News 10/16/12

Mount Sinai Queens (NY) implements Epic EMR at its ambulatory care locations, including Family Health Associates, Physician Associates, and the Mount Sinai Queens Cancer program. Mount Sinai Queens will complete its $20 million Epic installation by April 2013.

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) calls for the development of standards for how EHR systems are designed and used. The goal is to create better clinical documentation that does not unwittingly jeopardize physicians by creating incorrect billing codes.

Practices shopping for EHRs need access to a central clearinghouse containing reviews and feedback from users, according to an Institute of Medicine paper. The authors recommend the creation of a central hub, hosted by a government agency or trusted private entity to link various sources of data, including other rating and evaluation Websites.

Patients who feel comfortable accessing and understanding health information online are more willing to adopt a PHR, according to a University of Central Florida in Orlando study. Age, education level, and income are not good indicators of patients’ willingness to use a PHR.

ThedaCare Physicians (WI) selects Phytel’s automated outreach solution to help its employed physicians manage population health.

MED3000 hosted several hundred clients at last week’s National Healthcare Leadership Conference and Users Meeting in St. Thomas, USVI. Keynote speakers included former Highmark CEO Kenneth Melani, MD and the CEO of the California Association of Physician Group Stephen Jones.

SRS CEO Evan Steele reports that his company’s User Summit last week in Woodcliff Lake, NJ was the “best yet by far.” He also forwarded a few quotes from customers who expressed appreciation for the staff’s responsiveness and ability to have a good time, as well as for the wealth of information the conference provided.

University of Louisville Physicians (KY) launches a new Website that was developed by DBS Interactive and includes health library content from A.D.A.M Medical Encyclopedia.

Alaska Imaging Associates (AK) selects eRAD PACS for its seven-physician practice.

I am sure that a number of EHR vendors are attempting to capitalize on Allscripts’ recent decision to migrate clients from its MyWay product to the Pro solution. Kudos to Meditab Software for the clever title of its sales initiative: MyGration.

Billing and collections provider Asterino & Associates (AZ) contracts with ClearDATA Networks for its cloud-hosted services.

A Springfield (MO) radiology practice blames its janitorial service for inadvertently sending paper billing records to a recycling center without first shredding the documents. The 19-provider group has notified its potentially affected patients.

The local paper profiles Dreyer Medical Clinic and its 18 month-old eVisits program. The clinic claims that seventy percent of patients who have already taken advantage of the $30 eVisits say they’d use the service again.

E-mail Inga.

DOCtalk by Dr. Gregg 10/14/12

Yawn … More HIT?

Maybe I’m shooting myself and the good folks of the HIStalk family in the collective foot, but I’ve been wondering recently: Are we starting to reach the point where HIT is becoming passé?

In this world of faster and faster obsolescence where all things cool are soon usurped by the next latest and greatest, it’s no surprise when something so recently “hot” joins the ranks of the has-beens. Even longtime “wow” leaders struggle to keep leading the leading edge. Gosh, golly, gee, even that paragon of new release fan-mania, Apple, seemed to lose a little of its “Whoa!-factor” with the latest release of the iPhone 5.

So, I suppose it’s no wonder that as the adoption of HIT picked up (along with the MU stimulus checks), it, too, seems to be succumbing to the fading rose phenomenon.

To wit, the other day I heard someone who had adopted an EHR for their office just a year or two ago make the comment (paraphrased):

“It seems like all this EHR stuff is mostly just an expensive version of my old paper charts. It’s probably been worth the effort, especially for the insights into our practice and patient care methods, but it should be more than this. I read HIT stuff these days, but it all sounds the same. Where’s all this information sharing and provider linking and population data enhancement stuff we were promised… that everybody’s still promising?”

While I assured him that many good folks are spending many long hours working to bring about all the interoperability and data connections he desires, I could see in his eyes that the luster and shine was off of the HIT apple for him. HIT had stopped producing a dopamine surge in his synapses and he was looking for a new digital fix to bolster the HIT feel good factor.

I’ve seen many cool new tools – and many wow-inducing products still in the developmental pipeline – but it appears that, at least for some, the current crop of HIT is more of a yawn than a new harvest of can’t-wait-to-get-it-let’s-get-in-line-early-dopamine-producing fun.

HIT has been around long enough that I suppose it may be time that we focus less on the cool new tools and toys and more upon what we can actually do with them. Compare it to how cool it was to download all those fun-looking apps on your latest tablet or smartphone. How many apps do you have that you never actually use and that have just taken up memory from a day or two after you got them? (If you’re like me, there’s a ton of them!) We still use the cool tools, but now it’s less about the “wow” of the tool and its apps; now it’s more about what we can do with them.

Maybe HIT has started to become less of a headliner and is becoming more of a stagehand. Maybe its focus is – and perhaps should be – shifting. That shift in focus, that reemphasis upon the reasons for which we’re actually doing all this (i.e., improving health and healthcare), should be a really good thing. At least, I hope so.

(To Inga and Dr. Jayne: I apologize if the strange image conjured up by that HIStalk “collective foot” comment offended your foot- and fashion footwear-related senses.)

From the trenches…

(Special and most sincere thanks to Mr. H for posting an announcement of the new asthma education-consumer engagement app I’ve been involved with developing. Please check it if you haven’t and you may find an iPad in your mail soon!)

“A new idea is delicate. It can be killed with a sneer or a yawn…” – Ovid

Dr. Gregg Alexander, a grunt in the trenches pediatrician at Madison Pediatrics, is Chief Medical Officer for Health Nuts Media, directs the Pediatric Office of Today! exhibit for the American Academy of Pediatrics, and sits on the board of directors of the Ohio Health Information Partnership (OHIP).

News 10/11/12

athenahealth will integrate Entrada’s voice services into its EHR and PM products.

Women’s preventive healthcare improves when providers use EHRs, according to a JAMIA-published study. Preventive care increases further the more sophisticated the EHRs.

The editor of iMedicalapps argues that Epocrates is at risk of becoming irrelevant. The top reason: Epocrates still lacks an iPad app.

Anesthesia Business Consultants and iMDsoft launch myAnesthesia for perioperative documentation.

The New York Times looks at how the proliferation of gadgets, apps, and Web-based information is impacting the care that physicians provide. While younger doctors in particularly embrace new tools to diagnose and treat patients, older physicians worry that human connections are at risk of being lost. A teaching physician at the San Francisco VA Medical Center shares what he says to his medical students:

“I tell them that their first reflex should be to look at the patient, not the computer.”

The two-year old physician networking site Doximity claims 100,000 verified members and use by over 15 percent of US physicians for secure doctor-to-doctor collaboration.

Cerner will embed Nuance’s cloud-based medical voice recognition technology into its mobile EHR products including PowerChart Touch. Cerner is also integrating Nuance’s PowerScribe 360 radiology reporting product with Cerner’s RadNet RIS.

E-mail Inga.

News 10/9/12

Aprima attempts to capitalize on last week’s announcement that the AllscriptsMyWay product  will not be enhanced to meet Stage 2 MU requirements. Aprima reminds MyWay customers that the software is based on Aprima’s PRM 2008 version and offers a no-charge license migration, as long as practices sign up for maintenance and support. Aprima also says that MyWay resellers can join Aprima’s  reseller network and offer their customers an upgrade option.

Allscripts, by the way, provided us with further clarification on their MyWay-Professional Suite upgrade program:

Could you clarify “free upgrade?” Is that a free license, a free conversion, or both?

This upgrade includes software, implementation and training. It will start in January 2013 and end in September 2013. The implementation will be facilitated by enhanced tools that make data conversion and interface activation seamless. This, coupled with tailored simulation learning and a hands-on weekend learning event, will prepare clients to take advantage of their newly upgraded software.

Does the maintenance fee change for MyWay clients once they’re on Pro?

The maintenance fees will remain the same as what is defined in a MyWay client’s current agreement.

And when you say “converged platform,” how is it different than the current Pro product?

We are launching a converged platform and the first step is to move our MyWay clients to this platform. They will experience many enhancements including mobility with Wand, our native iPad mobility solution, additional content including more specialties, and real time point of care/clinical decision support. In addition, the converged platform will be able to process ICD-10 codes and is planned to be certified for Meaningful Use Stage 2.

Allscripts is also said to be considering first-round bids for a leveraged buyout from PE firms Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, and Silver Lake Management.

Physicians using EHR scored significantly higher on quality of care for four screening measures for diabetes, breast cancer, chlamydia, and colorectal cancer, according to a study published in the
Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Miami Children’s Hospital (FL) will deploy CareCloud’s RCM product for its 200 physicians.

Dr. Mehmet Oz of “The Dr. Oz Show” and Google Health’s Lisa Duncan are featured presenters at Practice Fusion’s Connect 2012 user conference next month.

A majority of clinicians believe electronic HIE will positively impact healthcare. Physicians say the biggest HIE barriers include the lack of interoperability, the lack of exchange infrastructures, and the costs associated with developing interfaces and exchanges.

Professional services company CBIZ acquires the assets of anesthesia billing company ProMedical, Inc.

Physician offices added 6,600 jobs in September, representing a 0.3 percent gain. Hospital jobs grew 0.2 percent with the addition of 8,000 workers.

Startup BetterDoctor launches its doctor-connect app nationwide after several months of beta-testing in San Francisco. The app matches patients to the “best” doctors based on specialty, location, and other consumer preferences and excludes any physicians in the midst of malpractice lawsuits.

Epocrates is asking readers for input on questions or topics for its annual survey of primary care physicians, cardiologists, oncologists, and psychiatrists. If you have any suggestions, let me know and I will pass it on.

E-mail Inga.

News 10/4/12

From Patrick Hall: “Re: Official e-MDs response. As of Oct. 1 of this year, e-MDs is pleased to report its continuing consistent pattern of year-over-year overall revenue growth. Compared to last year, e-MDs has a greater number of customers and employees, a larger number of contractors, as well as increased revenue. As a general rule, e-MDs does not comment on individual personnel changes that occur during routine business operations.” Hall is the EVP of business development ffor eMDs and we thank him for sending us this note in response to comments posted earlier this week from Adam Wright.

From San Antonio Rose: “Re: MGMA. Here’s are a couple recommendations for you. Download the MGMA12 app to your iPhone and bring your cowboy boots.” Cowboy boots: why of course! MGMA app: sounds like a great way to  figure out where I want to go when. Too bad it has been stuck on this screen for the last two hours. Maybe the download will finish by Oct. 21.

The 77-physician Optimal Radiology selects McKesson Revenue Management Solutions for billing, reporting, and collections.

The Ohio AFP and the state’s department of health pilot the PCMH Education Pilot Project, which aims to transform 50 primary care practices into PCMHs that will train medical students, primary care residents, and advanced practice nursing students. Participating medical students will receive up to $30,000 per year in scholarship funds in return for a commitment to practice at least three years in Ohio.

Seven percent of physicians plan to become cash-only or concierge practices within the next three years, which will likely exacerbate existing concerns about physician shortages and lead some patients to avoid routine check-ups and screenings.

Patients who have access to their doctor’s notes are more positive about their quality of care, even though physicians are less enthusiastic a note-sharing program. A year-long study of healthcare sites using OpenNotes software found that patients are more likely to understand their health issues, recall what the doctor tells them, and take prescribed medications when they have access to their visit records. Only a third of the doctors agreed that the program changed how well patients managed their care.

E-mail Inga.