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Erie County Medical Center Selects Allscripts Electronic Health Record - July 19, 2010
Orlando Florida --
Allscripts announced today that Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) Corporation, a 550-bed academic medical center in Buffalo, has selected the Allscripts Electronic Health Record (EHR) for 100 of its physicians to enhance the quality of patient care, improve physician and patient communications, and better manage the cost of care delivery in 24 outpatient clinics.
A major teaching facility for the University at Buffalo, ECMC also is a key participant in a regional health information organization (RHIO) that recently received a $16 million federal grant to increase the use of health IT in the Buffalo area for clinical quality improvement. ECMC was the value of the Allscripts solution in helping the organization to satisfy the “meaningful use” requirements of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). In addition, ECMC’s relationship with UBMD, the University of New York at Buffalo’s faculty practice, a current user of Allscripts, will facilitate the transition from paper to electronic records for ECMC.
“The ability of Allscripts to make our healthcare system more efficient and to meet the needs of our clinicians is very important to us,” said Leslie Feidt, Chief Information Officer of ECMC. “The Allscripts EHR will also help us satisfy the government’s ‘meaningful use’ requirements, in part by enabling us to collect and report quality data. This will be very important in improving the quality of care and patient outcomes.”
Katrina Karas, Director of Ambulatory and Renal Services for ECMC, commented, “The Allscripts EHR meets the needs of our primary-care clinics as well as our many specialties, ranging from surgery and orthopedics to gastroenterology and anti-coagulation therapy.”
ECMC will link the Allscripts solution to the hospital’s inpatient Meditech Electronic Health Record and billing system, ensuring that their physicians inside and outside the hospital have access to the same patient information. ECMC also will implement the Allscripts Analytics solution to run quality reports and display them on an easy-to-use dashboard. According to Feidt, ECMC will use the analytics application not only for external reporting of quality data, but also internally to help physician leaders identify and remedy gaps in care.
Additionally, ECMC will deploy the Allscripts Universal Application Integrator (UAI), which enables customers to interface the Allscripts EHR with medical devices and third-party software without writing special interfaces. UAI allows Allscripts to add best-of-breed functionality quickly, often 12 to 18 months faster than other vendors can achieve using traditional development methods.
“At a time when information silos, whether paper or digital, hamper the ability of providers to care for patients, building interoperability among health IT systems is more important than ever,” said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts. “The Erie County Medical Center and its physicians are ahead of the curve in their focus on interoperability, not only connecting our solution with their own inpatient system, but also helping to create a community platform that will improve the coordination of care and care outcomes for all patients in the Buffalo area.”
With the help of the Allscripts READY program, which accelerates EHR implementation, ECMC expects to go live on the Electronic Health Record by the beginning of 2011.
Additional Information on ARRA and Meaningful Use
Allscripts has recently deployed a number of resources to help physician practices demonstrate “meaningful use” and take advantage of ARRA:
•The Allscripts Stimulus Program provides physicians with a guarantee that the Allscripts Electronic Health Record they select will meet the EHR certification criteria provided by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Physicians can also benefit from an Allscripts financing program requiring no payments for software for six months, as well as programs focused on faster implementation to ensure physicians can access the Federal Stimulus incentives.
•The Allscripts Stimulus Center provides the latest information on ARRA, including frequently asked questions on Meaningful Use and Certification.
•The Allscripts Legislative & Regulatory Action Center is a place to learn about and take action on issues that are critical to the provider community, providing a simple, ‘one touch’ connection to elected officials.
•‘Go’ is a website designed for physicians and other providers who are considering deploying Electronic Health Records and other healthcare information technologies. Available at www.allscripts.com/go, the site provides easy access to best practices and success stories from the Allscripts client community of more than 160,000 physicians, 800 hospitals, and 10,000 post-acute care facilities.
About Erie County Medical Center
The ECMC Corporation includes an advanced academic medical center (ECMC) with 550 inpatient beds and 136 skilled-nursing-home beds, on- and off-campus health centers, more than 30 outpatient specialty care clinics, and the Erie County Home, a skilled nursing facility. ECMC is the regional center for trauma, burn care, rehabilitation and is a major teaching facility for the University at Buffalo. Most ECMC physicians, dentists and pharmacists are dedicated faculty members of the university. More Western New York residents are choosing ECMC for exceptional patient care and customer service provided as a result of its Culture of Care.
Read more: http://emrdailynews.com/2010/07/19/4422/#ixzz0u9h486cG
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For more information please call (407) 494-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information
Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EHR Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including Allscripts, VMware, Dell Fujitsu EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Gateway Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Orlando Lake Mary Daytona, Medical City solutions include Security "meaningful use" "meaningful usage" EMC HP IBM Quantum Compliance Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Daytona Beach Deland Melborne Tampa Clearwater, Dragon, Voice Recognition, Dragon Dictation
Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts Patient Data electronic health record P4P rules and the HITECH Act PayerView Rankings practice management tools $44,000 in Medicare or $66,000 in Medicaid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, GE Centricity, and Meditech Electronic Healthcare IT Medical Records EHR Clinical Practices eClinicalWorks Allscripts Florida EMR, EHR, electronic medical record, health, records, practice management systems solutions, medication services, PHR Otolaryngology, Orthopaedics, pediatrics, eprescribe, dermatology, electronic documention, CCI edits, CPT codes, ICD 9 Codes, ICD 10 codes, comploiance, electronic medical records, Pain Nuerosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Billing, Appointment Scheduling, clinicalworks, eClinicalWorks, solutions for physicians, hospitals, clinical education and medical services Computerized Patient CPR, Order Entry, CPOE, Document Clinical Information Informatics, Computer-based, SOAP, HIT, Healthcare Encounter Forms, web based, online, clinical rules database, electronic prescribing, e-prescribing, eprescribing, athenaClinicals, certified EMR, certified EHR, HITECH Act VAR Reseller Dealer hipaa privacy doctor, healthcare performance management, data security, hosting, arra, free, InterFAX, MyWay, HIPPA, EasyPayMedicare, MedicAID, SureScripts, FNC, billing, superbill iMedica Tiger on Windows, eprescribe pqri simple practice management revenue cycle e-cw e-clinicalworks greenway emds nextgen ge sage athena epic klas Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault Health Internet certified "meaningful use" violations HealthPresence Health Presence Sencilo “transformative” telemedicine medicaid medicare Seminole County Medical Society Orange county Orlando Medical News Trusted Advisor e-Prescription e-Rx CareTracker paperless scanning document storage hippa audits iscribe document scanning fi-6130 fi-6040 CCHIT ARRA surescript
MedWest Health Systems Selects Allscripts Electronic Health Records and Practice Management for Employed Physicians - July 19, 2010
Orlando Florida --
CHICAGO and SYLVA, N.C., July 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Allscripts (Nasdaq: MDRX) announced today that MedWest Health System, a three-hospital system in western North Carolina, has selected Allscripts Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Practice Management (PM) solution for its 60 employed physicians. MedWest is also planning to host and deliver the Allscripts solution to more than 200 independent physicians in the communities it serves.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081013/AQM041LOGO)
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081013/AQM041LOGO)
"Allscripts clearly has superior features and functionality, but what really tipped the scales in their favor was their demonstrated ability to implement and support the technology across a large physician enterprise," commented Steve Heatherly, Chief Strategy Officer and Vice President of Ambulatory Services for MedWest. "In addition, we've always planned to share the electronic health record with our non-employed community doctors as part of our physician integration strategy, and Allscripts has significant experience with similar deployment models."
MedWest adds to the Allscripts market-leading client footprint in North Carolina, where the company provides solutions to more than 3,300 individual physician practices.
MedWest expects to demonstrate "meaningful use" of the Electronic Health Record by next year so its providers can qualify for the maximum government subsidies under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). To get the system up and running in all of its offices in that time frame, MedWest will use the Allscripts READY accelerated deployment solution, a standardized implementation "tool kit" that provides best-in-class recommendations for products, certified workflows and implementation, along with automated processes for tracking and managing the implementation.
MedWest's physicians also will use Allscripts Remote, which allows providers to access the Electronic Health Record remotely on their iPhone™, BlackBerry® or Windows® Mobile smartphone; Allscripts Patient Portal, enabling patients to access their records and communicate online with their physicians; and Allscripts Analytics, which analyzes EHR data, summarizes key performance indicators, and provides practice leaders and senior healthcare executives with high-level clinical information across their physician groups and networks to manage patient populations for better health.
"Analytics will help us measure outcomes and make sure we're using evidence-based medicine to produce the best possible patient outcomes," Heatherly said. "In addition, we want to be able to track referrals to understand the factors that influence physicians when they make referrals to our hospitals, other hospitals, and within the physician community."
MedWest will deploy the Allscripts Practice Management System to its owned practices before it introduces the Electronic Health Record. Today, Heatherly explained, MedWest's 15 ambulatory-care offices are using half a dozen different systems. Bringing them all live on the Allscripts PM system will make MedWest's central billing office more efficient and will improve revenue cycle management. Similarly, replacing the disparate EMRs in current use with the Allscripts Electronic Health Record will make delivering patient care more efficient and effective.
"As healthcare reform begins to change reimbursement methodologies, hospitals across the country want to align more closely with their physicians, whether employed or independent," said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts. "We're using innovation technology to create true clinical integration among hospitals and physicians, independent of the systems they are using. Allscripts is providing the tools and solutions for a connected system of health, one that will benefit MedWest and most importantly, its patients."
Additional Information on ARRA and Meaningful Use
Allscripts has recently deployed a number of resources to help physician practices demonstrate "meaningful use" and take advantage of the ARRA incentives:
■The Allscripts Stimulus Program provides physicians with a guarantee that the Allscripts Electronic Health Record they select will meet the EHR certification criteria provided by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Physicians can also benefit from an Allscripts financing program requiring no payments for software for six months, as well as programs focused on faster implementation to ensure physicians can access the Federal Stimulus incentives.
■The Allscripts Stimulus Center provides the latest information on ARRA, including frequently asked questions on Meaningful Use and Certification.
■The Allscripts Legislative & Regulatory Action Center is a place to learn about and take action on issues that are critical to the provider community, providing a simple, 'one touch' connection to elected officials.
■'Go' is a website designed for physicians and other providers who are considering deploying Electronic Health Records and other healthcare information technologies. Available at www.allscripts.com/go, the site provides easy access to best practices and success stories from the Allscripts client community of more than 160,000 physicians, 800 hospitals, and 10,000 post-acute care facilities.
About MedWest
MedWest Health System includes Haywood Regional Medical Center in Waynesville, Harris Regional Hospital in Sylva and Swain County Hospital in Bryson City, with a system wide total of 323 licensed beds. In addition to the hospitals, MedWest operates the outpatient facilities Harris Medical Park in Sylva, Swain Medical Park in Bryson City, Medical Park of Franklin and is a partner in Mountain Regional Cancer Centers with a state-of-the-art radiation therapy facility in Sylva. MedWest serves 160,000 people in Haywood, Jackson, Swain, Macon and Graham counties with a medical staff of more than 230 physicians, many of whom are part of an employed physician network. MedWest is affiliated with Carolinas Healthcare System. For more information, visit www.westcare.org.
About Allscripts
Allscripts uses innovation technology to bring health to healthcare. More than 160,000 physicians, 800 hospitals and more than 10,000 post-acute and homecare organizations utilize Allscripts to improve the health of their patients and their bottom line. The company's award-winning solutions include Electronic Health Record, Electronic Prescribing, Revenue Cycle Solutions, Practice Management, Document Management, Care Management, Emergency Department Information Systems and Homecare automation. Allscripts is the brand name of Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Inc. To learn more, visit www.allscripts.com.
For more Allscripts news, follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/AllscriptsMisys
This news release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Statements regarding future events, developments, the Company's future performance, as well as management's expectations, beliefs, intentions, plans, estimates or projections relating to the future are forward-looking statements within the meaning of these laws. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, some of which are outlined below. As a result, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated by the forward-looking statements. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements are: the volume and timing of systems sales and installations; length of sales cycles and the installation process; the possibility that products will not achieve or sustain market acceptance; the timing, cost and success or failure of new product and service introductions, development and product upgrade releases; competitive pressures including product offerings, pricing and promotional activities; our ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships; undetected errors or similar problems in our software products; compliance with existing laws, regulations and industry initiatives and future changes in laws or regulations in the healthcare industry; possible regulation of the Company's software by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; the possibility of product-related liabilities; our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel; our ability to identify and complete acquisitions, manage our growth and integrate acquisitions; the ability to recognize the benefits of the merger with Misys Healthcare Systems, LLC ("MHS"); the integration of MHS with the Company and the possible disruption of current plans and operations as a result thereof; maintaining our intellectual property rights and litigation involving intellectual property rights; risks related to third-party suppliers; our ability to obtain, use or successfully integrate third-party licensed technology; breach of our security by third parties; and the risk factors detailed from time to time in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our 2009 Annual Report on Form 10-K available through the Web site maintained by the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
SOURCE Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Inc.
Read more: MedWest Health System Selects Allscripts Electronic Health Record and Practice Management for Employed Physicians
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For more information please call (407) 494-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information
Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EHR Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including Allscripts, VMware, Dell Fujitsu EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Gateway Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Orlando Lake Mary Daytona, Medical City solutions include Security "meaningful use" "meaningful usage" EMC HP IBM Quantum Compliance Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Daytona Beach Deland Melborne Tampa Clearwater, Dragon, Voice Recognition, Dragon Dictation
Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts Patient Data electronic health record P4P rules and the HITECH Act PayerView Rankings practice management tools $44,000 in Medicare or $66,000 in Medicaid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, GE Centricity, and Meditech Electronic Healthcare IT Medical Records EHR Clinical Practices eClinicalWorks Allscripts Florida EMR, EHR, electronic medical record, health, records, practice management systems solutions, medication services, PHR Otolaryngology, Orthopaedics, pediatrics, eprescribe, dermatology, electronic documention, CCI edits, CPT codes, ICD 9 Codes, ICD 10 codes, comploiance, electronic medical records, Pain Nuerosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Billing, Appointment Scheduling, clinicalworks, eClinicalWorks, solutions for physicians, hospitals, clinical education and medical services Computerized Patient CPR, Order Entry, CPOE, Document Clinical Information Informatics, Computer-based, SOAP, HIT, Healthcare Encounter Forms, web based, online, clinical rules database, electronic prescribing, e-prescribing, eprescribing, athenaClinicals, certified EMR, certified EHR, HITECH Act VAR Reseller Dealer hipaa privacy doctor, healthcare performance management, data security, hosting, arra, free, InterFAX, MyWay, HIPPA, EasyPayMedicare, MedicAID, SureScripts, FNC, billing, superbill iMedica Tiger on Windows, eprescribe pqri simple practice management revenue cycle e-cw e-clinicalworks greenway emds nextgen ge sage athena epic klas Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault Health Internet certified "meaningful use" violations HealthPresence Health Presence Sencilo “transformative” telemedicine medicaid medicare Seminole County Medical Society Orange county Orlando Medical News Trusted Advisor e-Prescription e-Rx CareTracker paperless scanning document storage hippa audits iscribe document scanning fi-6130 fi-6040 CCHIT ARRA surescript
Will digital medical records save your life? - July 19, 2010
Orlando Florida --
As far as medical health records go, we're kind of trapped in a weird state of transition that can be confusing, frustrating, and even dangerous for patients.
Many doctor's officers and hospitals still use traditional paper files, or a mix of paper and electronic files, while fewer than 10 percent have transitioned into the world of electronic health records. But that number is likely to grow sharply over the next three years because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The stimulus package provides incentives for physician practices and hospitals to convert to electronic health-record systems that fit government criteria by 2014.
..Although it will be very difficult for 100 percent of doctor’s offices and hospitals to go electronic by the administration’s 2014 goal, there’s a good chance at least one of your healthcare providers will.
"Electronic health records incentives decrease over time, so the earlier doctors implement them, the more incentive money they earn," says electronic health records expert Paul Tang, MD, an internist and vice president and chief innovation and technology officer for the Palo Alto Medical Foundation in California. "After 2014, there's actually a penalty if you haven't implemented."
Are you a cyberchondriac? Here's the cure
Currently, some health systems already use electronic health records to pull up patient history and lab results. However, these records don't contain patient information from other healthcare systems or specialists, and other institutions can't access the information. As doctors sign onto the government plan, though, all of your doctors, no matter what hospital or specialist you're seeing, will be able to pull up all of your health information in order to make the most informed decision on your care.
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For more information please call (407) 494-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information
Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EHR Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including Allscripts, VMware, Dell Fujitsu EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Gateway Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Orlando Lake Mary Daytona, Medical City solutions include Security "meaningful use" "meaningful usage" EMC HP IBM Quantum Compliance Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Daytona Beach Deland Melborne Tampa Clearwater, Dragon, Voice Recognition, Dragon Dictation
Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts Patient Data electronic health record P4P rules and the HITECH Act PayerView Rankings practice management tools $44,000 in Medicare or $66,000 in Medicaid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, GE Centricity, and Meditech Electronic Healthcare IT Medical Records EHR Clinical Practices eClinicalWorks Allscripts Florida EMR, EHR, electronic medical record, health, records, practice management systems solutions, medication services, PHR Otolaryngology, Orthopaedics, pediatrics, eprescribe, dermatology, electronic documention, CCI edits, CPT codes, ICD 9 Codes, ICD 10 codes, comploiance, electronic medical records, Pain Nuerosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Billing, Appointment Scheduling, clinicalworks, eClinicalWorks, solutions for physicians, hospitals, clinical education and medical services Computerized Patient CPR, Order Entry, CPOE, Document Clinical Information Informatics, Computer-based, SOAP, HIT, Healthcare Encounter Forms, web based, online, clinical rules database, electronic prescribing, e-prescribing, eprescribing, athenaClinicals, certified EMR, certified EHR, HITECH Act VAR Reseller Dealer hipaa privacy doctor, healthcare performance management, data security, hosting, arra, free, InterFAX, MyWay, HIPPA, EasyPayMedicare, MedicAID, SureScripts, FNC, billing, superbill iMedica Tiger on Windows, eprescribe pqri simple practice management revenue cycle e-cw e-clinicalworks greenway emds nextgen ge sage athena epic klas Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault Health Internet certified "meaningful use" violations HealthPresence Health Presence Sencilo “transformative” telemedicine medicaid medicare Seminole County Medical Society Orange county Orlando Medical News Trusted Advisor e-Prescription e-Rx CareTracker paperless scanning document storage hippa audits iscribe document scanning fi-6130 fi-6040 CCHIT ARRA surescript
Voice Recognition Technology Shines on iPad - July 19, 2010
Orlando Florida --
In case you didn’t know it, the iPad has a built in microphone. Yes, that’s right. It’s located at the top of the iPad. It’s the little pin sized hole next to the headphone jack. The reason I mention this is because not everyone is aware the iPad has a microphone. After all, the iPad isn’t designed to make phone calls like the iPhone so why does the iPad have a microphone?
One theory is that Apple designed the iPad with a microphone because they will later release the iPad with a camera and it makes sense to have a microphone for video chats. More likely, Apple put a microphone into the iPad to take advantage of voice recognition capabilities. As great as the multi-touch interface is on the iPad, there is nothing more natural than speaking with your voice.
There are two great free voice recognition apps for the iPad that have really impressed me. The first app I discovered that uses voice recognition technology is the Google mobile app.
Google’s mobile app allows you to search the Internet by using just your voice. It is amazingly accurate and fun to use. Google voice search is one of my iPad’s tricks that I always like to show off to people who’ve never seen the iPad. I feel like a magician when I ask people what they want to find, have them speak the words, and then have their search results magically appear on the iPad screen.
The second app I discovered that uses voice recognition is Dragon Dictation. Dragon Dictation is a wonderful free app from Nuance who is the industry leader in voice recognition technology. Dragon Dictation is a very simple app that allows you to speak words and have them instantly transferred into text. It works very well. In fact, it works so well that I wrote most of this article using the Dragon Dictation app.
I found that the Dragon Dictation app accurately translated my spoken words into text about 95% of the time. When I needed to make a correction, it was easy to do so using the pop-up keyboard at the bottom of the screen. The accuracy may improve if you plug in an external microphone (which Nuance recommends for best performance) but I’ve just been using the iPad’s built in microphone.
One of the great things about the Dragon Dictation app is that there is no learning curve necessary unlike some other voice recognition software. The Dragon app instantly recognizes your voice without any training and you can easily email the text from within the Dragon app or copy and paste the text you’ve created into other apps.
I can definitely speak a lot faster than I can type on the iPad so I plan on using the Dragon app quite frequently. My job requires me to be on email a lot and writing a long email is definitely easier with the Dragon app than pecking away at the iPad keyboard. I would easily pay at least $9.99 for the Dragon Dictation app but the good folks at Nuance are giving it away for free. I highly recommend that everyone who has an iPad downloads this app.
There are so many great uses for voice recognition technology on the iPad. Did you know the iPad had voice recognition capabilities? How else would you like to see this technology used?
The author of this post is Lorne Lakin
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For more information please call (407) 494-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information
Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EHR Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including Allscripts, VMware, Dell Fujitsu EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Gateway Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Orlando Lake Mary Daytona, Medical City solutions include Security "meaningful use" "meaningful usage" EMC HP IBM Quantum Compliance Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Daytona Beach Deland Melborne Tampa Clearwater, Dragon, Voice Recognition, Dragon Dictation
Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts Patient Data electronic health record P4P rules and the HITECH Act PayerView Rankings practice management tools $44,000 in Medicare or $66,000 in Medicaid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, GE Centricity, and Meditech Electronic Healthcare IT Medical Records EHR Clinical Practices eClinicalWorks Allscripts Florida EMR, EHR, electronic medical record, health, records, practice management systems solutions, medication services, PHR Otolaryngology, Orthopaedics, pediatrics, eprescribe, dermatology, electronic documention, CCI edits, CPT codes, ICD 9 Codes, ICD 10 codes, comploiance, electronic medical records, Pain Nuerosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Billing, Appointment Scheduling, clinicalworks, eClinicalWorks, solutions for physicians, hospitals, clinical education and medical services Computerized Patient CPR, Order Entry, CPOE, Document Clinical Information Informatics, Computer-based, SOAP, HIT, Healthcare Encounter Forms, web based, online, clinical rules database, electronic prescribing, e-prescribing, eprescribing, athenaClinicals, certified EMR, certified EHR, HITECH Act VAR Reseller Dealer hipaa privacy doctor, healthcare performance management, data security, hosting, arra, free, InterFAX, MyWay, HIPPA, EasyPayMedicare, MedicAID, SureScripts, FNC, billing, superbill iMedica Tiger on Windows, eprescribe pqri simple practice management revenue cycle e-cw e-clinicalworks greenway emds nextgen ge sage athena epic klas Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault Health Internet certified "meaningful use" violations HealthPresence Health Presence Sencilo “transformative” telemedicine medicaid medicare Seminole County Medical Society Orange county Orlando Medical News Trusted Advisor e-Prescription e-Rx CareTracker paperless scanning document storage hippa audits iscribe document scanning fi-6130 fi-6040 CCHIT ARRA surescript
Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records: Final Rules Issued - July 19, 2010
Orlando Florida --
New Meaningful Use rules for electronic health records were just announced by the Secretary for Health and Human Services. The final modifications ease some of the requirements that the healthcare industry found objectionable, while still attempting to retain “the intent and structure of the incentive programs.” For example, under the rules proposed earlier in January, physicians needed to meet 25 requirements in their use of EHRs to earn bonus payments, while hospitals needed 23. The new rules mandate a smaller core group of requirements: 15 for physicians and 14 for hospitals. Providers must also choose 5 additional procedures from a list of 10. Also, the number of electronic prescriptions a doctor is required to make was reduced from 75 percent to 40 percent.
Other rule changes include: the addition of objectives for providing condition-specific patient education resources, and recording advance directives; defining a hospital-based eligible provider (EP) as one who performs substantially all of his or her services in an inpatient hospital setting or emergency room only; and the inclusion of critical access hospitals (CAHs) within the definition of acute care hospital for the purpose of incentive program eligibility under Medicaid.
Further requirements for meaningful use incentive payments will be phased in over a number of years, increasing standards for performance on IT and quality objectives. As much as $27 billion may be spent on incentive payments over the next ten years. Via Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
For more information, a recap of the final Meaningful Use Rules can be found online at the New England Journal of Medicine.
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For more information please call (407) 494-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information
Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EHR Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including Allscripts, VMware, Dell Fujitsu EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Gateway Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Orlando Lake Mary Daytona, Medical City solutions include Security "meaningful use" "meaningful usage" EMC HP IBM Quantum Compliance Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Daytona Beach Deland Melborne Tampa Clearwater, Dragon, Voice Recognition, Dragon Dictation
Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts Patient Data electronic health record P4P rules and the HITECH Act PayerView Rankings practice management tools $44,000 in Medicare or $66,000 in Medicaid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, GE Centricity, and Meditech Electronic Healthcare IT Medical Records EHR Clinical Practices eClinicalWorks Allscripts Florida EMR, EHR, electronic medical record, health, records, practice management systems solutions, medication services, PHR Otolaryngology, Orthopaedics, pediatrics, eprescribe, dermatology, electronic documention, CCI edits, CPT codes, ICD 9 Codes, ICD 10 codes, comploiance, electronic medical records, Pain Nuerosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Billing, Appointment Scheduling, clinicalworks, eClinicalWorks, solutions for physicians, hospitals, clinical education and medical services Computerized Patient CPR, Order Entry, CPOE, Document Clinical Information Informatics, Computer-based, SOAP, HIT, Healthcare Encounter Forms, web based, online, clinical rules database, electronic prescribing, e-prescribing, eprescribing, athenaClinicals, certified EMR, certified EHR, HITECH Act VAR Reseller Dealer hipaa privacy doctor, healthcare performance management, data security, hosting, arra, free, InterFAX, MyWay, HIPPA, EasyPayMedicare, MedicAID, SureScripts, FNC, billing, superbill iMedica Tiger on Windows, eprescribe pqri simple practice management revenue cycle e-cw e-clinicalworks greenway emds nextgen ge sage athena epic klas Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault Health Internet certified "meaningful use" violations HealthPresence Health Presence Sencilo “transformative” telemedicine medicaid medicare Seminole County Medical Society Orange county Orlando Medical News Trusted Advisor e-Prescription e-Rx CareTracker paperless scanning document storage hippa audits iscribe document scanning fi-6130 fi-6040 CCHIT ARRA surescript
HP Targets EHRs - July 19, 2010
Orlando Florida --
HDM Breaking News, July 14, 2010
Hewlett-Packard Co. has launched a new program to support the adoption of electronic health records in hospitals and physician practices.
The HP EHReady program includes a range of HP hardware products bundled with EHR technology, marketing services to promote adoption to physicians, and multiple financing options, according to the Palo Alto, Calif.-based vendor.
Advertisement
HP did not identify vendor partners for the program, but notes it has existing relationships with EHR firms Allscripts, McKesson Corp. and GE Healthcare and is developing more relationships. HP staff will provide installation services, testing, user set up and software configuration for the hardware. Partners will handle EHR software implementation and training.
Other available services under the program include assessments, support, help desk, disaster recovery, and program management. More information is available at hp.com/go/EHReady.
--Joseph Goedert
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For more information please call (407) 494-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information
Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EHR Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including Allscripts, VMware, Dell Fujitsu EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Gateway Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Orlando Lake Mary Daytona, Medical City solutions include Security "meaningful use" "meaningful usage" EMC HP IBM Quantum Compliance Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Daytona Beach Deland Melborne Tampa Clearwater, Dragon, Voice Recognition, Dragon Dictation
Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts Patient Data electronic health record P4P rules and the HITECH Act PayerView Rankings practice management tools $44,000 in Medicare or $66,000 in Medicaid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, GE Centricity, and Meditech Electronic Healthcare IT Medical Records EHR Clinical Practices eClinicalWorks Allscripts Florida EMR, EHR, electronic medical record, health, records, practice management systems solutions, medication services, PHR Otolaryngology, Orthopaedics, pediatrics, eprescribe, dermatology, electronic documention, CCI edits, CPT codes, ICD 9 Codes, ICD 10 codes, comploiance, electronic medical records, Pain Nuerosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Billing, Appointment Scheduling, clinicalworks, eClinicalWorks, solutions for physicians, hospitals, clinical education and medical services Computerized Patient CPR, Order Entry, CPOE, Document Clinical Information Informatics, Computer-based, SOAP, HIT, Healthcare Encounter Forms, web based, online, clinical rules database, electronic prescribing, e-prescribing, eprescribing, athenaClinicals, certified EMR, certified EHR, HITECH Act VAR Reseller Dealer hipaa privacy doctor, healthcare performance management, data security, hosting, arra, free, InterFAX, MyWay, HIPPA, EasyPayMedicare, MedicAID, SureScripts, FNC, billing, superbill iMedica Tiger on Windows, eprescribe pqri simple practice management revenue cycle e-cw e-clinicalworks greenway emds nextgen ge sage athena epic klas Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault Health Internet certified "meaningful use" violations HealthPresence Health Presence Sencilo “transformative” telemedicine medicaid medicare Seminole County Medical Society Orange county Orlando Medical News Trusted Advisor e-Prescription e-Rx CareTracker paperless scanning document storage hippa audits iscribe document scanning fi-6130 fi-6040 CCHIT ARRA surescript
New EMR meaningful use rules praised - July 19, 2010
Orlando Florida --
New government regulations covering meaningful use of electronic medical records are winning kudos from EMR and healthcare providers alike, with few naysayers piping up.
New regulations governing how healthcare providers can prove meaningful use of electronic medical records technology, a hallmark of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law, are winning praise from both EMR and healthcare providers.
To tap into the $27 billion being made available over the next decade to promote EMR adoption, healthcare providers must demonstrate meaningful use of an EMR system. Exactly what that entailed, however, wasn’t clear until the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services issued MU regulations Tuesday.
The finalized rules require that providers meet 14 to 15 core requirements and choose five more from a menu of 10 options. Mark Segal, vice president of government and industry affairs for GE Healthcare, toldMassDevice that the new rules accomplish “two very important things.”
“One was that core and menu. The other was that, for a number of the items, they substantially reduced the numerical thresholds,” Segal told us. “For example, they eliminated two items that had been proposed for Stage 1 that were really more revenue-cycle-focused. We think those are very important, electronic eligibility checks and electronic claims submission and we’ve got products that are focused on that, but many EHRs don’t have those as part of their core functionality. Keeping them in would have complicated the rollout of the program.”
Dr. Tom Giannulli is chief medical information officer for Epocrates, which is developing its own EMR offering slated for release some time this fall. Giannulli told us that he’s “very positive” about the new regulations.
“I commend the group under [national HIT coordinator]Dr. David Blumenthal. They did a great job. They really executed well against a really short timeframe and used a lot of common sense,” he said. “From a physician’s perspective, they’ve really metered down the more burdensome requirements and they’ve created this staged approach where a user can use the EMR in a very basic way and solve the meaningful use puzzle for the first two years. Once they’ve had that runway and the chance to get used to the technology, they can become more sophisticated users and solve the meaningful use concerns for Stages 2 and 3.”
That said, there are some unaddressed issues remaining, Giannulli noted, including usability standards.
“The usability standards for these products need to be looked at, because most of the EMRs that are out there are unusable in the production environment. They have to be struggled with in order to be productive and often don’t fulfill the requirements of going through a real-time [patient] encounter,” he explained. “They have to be done after the fact and add additional time to the encounter flow. In reality, if they’re designed correctly they can be operated in real time and actually enhance the efficiency of the doctor.”
Poor or non-existent infrastructure is another problem, Giannulli said, citing the immunization reporting requirement.
“There are these registries for immunizations. Those registries are state-region-by-state-region controlled. A lot of states don’t even have registries and some states, like California, have four registries. The interface used to report data to these registries is not standardized, so even though there’s a spec that says you have to submit to a state registry, that may be impossible or near-impossible based on that infrastructure. There are a lot of connectivity and interoperability assumptions built into the guidelines that are going to be really hard to implement until the infrastructure gets to a state where it’s more streamlined,” he said. “I would really appreciate it if the government spent some of that $27 billion to create a hub that every EMR could talk to to facilitate immunization or other types of data submission. If I’m a nationwide system and I want to satisfy every state or regional user’s immunization registry requirement, I’d have to build something like 80 different interfaces. They really need to step up their game and say, ‘Look, we understand there are these roadblocks and there isn’t a lot of infrastructure. We’re going to patch that infrastructure by spending a little bit of this money and building these kind of interfaces.’”
John Hallock, director of corporate communications for Athenahealth Inc. (NSDQ:ATHN), called his company “neutral” on the new rules.
“The consensus is that many of the criteria were lessened, certainly around [computerized physician order entry] and other key issues hospitals had regarding their legacy IT systems. Stage 1 of the HITECH Act, 2011 and 2012, will be relatively mild. Stage 2 has not been defined,” Hallock told us. “Part of the HITECH Act stipulates much stricter parameters around security and privacy of patient data and the onus is not on the vendors, it’s on the hospitals and doctors. It remains to be seen how all that plays out.”
Last September, Athenahealth took the bold step ofguaranteeing doctors and hospitals their share of the stimulus cash if they sign up for the company’s EMR offering. Earlier this month the companywon preliminary certification for its web-based EMR product from the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology.
----------
For more information please call (407) 494-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information
Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EHR Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including Allscripts, VMware, Dell Fujitsu EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Gateway Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Orlando Lake Mary Daytona, Medical City solutions include Security "meaningful use" "meaningful usage" EMC HP IBM Quantum Compliance Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Daytona Beach Deland Melborne Tampa Clearwater, Dragon, Voice Recognition, Dragon Dictation
Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts Patient Data electronic health record P4P rules and the HITECH Act PayerView Rankings practice management tools $44,000 in Medicare or $66,000 in Medicaid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, GE Centricity, and Meditech Electronic Healthcare IT Medical Records EHR Clinical Practices eClinicalWorks Allscripts Florida EMR, EHR, electronic medical record, health, records, practice management systems solutions, medication services, PHR Otolaryngology, Orthopaedics, pediatrics, eprescribe, dermatology, electronic documention, CCI edits, CPT codes, ICD 9 Codes, ICD 10 codes, comploiance, electronic medical records, Pain Nuerosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Billing, Appointment Scheduling, clinicalworks, eClinicalWorks, solutions for physicians, hospitals, clinical education and medical services Computerized Patient CPR, Order Entry, CPOE, Document Clinical Information Informatics, Computer-based, SOAP, HIT, Healthcare Encounter Forms, web based, online, clinical rules database, electronic prescribing, e-prescribing, eprescribing, athenaClinicals, certified EMR, certified EHR, HITECH Act VAR Reseller Dealer hipaa privacy doctor, healthcare performance management, data security, hosting, arra, free, InterFAX, MyWay, HIPPA, EasyPayMedicare, MedicAID, SureScripts, FNC, billing, superbill iMedica Tiger on Windows, eprescribe pqri simple practice management revenue cycle e-cw e-clinicalworks greenway emds nextgen ge sage athena epic klas Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault Health Internet certified "meaningful use" violations HealthPresence Health Presence Sencilo “transformative” telemedicine medicaid medicare Seminole County Medical Society Orange county Orlando Medical News Trusted Advisor e-Prescription e-Rx CareTracker paperless scanning document storage hippa audits iscribe document scanning fi-6130 fi-6040 CCHIT ARRA surescript
Feds Want Docs Off Paper Records - July 19, 2010
Orlando Florida --
The Obama administration on Tuesday rolled out an ambitious five-year plan for moving doctors and hospitals to computerized medical records, promising greater safety for patients and lower costs.
Starting next year, doctors' offices and hospitals can get federal money to help defray the costs of the systems, which can run to millions of dollars for hospitals. Providers who don't comply by 2015 will face cuts in Medicare payments.
Federal incentive payments for doctors and hospitals to buy computerized systems could reach $27 billion over 10 years, and that's only a fraction of what technology vendors stand to take in. It's hoped the investment will streamline the delivery of medical care, yielding long-run savings.
Patients get the benefit of systems that can warn doctors before they make a mistake — prescribing a drug that could cause a severe reaction, for example. And there's also the convenience of being able to access records online.
The move by the Health and Human Services Department came with the release of two regulations hundreds of pages long. The main one described how doctors and hospitals can qualify for federal money by acquiring systems that meet certain "meaningful use" standards. A companion rule outlined how the systems will be certified.
Initial reaction from key interest groups was guarded. As lawyers pored over the text of the regulations, the American Medical Association said it was withholding judgment. The American Hospital Association said it is concerned about serveral aspects.
Federal officials said they tried to address doctors' complaints that the initial draft of the rule asked them to do too much, too quickly. More than half of family doctors practice in groups of four or fewer. A majority of small and medium offices have opted not to adopt electronic records because of costs and unresolved questions, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.
David Kibbe, an adviser to the group, said that may start to change. "This is pretty good news," he said. "It will almost certainly translate into more physicians becoming participants in the electronic health records incentive program."
Money for electronic records was included in the 2009 economic stimulus bill.
Administration officials said they lowered the number of initial, "core" capabilities that the systems have to demonstrate in order for providers to get federal money, and allowed a longer period of time to achieve others.
They also lowered several additional requirements. Only 40 percent of medications will have to be electronically prescribed, as opposed to 75 percent as the government initially proposed.
The result "strikes the balance that was needed," said Steven Findlay, a policy expert with Consumers Union. "They give doctors the financial support to promote electronic records adoption without undue burdens. But they also hold doctors accountable for actually improving care and the health status of their patients."
The top government official overseeing the transition program says that reflects what happened to him in a previous stage of his career, when as a middle-age primary care doctor he was forced to learn to use electronic medical records.
David Blumenthal, now national coordinator for electronic health records, said the computer once saved him from prescribing a drug to a patient who was allergic to the medication. On many other occasions, he was able to avoid ordering duplicative tests, because earlier results stored in the system told him what he needed to know.
"I watched it make my care better before my eyes," said Blumenthal, formerly a prominent Boston area physician and Harvard professor.
Doctors' offices can receive as much as $44,000 through Medicare and $63,750 through Medicaid for installing computer systems that meet federal standards. Hospitals can receive millions.
----------
For more information please call (407) 494-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information
Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EHR Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including Allscripts, VMware, Dell Fujitsu EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Gateway Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Orlando Lake Mary Daytona, Medical City solutions include Security "meaningful use" "meaningful usage" EMC HP IBM Quantum Compliance Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Daytona Beach Deland Melborne Tampa Clearwater, Dragon, Voice Recognition, Dragon Dictation
Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts Patient Data electronic health record P4P rules and the HITECH Act PayerView Rankings practice management tools $44,000 in Medicare or $66,000 in Medicaid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, GE Centricity, and Meditech Electronic Healthcare IT Medical Records EHR Clinical Practices eClinicalWorks Allscripts Florida EMR, EHR, electronic medical record, health, records, practice management systems solutions, medication services, PHR Otolaryngology, Orthopaedics, pediatrics, eprescribe, dermatology, electronic documention, CCI edits, CPT codes, ICD 9 Codes, ICD 10 codes, comploiance, electronic medical records, Pain Nuerosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Billing, Appointment Scheduling, clinicalworks, eClinicalWorks, solutions for physicians, hospitals, clinical education and medical services Computerized Patient CPR, Order Entry, CPOE, Document Clinical Information Informatics, Computer-based, SOAP, HIT, Healthcare Encounter Forms, web based, online, clinical rules database, electronic prescribing, e-prescribing, eprescribing, athenaClinicals, certified EMR, certified EHR, HITECH Act VAR Reseller Dealer hipaa privacy doctor, healthcare performance management, data security, hosting, arra, free, InterFAX, MyWay, HIPPA, EasyPayMedicare, MedicAID, SureScripts, FNC, billing, superbill iMedica Tiger on Windows, eprescribe pqri simple practice management revenue cycle e-cw e-clinicalworks greenway emds nextgen ge sage athena epic klas Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault Health Internet certified "meaningful use" violations HealthPresence Health Presence Sencilo “transformative” telemedicine medicaid medicare Seminole County Medical Society Orange county Orlando Medical News Trusted Advisor e-Prescription e-Rx CareTracker paperless scanning document storage hippa audits iscribe document scanning fi-6130 fi-6040 CCHIT ARRA surescript
Texting, Apps Could Keep People Healthy - July 19, 2010
Orlando Florida --
WASHINGTON --
STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images
What if my blood sugar's too high today? Is it time for my blood pressure pill? With nagging text messages or more customized two-way interactions, researchers are trying to harness the power of cell phones to help fight chronic diseases.
"I call it medical minutes," says Dr. Richard Katz of George Washington University Hospital in the nation's capital.
He's testing whether inner-city diabetics, an especially hard-to-treat population, might better control their blood sugar - and thus save Medicaid dollars - by tracking their disease using Internet-connected cell phones, provided with reduced monthly rates as long as they regularly comply.
Consider Tyrone Harvey, 43, who learned he had diabetes seven years ago only after getting so sick he was hospitalized for a week, and who has struggled to lower his blood sugar ever since. In May, through a study Katz began with nearby Howard University Hospital's diabetes clinic, Harvey received a Web-based personal health record that he clicks onto using his cell phone, to record his daily blood sugar measurements.
If Harvey enters a reading higher or lower than preset danger thresholds, a text message automatically pings a warning, telling him what to do. And at checkups, doctors will use the personal health record, created by Indiana-based NoMoreClipboard.com, to track all his fluctuations and decide what next steps to advise.
"Hopefully you're paying more attention to your numbers, too," says Howard's Dr. Gail Nunlee-Bland, whose clinic uses an electronic health record - your official medical history - that can automatically link to NoMoreClipboard's consumer version and update it with things like medication changes.
The trend is called mobile health or, to use tech-speak, mHealth. If you're a savvy smartphone user, you've probably seen lots of apps that claim to help your health or fitness goals - using your phone like a pedometer or an alarm clock to signal when it's time to take your medicine.
Katz and other researchers are going a step further, scientifically testing whether more personalized cell phone-based programs can link patients' own care with their doctors' disease-management efforts in ways that might provide lasting health improvement.
"Mobile phones provide that opportunity for persons to get the feedback they need when they need it," explains Charlene Quinn, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland medical school, who is testing a competing cell phone diabetes system from Baltimore-based Welldoc Inc.
After all, most of the population now carries a cell phone. Accessing the Internet with them is on the rise, too - nearly 40 percent of cell callers do, the Pew Internet & American Life Project reported last week - allowing more sophisticated digital health contact.
On the other hand, older adults are less likely to use smartphones. So are people who are sicker, with multiple chronic diseases, says Dr. Joseph Kvedar, director of the Center for Connected Health, a division of Boston's Partners Healthcare.
Kvedar notes that nearly any phone can handle simpler text-messaging programs. Among the biggest offered to date is the free text4baby, where government-vetted health tips timed to pregnant women's due dates are texted weekly to about 50,000 participants so far.
Do these kinds of technologies work? There's some short-term evidence, although no one knows if people stick with it once the novelty wears off:
-In a study of 70 Boston residents to improve cancer-preventing use of sunscreen, Kvedar found daily texts with reminders hooked to the weather forecast for six weeks increased sunscreen use by 40 percent.
-Researchers at New York's Mount Sinai Medical Center found episodes of rejection dropped when they texted take-your-medicine reminders to 41 pediatric liver transplant recipients or their caregivers, adding another text nag to the parent if teen patients didn't quickly respond that they'd taken their dose.
-The University of California, San Diego, went a step further, designing a text-message program to encourage weight loss where participants texted back answers to such questions as "Did you buy fresh raw vegetables to snack on this week?" Answering allowed more customized texted diet tips. In a pilot study of 75 people, text-message recipients lost about four more pounds in four months than those given printed dieting advice.
-The Internet-based approach offers even more two-way interaction. This fall, Quinn will report results of a 260-patient study using a range of Welldoc phone features, including more real-time monitoring of the blood sugar fluctuations users enter. A small Welldoc pilot study found users' average blood sugar dropped over three months.
"What systems work best with patients has yet to be figured out," says George Washington's Katz, who is testing a version of that program, too - and worries not just about affordability when his study is over but whether interest will wane. "Otherwise, they find it's a nice toy to start with, and forget about it."
----------
For more information please call (407) 494-4EHR (4347) or visit us at: http://www.sencilo.com and let us "Uncomplexify your Information
Technology"
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture: More than technology With Sencilo HealthIT Solutions eHealthcare Architecture, you can leverage the same productivity tools and technology resources that have transformed business. And you get a full portfolio of services too. By working with Sencilo HealthIT Solutions, you can get:
A dedicated customer team
A website customized for your institution
A full portfolio of robust solutions
Easy setup, implementation and maintenance
Simple ordering and delivery
Technology training
Flexible financing options
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services makes it easy.
In addition to providing high-quality technology at a low cost, Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional
Services can help you plan your healthcare computing from the ground up. By working with you from the initial construction phases, we can help you save time and money and lead to a truly customized solution.
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions Professional Services offers complete services that include:
Design
Procurement
Installation
Training
Maintenance
Support
About Us
Sencilo HealthIT Solutions is a Florida-based integrator specializing in EHR Cost Cutting storage, security and managed services solutions. Sencilo delivers a comprehensive portfolio of products from best-of-breed hardware and software from multiple manufacturers including Allscripts, VMware, Dell Fujitsu EMC, Hitachi, Symantec, IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Gateway Sencilo has offices throughout Florida including: Orlando Lake Mary Daytona, Medical City solutions include Security "meaningful use" "meaningful usage" EMC HP IBM Quantum Compliance Gartner Magic Quadrant Quadrent LTO Daytona Beach Deland Melborne Tampa Clearwater, Dragon, Voice Recognition, Dragon Dictation
Network Backup appliance Data Recovery Backup Health IT Healthcare IT Digital Hospital Allscripts Patient Data electronic health record P4P rules and the HITECH Act PayerView Rankings practice management tools $44,000 in Medicare or $66,000 in Medicaid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, NextGen, GE Centricity, and Meditech Electronic Healthcare IT Medical Records EHR Clinical Practices eClinicalWorks Allscripts Florida EMR, EHR, electronic medical record, health, records, practice management systems solutions, medication services, PHR Otolaryngology, Orthopaedics, pediatrics, eprescribe, dermatology, electronic documention, CCI edits, CPT codes, ICD 9 Codes, ICD 10 codes, comploiance, electronic medical records, Pain Nuerosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Billing, Appointment Scheduling, clinicalworks, eClinicalWorks, solutions for physicians, hospitals, clinical education and medical services Computerized Patient CPR, Order Entry, CPOE, Document Clinical Information Informatics, Computer-based, SOAP, HIT, Healthcare Encounter Forms, web based, online, clinical rules database, electronic prescribing, e-prescribing, eprescribing, athenaClinicals, certified EMR, certified EHR, HITECH Act VAR Reseller Dealer hipaa privacy doctor, healthcare performance management, data security, hosting, arra, free, InterFAX, MyWay, HIPPA, EasyPayMedicare, MedicAID, SureScripts, FNC, billing, superbill iMedica Tiger on Windows, eprescribe pqri simple practice management revenue cycle e-cw e-clinicalworks greenway emds nextgen ge sage athena epic klas Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition Google Health, Microsoft Healthvault Health Internet certified "meaningful use" violations HealthPresence Health Presence Sencilo “transformative” telemedicine medicaid medicare Seminole County Medical Society Orange county Orlando Medical News Trusted Advisor e-Prescription e-Rx CareTracker paperless scanning document storage hippa audits iscribe document scanning fi-6130 fi-6040 CCHIT ARRA surescript
Best I.T. Practices for Small Medical Practices - July 19, 2010
Orlando Florida --
By Chris Sullivan
Many small and midsize healthcare providers are interested in the advantages offered by information technology, but find it difficult to move forward with actual deployment. Some fear they don’t have the in-house expertise to implement and manage the technology on an ongoing basis. Others believe they do not have the time or money to make such projects happen. But small healthcare offices can significantly grow their practice, ease workflow and improve the patient experience by adopting solutions, like electronic medical records or a server designed specifically for small businesses.
To overcome the challenges faced by practices, technology vendors and physicians are continuously working together to develop new and innovative solutions that meet these needs. These solutions are cost-effective, often take advantage of existing technologies, and are designed specifically with smaller healthcare practices in mind. However, the implementation of technology can seem daunting and costly to the practices that lack the staff and financial resources of large healthcare institutes. Thus, adoption suffers and healthcare remains far behind other industries in the adoption of technology.
The reality is that every practice has different needs that can be easily met through information technology, whether implementing a sound infrastructure in order to grow the practice, adding remote capabilities so employees can access patient files while away from the office, or electronically storing files to save room and reduce costs.
And, while some practices are early adopters of tablet PCs and enjoy a paperless office, and others use just a basic PC, there are many areas of technology investment small practices can look at, regardless of their current implementations.
IT Infrastructure
Before small practices — or any size practice, for that matter — can think about effectively growing their business or investing in sophisticated technologies such as an electronic medical record, they need to ensure they have the most appropriate IT infrastructure in place. For most small practices, a server solution, flexible enough to accommodate growth yet developed with a small practice in mind, will provide the infrastructure needed.
The emphasis on future growth here is important. As technology is ever-evolving, to stay competitive practices must implement a base solution that can support system upgrades and software add-ons in the future.
In fact, many small practices today are turning toward these all-in-one server solutions that not only provide the basis for a flexible infrastructure capable of handling future growth, but also address other key business needs, such as going paperless, security and government compliance. For example, a Maryland-based physical therapy clinic was able to increase productivity by 40 percent, open a satellite office, and increase the number of patients seen by 30 percent – simply by deploying a single server solution.
Going Paperless
Paper-based processes are one of the biggest productivity wasters in healthcare. A significant amount of time is lost in manually scheduling appointments, handwriting patient notes, filing charts, faxing documents to hospitals and insurance companies, and ensuring patient files are adequately protected to prevent HIPAA violations. Further, the costs spent on paper as well as the space needed to store rows of filing cabinets can be significant.
There are different solutions that practices can turn to in order to meet paperless goals. Some practices are able to go paperless as they upgrade their IT infrastructure with a server solution, or others achieve the paperless route through electronic medical records.
The physical therapy practice mentioned above actually reduced its paper spend by 75 percent and got rid of its fax machines – employees now fax PDF documents directly from their computers.
Security and Privacy of Information
Government mandates, such as HIPAA, are important factors set in place to ensure patient safety, satisfaction and privacy are met. They require confidentiality, integrity and availability of electronically protected health information, and are inherently important to patient safety.
Therefore, as practices look to adopt new technologies, it’s critical to ensure that the technology not only fits in with the practice’s privacy and security strategy, but also that it helps ease the process.
Many practices find that as they go paperless, their ability to meet stringent government guidelines and safely store patient information is drastically improved. At the most basic level, going paperless allows practices to protect patient information from everyone — even cleaning services and construction crews that are sometimes working late at night and in the office alone.
Some solutions even offer enforced network updates and server protection features, such as automatic tracking of staff members who have accessed a patient’s record, to ensure an extra layer of security exists, and automatic updates that make it easier to manage and protect data.
Mobility
Providing accurate, high quality care is critical. Practitioners need to be confident in their diagnoses, treatments and assessments, but they also need to be efficient. Running mobile applications designed specifically for healthcare professionals can both improve care and enhance productivity by helping physicians stay on top of e-mails and appointments while on-the-go, quickly research drugs and trials and even interpret lab test results.
In fact, one physician practice that specializes in wound care and treatment was able to reduce the number of hospitalizations by 90 percent after it implemented a mobile treatment program that allows for better collection and management of care data. And by providing employees with mobile phone devices, the clinic estimates it saves more than $1,000 annually per clinical staff member.
Additionally, going mobile provides an opportunity for the care provider to stay relevant – and ultimately competitive – in today’s digital world. The Millennial Generation has been raised with text messaging, instant messaging, e-mailing and social networking, and expects to use these forms of communication in most circumstances. These days, it’s almost easier for patients when providers can create automated text messages that remind them to take their medications or prompt them to remember upcoming appointments.
Mobile functionality can also help practice members effectively share information by ensuring real-time communication via talk, text message and e-mail.
Virtual Communications
Virtual communications can increase effective communication not only between staff members, but also between the patient and physician. For practices that have or are opening remote locations, virtual communications cut down on travel costs and time. For instance, staff members often need to join meetings or training sessions in other offices to ensure that practices are running efficiently and effectively and to get updates on new medical developments, but travel for these meetings can be expensive and difficult to fit in between patients. By using virtual communications, physicians and staff members can join meetings remotely via conference calls, desktop sharing and video chats. Furthermore, for those who can’t join virtual meetings in real time, meetings can be recorded and viewed later, leaving more time to spend with patients.
Virtual communication between the physician and patient essentially means that they don’t have to be in the same location. Physicians can assess patients while out of town, right in the comfort of the patient’s own home. These virtual visits can be especially beneficial to check in on a patient’s post-treatment care regimes, leading to improved care and reduced acute-care costs, increased revenue for the practice, and patient satisfaction and retention.
Remote Access
Whether mobile or via the Web – many practices are also starting to look into offering employees remote access so that they can access patient files while on the road or from home. Some feel that physicians will be encouraged to take on more patients during the day if they know they can work on documents at home, while others look to provide remote access to increase employee work-life balance.
What’s Next?
As time progresses, more and more small providers will be looking for new and innovative technology solutions that will help them stay relevant and competitive. Whatever the right course of action is for your healthcare practice, just remember that technology doesn’t have to be intimidating. In fact, not only does it help better meet the requirements set forth by the government, technology can save money, increase efficiency and improve the overall patient experience at the point of care.
Chris Sullivan is National Director of Health Provider Solutions, U.S. Health and Life Sciences, for Microsoft.
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