Cardiovascular Business - January/February 2009 - (Page 22)

INFORMATION MANAgeMeNT › By C.P. K aiser Cardiology Groups and Hospitals One goal of hospital administrators and executives is that all of their various patient information systems work well in concert. A concomitant concern of private practice cardiology groups is that they find the available patient data from the hospital systems valuable and effective on a day-to-day basis. The two endpoints don’t always meet up. Strive to ‘Connect’ Seamlessly C ardiologists are increasingly conducting more imaging tests in their offices. Along with imaging study results, they also want to know other patient data that possibly originated in the hospital such as ejection fraction, lab values, ECGs or previous cardiac conditions. Some hospitals don’t capture the necessary data digitally, making it available to the cardiology group as a text document only. This becomes problematic if physicians want to track specific outcomes over time via the electronic medical record (EMR). “The decision about which eMR to purchase has divided our group.” Larry sobal, CeO of appleton Cardiology associates, appleton, Wis. mentation at the point of care,” says Michael J. Mytych, president of Health Information Consulting, Milwaukee, Wis. “If those data are inside the cath lab or inside the nuclear diagnostic area, the clinical documentation that occurs in those locations can actually acquire the data digitally. Then it’s a matter of making sure that the information systems have the ability to export the data via an HL7-type message to any other clinical system that has a need to know.” The challenge for hospitals is they have multitudes of physician groups representing all kinds of specialties that need information. Hospitals are not necessarily in a position where they have built their data export technologies out far enough that they can move information virtually seamlessly to the physician practices, Mytych says. Cardiology groups need to understand each facility’s particular workflow process: what data can be transferred back and forth today and what advances can they expect in the future. In addition, cardiologists need to work closely with hospitals so that the hospitals are aware of the discreet data the physicians will find valuable and ensure that the cardiovascular information systems (CVIS) can import and export those data to and from the private practice EMR, Mytych says. Years of decision-making Without the digital capture of data that enables information to be tracked and mined via the EMR, practices have several choices. They can continue to track information from text documents or they can have staff enter specific pieces of data into the officebased systems. Both options are becoming increasingly unpalatable in the 21st century. “Many vendors are making efforts to create the clinical docuLarry Sobal, CEO of Appleton Cardiology Associates in Appleton, Wis., has been refereeing the choosing of an EMR for four years. The 17-member independent cardiology group cannot find consensus regarding the matter. One of the problems is that the group can purchase the system used by their major hospital partner and reap the benefits of a federally-mandated discounted price, but they would suffer certain functionality limitations the hospital system 22 Cardiovascular Business January/February 2009

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cardiovascular Business - January/February 2009

Cardiovascular Business - January/February 2009 Contents First Word Electrophysiology Roundtable Forum: A Candid Conversation about Profits, Procedures and Patients Heart Failure Care Gets Boost from Technology Emerging Technologies in Peripheral Vascular Interventions Stent vs. Graft: Choosing the Best Path for the Diabetic Patient with Multivessel Disease Cardiology Groups and Hospitals Strive to ‘Connect’ Seamlessly CT Beyond 64 Slices Clinical Study Digest: Kidney Disease & PCI; Women and Valve Disease Compact Echo Systems Come Up Big in Cardiac Care News & Views Reader Resources The ACC Corner

Cardiovascular Business - January/February 2009

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