News 2/18/10

MGMA finds that physician practices are frustrated with the administrative challenges associated with PQRI reporting. Especially difficult is the process for accessing feedback reports. Less than half the responding practices that attempted to participate in 2008 PQRI were able to successfully download their feedback report, which is even worse than the 51% number reported in 2007. And, the majority of practices that were able to access their reports were dissatisfied the reports’ presentation and their effectiveness in providing guidance to improve patient outcomes.

MED3OOO will incorporate data management and analysis tools into its MED3OOO Quality Management Suite. The application will be integrated  into MED3OOO’s InteGreat EHR to facilitate clinical data collection, help providers in determine HCC and PQRI scores, and prepare other P4P reporting requirements. Maybe MED3OOO shouldn’t stress the PQRI reporting piece too much, given the MGMA study cited above.

Sage Healthcare appoints Tony Ryzinski SVP of marketing. He previously worked for Misys in a similar role. I’m sure one of his earliest tasks will be to deflect attention from the recent management turnover and return the market focus to Sage’s products.

Danbury Office of Physicians Services (CT) plans to deploy Allscripts EHR to all of its 238 employed physicians. Fifty-one of the group’s physicians already use the software.

eClinicalWorks awards Concordant Preferred IT Vendor status. That means Concordant is deemed qualified to provide eCW implementation and on-going support. The Preferred IT Vendor program sounds like it could provide some relief for eCW, whose rapid sales growth has sometimes stretched the company’s training and support resources.

If you are in the market for an EHR or are an EHR vendor, here is a must read: EHRScope just released it Spring 2010 issue, which includes a detailed compendium on over 100 EHR vendors and speech recognition VARs. You’ll also find some timely information on EHR selection, HITECH, and meaningful use.

This study concludes there’s a gap between policymakers’ expectations of EMR’s role in the coordination of care and clinicians’ real-world experiences (which happens to be something HIStalk readers have been saying for years). The Center for Studying Health System change found that most physicians believe their EHRs aren’t helpful with information exchange because of the lack of interoperability. In addition, doctors believed EHRs potentially complicate information exchange because key clinical information is often difficult to discern amidst the vast amount of data captured. The fact that the coordination of care is not a billable activity certainly has to make the process that much more unpopular.

Nuance Communications buys MacSpeech, a provider of speech recognition solution for Apple Macintosh users. Sounds like a good strategic move for both parties. MacSpeech currently licenses Dragon’s speech-recognition engine in its Dictate product line, which includes MacSpeech Dictate Medical. Until now, Nuance has lacked a option for the Mac.

My last plea: would you please take a couple moments and complete our HIStalk Practice Reader survey? We thank you.

WebMD updates its free Medscape Mobile application to assist physicians in diagnosis and treatment at the point of care. The application works on iPhones and iPod Touches and provides reference data on 7,000 medications, plus a library of medical images and procedure videos. WebMD says that Medscape Mobile has attracted 200,000 users since introduced seven months ago.

E-mail Inga.