Healthcare IT Update

Paper Medical Records to EMR: The Dirty Little Secrets

Physician practices that are implementing EMR dish on how ‘easy’ it actually is. With all the hype out there about converting from paper records to EMR, I’ve heard very little about how that process actually happens. That’s why I appreciated heating Kris Cuddy’s nuts-and-bolts EMR implementation session at the Billing & Collections Conference in Orlando this week. And I REALLY appreciated comments from physicians and office managers at her session about what it’s really been like for them to implement EMR at their practices. They have a perspective you sometimes don’t see in all the glowing predictions about how great EMR is going to be once we all adopt it. Three hours, said one workshop participant. That’s how long it took him to transfer his first medical record from paper to EMR. Subsequent conversions are going more quickly, but the office manager says…

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EHR Interoperability: 6 Lessons Learned from One Early Adopter

How EHR software errors can lead to medication errors. In order for your health care organization to receive stimulus package funds, your HIT systems have to be “interoperable,” which means they must be able to support the electronic exchange of patient health information among caregivers and other authorized parties through electronic health record (EHR) systems. This requirement has created myriad technical and security hurdles that the feds have just begun to address. Before your organization tackles this requirement and signs up for the stimulus money, take a look at how one frontrunner — the Veterans Health Administration —  has instituted its own EHR system, in order to learn some valuable lessons and save time and money. A new report from the Congressional Budget Office, “Quality Initiatives Undertaken by the  Veterans Health Administration” (August 2009), assesses the VHA’s efforts to implement HIT dealing…

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What HIT Pros Must Know About PHRs

IT Giants Motor to Health Care 2.0 Patients are already able to manage their own medical records, in what are called Personal Health Records. But as more and more people try out this new technology, and as more and more IT giants go for the health care consumer dollar, providers and some experts are raising red flags about everything from privacy to medical errors. Doctors worry that PHRs can trap inaccurate information from billing data, which could lead to improper treatment, or that patients will overreact to doctors’ notes that are set to become part of their online records by year’s end. If your organization is trying to figure out what widespread adoption of PHR means for you, you’re not alone. Experts see it as the wave of the future that no one’s quite…

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Tool Reveals Whether E-Prescribe Will Get Bang For Your Buck

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’ve all heard that physicians are eligible for e-prescribing bonuses, but will the cost of a new system or upgrade be worth it? The American Medical Association (AMA) has unveiled a new tool to help physician practices decide about e-prescribe. “A recent survey found about 30 percent of physician participants use an e-prescribing system in their practice,” said Joseph Heyman, MD, an AMA board member, in a June 30 statement. “This is a sizeable increase from the 13 percent who said the same at the end of last year.” The AMA’s online portal allows physician practices to calculate time savings and eligibility for incentive payments. Comparison shop: Potential e-prescribe buyers can access the AMA’s “system finder tool” that selects three systems that might suit your practice, based on your responses to a questionnaire. (Note to HIT vendors: Visit the site to see how you and your competitors stack up.) You an access the

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Seeking the Meaning of ‘Meaningful Use?’

We’ve all heard the term ‘meaningul use,’ but what exactly does it mean? The latest American Medical News tackles the ‘meaningful use’ question. To qualify for ARRA incentives, it’s not enough to simply purchase EHR. They must achieve ‘meaningful use.’ Here are some bullet-quick takeaways for HIT professionals seeking a path to enlightenment: HHS hasn’t officially defined ‘meaningful use’ in a regulation, but there’s enough language in the legislation to guess what the feds will say before their end-of-year deadline. Meaningful use involves system certification, as well as capabilities for electronic prescribing, quality reporting and information exchange. If you’re buying HIT now, the no-surprises approach is to go with a big vendor that will adapt your system to developing federal regs. Best way to get a jump on achieving meaningful use in your health care organization? Seek out those paper holdouts among your clinicians, and ‘electrify’ them. More from AMNews…

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