n d Ferdinand Velasco, MD multi-user, he said, and it allows for much more interactivity than any other computing platform. There’s no keyboard or mouse. Materials are manipulated with the touch of the screen. Surface technology is in use in the entertainment (one can play Pac Man on Microsoft Surface, for example), retail and concierge environments, so far. Microsoft Surface would allow for a physician to show a patient just where in the artery the blockage is. A cardiologist suRfACe see page 43 deploying sophisticated information systems, most people think it is confined to large urban hospitals with unlimited resources. But based on how Jefferson Regional Medical Center has adroitly used the functionality of its decision support system, that perception may change. In fact, JRMC could be seen as a model of technology implementation for larger hospitals as well as for health centers in similar rural areas. As a progressively minded John Skowronski, MD, medical director of organization, JRMC is intent on the emergency department at Jefferson shattering the “backwards” stereo- Regional Medical Center, is among the types commonly associated with champions of decision support. hospitals that serve remote populations. “Don’t be fooled by the fact that JRMC is a community hospital in a small Arkansas town,” said Jim Cato, vice president and chief nursing officer for Atlanta-based Eclipsys, manufacturer of the hospital’s software JRMC see page 14 top business issues facing healthcare Improving quality of care Medicare cutbacks Patient satisfaction Demand for capital Adoption of new technology Government regulation/compliance e l Connect: GraPHS 1208 56% 43% 36% 34% 33% 30% 370 respondents, 261 unique organizations, representing 700 hospitals. Data collected Nov. 20, 2007Jan. 20, 2008. SOuRCE: 19TH ANNuAl HIMSS lEADERSHIP SuRvEY, SPONSORED BY CISCO http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.HealthcareITNews.com http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=10527

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

Healthcare IT News - December 2008 Contents AHIC 2.0 Debuts See How It Works Monitored to Health Right Decisions Neurologist Needed HiMSS Insider: Four to the Board Heartened Generation Next Clinical Toolkit: Inpatient EMRs Management Solutions: Asset Tracking

Healthcare IT News - December 2008

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