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August 2006 — Volume 1, No. 7 Meet Chuck Parker  Chuck Parker The HIMSS eNewsletter Task Force welcomes a new chair…Chuck Parker, vice president and chief technology officer for the Doctor’s Office Quality – Information Technology (DOQ-IT) in Massachusetts. Mr. Parker is the project lead in the DOQ-IT program, which is sponsored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). As background, the Doctor's Office Quality - Information Technology program is a national initiative that promotes the adoption of electronic health record (EHR) systems to improve quality and safety for Medicare beneficiaries in small- and medium-sized physician offices. As a member of the task force last year, Mr. Parker will lead the task force in planning future issues of The Digital Office. “I look forward to working with our team to provide relevant content to our readers, those clinicians and others interested in improving the delivery of health care through the adoption of the EHR.” Send any story ideas for the newsletter to Chuck Parker. Advancing the EHR with the HIMSS Katrina Phoenix Project
Rebuilding Waveland Medical Center Most of the patients now visiting WMC for the first time have no medical records and don’t remember their medical histories, making it difficult for WMC to treat and care for them. WMC is the first medical practice to rebuild its medical records with the help of electronic health records (EHR) software, SOAPWare, donated to the HIMSS Foundation’s Katrina Phoenix Project. Northstar, a service network, will deliver the data and software applications for the practice from True North Technology. True North is providing Total Office, a proprietary, on-demand, total-managed IT service which will include the new MacBook computer from Apple. Doug Nassar, CEO/president of True North, traveled to Waveland in late July for the installation as did Alice Loveys, MD, a pediatrician in Pittsford, NY, and recipient of the 2004 Ambulatory Davies Award. Both volunteered their time to help Dr. Chilimiagras customize the EMR that was installed in late July through the HIMSS Katrina Phoenix Project. Established in September 2005 to coordinate EHR donations of software and services from vendors to medical practices, the project is a joint effort with other organizations and led by Pat Wise, HIMSS vice president, healthcare information systems. HIMSS provided a grant to WMC through the HIMSS Foundation and implemented it through volunteers with the Katrina Phoenix project.
As the philanthropic arm of HIMSS, the Foundation administers the funding to rebuild these medical practices. Since the early 1990s, the Foundation has awarded more than $150,000 in scholarships to more than 45 exceptional students. The Digital Office has included before and after pictures of the Waveland Medical Center. The earlier photos appeared in the February 2006 edition of the newsletter. Read the complete news release. HHS Announces New Regulations for Exceptions and Safe Harbors It’s been a busy year for lawmakers reviewing and considering health information technology (HIT) legislation. Following is an update on legislation related to the implementation of EMRs. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced new federal regulations that will allow hospitals and certain other organizations to donate e-prescribing and electronic health records (EHR) technology and support services to physicians. The regulations create broader exceptions and safe harbors to federal fraud-and-abuse laws than initially proposed last October. "Electronic health records help doctors provide higher quality patient care, improved efficiency and with less hassle," HHS Secretary Leavitt said. "By removing barriers, these regulation changes will help physicians get these systems in place and working for patients faster." The announcement was made during the American Health Information Community's seventh meeting on Aug. 1. Click here for more information. H.R. 4157 Passes House of Representatives H.R. 4157 passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 270-148 on July 27. Six amendments were also passed by voice vote. Prior to the final vote, a motion to send the bill back to Committee was defeated 224-188. The rule to vote on the rule to send this legislation to the House floor for final passage was approved 224-188. The legislation will now move to the conference phase with the U.S. Senate healthcare IT legislation (S. 1418), which will occur after the August congressional recess. Please review the report explaining the bill as well as the six approved amendments. Readers can send a note of appreciation to their member of the House of Representatives for supporting this bill using the HIMSS Legislative Action Center and encouraging a prompt conference in September with the U.S. Senate. "We commend the House leadership and members of Congress for passing H.R. 4157," said HIMSS President/CEO H. Stephen Lieber. "We believe that H.R. 4157 contains provisions such as grants funding and Stark Reform that will help the industry to fulfill President Bush's goal of most Americans having an electronic health record by the year 2014. We urge the House and Senate to come together and conference H.R. 4157 and S. 1418 before the adjournment of the 109th Congress in an effort to pave the way for President Bush to sign HIT legislation this year." CCHIT Announces Additional Certified Electronic Health Record Products
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHITSM) announced on July 31 two additional ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) products that achieved certified status.
Survey on EMRs and Office-Based Physicians: Take some time to review the 2005 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Results indicate that one-quarter of office-based physicians report using fully or partially electronic medical record systems (EMR) in 2005, a 31% increase from the 18.2 percent reported in the 2001 survey. Read the full report. Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) Audio Conference: Be part of this Aug. 24 audio conference on “Realities of Forming a RHIO: The Michigan UP Healthcare Network Story. Learn how a coalition of 16 healthcare providers in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan have successfully collaborated with information systems for several years and are now in the implementation phase for a RHIO. The speaker will be Jim Sundberg, director of information technology at Marquette General Health System and CEO of its technology subsidiary, KliniTek. Registration Information now available.RFI: Request For Information. A standard business process designed to collect written information about the capabilities of various suppliers. Normally it follows a format that can be used for comparative purposes. RFP: Request For Proposal. An RFP typically asks for more than a price, including basic corporate information and history, financial information and product information such as stock availability and estimated completion period. The bidder returns a quote or proposal by a set date and time known as tender closing. The proposals are used to evaluate the suitability as a supplier, vendor, or institutional partner. ROI: Return On Investment. A calculation used to determine whether a proposed investment is wise, and how well it will repay the investor. It is calculated as the ratio of the amount gained (taken as positive), or lost (taken as negative), relative to the basis. Source: HIMSS Dictionary of Healthcare Information Technology Terms, Acronyms and Organizations, 2006
Lexington Clinic Veterans Park Lexington Clinic Ends Paper Chase with EMR Solution Lexington Clinic, a private, primary and multi-specialty group practice with approximately 200 providers in 30 specialties working in locations throughout Central Kentucky, embraced the paperless world by implementing InteGreat’s IC-Chart EMR solution to eliminate the burdens of paper overload. Deploying wireless tablet PCs was part of the clinic’s long-term digital strategy, according to Jana Fredlock, director of operations. Lexington Clinic began a phased rollout of IC-Chart implementation via wireless tablet PCs. In January 2004, two locations – Lexington Clinic Veterans Park and Jessamine Medical Clinic (JMC) – were wireless and by September 2004, they were paperless. JMC experienced a 90 percent reduction in chart pulls and eliminated two FTEs from its medical records staff. In one week, 91 hours of combined staff time was saved on searching for charts, equivalent to 2.28 FTEs. With the technology in place, the office staff made 69 percent fewer trips to the fax machine to get clinic records from other departments and 46 percent fewer trips to send prescription refill information to pharmacies. JMC saved 2.33 FTEs in combined staff time to fax, file, pull charts and write lab letters with the new digital systems improving overall message turnaround by 68 percent. Veterans Park experienced a 90 percent reduction in chart pulls and was able to eliminate one FTE from its medical records staff. In one week, 63 hours of combined staff time was saved in searching for charts, equivalent to 1.5 FTE. The office staff made 67 percent fewer trips to the fax machine to get clinic records from other departments and 63 percent fewer trips to send prescription refill information to pharmacies. Veterans Park saved 1.6 FTEs in combined staff time to fax, file, pull charts and lab letters. Furthermore, Lexington Clinic reported a 100 percent reduction in returning charts to file at both locations. Thinking About Implementing Health IT Consider this a look at “implementing health IT” as a before and after approach to technology. The pictures here tell much more than putting the electronic medical record into operation at Waveland Medical Center in Waveland, Miss. The photos show the dedication of Dr. Chilimiagras and her staff to providing care after Hurricane Katrina to ensure that residents of this area had access to treatment. Read the story above on the introduction to the Waveland clinic of the EMR, which was one strategic component of rebuilding this practice.
Lynn Murray, office manager, sits in the makeshift office for Waveland Medical Center, in Waveland, Miss. Hurricane Katrina destroyed the medical center, which houses Dr. Chilimiagras with one practice manager and registered nurse.
Roberta Chilimiagras, MD, the sole practitioner at Waveland Medical Center in Waveland, Miss., tracks patient information with the new EMR now in place. Dr. Chilimiagras’ practice was destroyed almost a year ago by Hurricane Katrina. Now with assistance from the HIMSS Katrina Phoenix Project, the clinic is back in business with new technology and a new building. Read the complete story on this transition. Already There—Implemented Health IT  John I. Sutter, MD, MS John I. Sutter, MD, MS, opened his pediatric practice in Clifton, NJ in 1982. Seven years later, he installed his first practice management system and developed templates for back-to-school and vaccination reports. As he realized the advantages of the new technology, he taught himself how it worked and created even more tables to track immunizations. While pursuing a master’s in health policy and management at New York Medical School in 1999, he learned about current and more advanced EHR systems, technology helped him “realize the efficiency and time savings that could result.” In February 2001, after spending about 1-1/2 years investigating technology that would work with his current program, Dr. Sutter found his digital records system match and implemented the system. Now, more than five years later, Dr. Sutter reports his electronic medical record has improved efficiency, diminished paperwork and decreased overhead. “My patients,” he explains, “receive better quality in care.” As with all changes in office procedure, this transition from paper to electronic records provided challenges for Dr. Sutter and his staff. “I had to learn how to correct errors that I had made. And I had to help my staff not be intimidated by it (the EMR).” ROI: Dr. Sutter is a solo practitioner with four full-time employees and more than 6,000 patients. When asked about the return-on-investment (ROI) for his EMR system, he explains “that it is difficult to quantify the ROI with so many variables in effect at one time.” However, staff overhead gross expense has remained flat for the last five years – despite the increase in staff salaries and patient volume. As for investing in technology for a private medical practice, Dr. Sutter shares this advice for his fellow physicians:
Contact Dr. Sutter at jisutter@optonline.net.
“The EMR allows me to coordinate care by being able to view other provider’s notes and treatment plans. I think this enhances communication between those who are caring for the patients, whether it's a nurse, advanced practice nurse (APN), or physician,” said Amy Allspaw, CNS, in Nephrology at Arnett HealthSystem in Lafayette, Ind." Lafayette, Ind. “It also provides convenience for patients by allowing me to send the prescription order right to their pharmacy where they can usually pick it up on the way home." |
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The
Digital Office is a monthly online newsletter published by the Healthcare
Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). |